R-PATA 8029: Improving Agricultural and Rural Statistics for

Food Security

Workshop on Developing the Country Action Plans

2 – 4 May 2012 Asian Development Bank Headquarters

Manila, Philippines

Country Statement on

“Agricultural Statistics System in LAO PDR”

A. Lao National Statistics System

2

Lao Statistics Bureau

Ministry of Planning and Investment

Province Statistics Centre

District Statistics Centre

Village Statistics Unite

Village

Provincial

District

Central

Central

Government

Reporting system

Province Statistics Section

District Statistics Unite

Ministries Statistics Centre

Vertical line

Technical direction

Line Ministries

Horizontal line

Establishment

Statistics Unite

Technical advisors

A. National Statistics System

• Government endorsed Statistics Law in June

2010 : – Role and Function of Statistics organization of both vertical

and horizontal offices

• Government commitment to support National

Statistics System (local cost contribution for

Censuses, Surveys,…)

• Restructuring national statistical office from central to

local office, particularly vertical line

• Resources available in 5 years (Economic Census,

LECS V, partly Population Census)

B. National Statistics Develop

Plan 2005 to 2010 “least acceptable statistical system” produced by the “leanest”

possible organization may serve as a guide.

For economic statistics: – Monthly (or quarterly) consumer price index

– Quarterly producer price index of main outputs

– Benchmark estimates of GDP by activity and by expenditure every 5-year using the reporting system between benchmark years

– Annual foreign trade statistics

For socio-economic statistics: – Population censuses every 10-year combined with demographic analyses

– Multi-purpose household survey every 5-year on household economy and welfare, well coordinated in time and contents with National Health surveys

– The Village Book on poverty assessment

B. National Statistics Develop

Plan 2005 to 2010: NSS’s desired production

• NSC needs to develop its own production to comprise a regular survey program.

– with self confidence and reasonable quality,

– fulfill its role as coordinator

• There is also a strong demand from the Lao government as well as from other users of reliable statistics

• NSC has also during the last recent years developed its skills in using internationally accepted methods and standards

Strengths and Weakness in

implementation in the past Plan • Strengths

– Experienced senior staff with good skills

– Experience of organising and fieldwork of censuses and surveys

– Legal framework established

• Weaknesses

– Highly depend on donor supports

– Quality control of data collection process

– Resource planning, coordination

– Dependency on few key persons,

– Legal framework not sufficiently strong

B. Strategic Plan for for National Statistical

Development 2010-2020

How to address &overcome key problems and

challenges?

Problems and issues are indentified

Goals, and targets are set

Issues have been articulated with respect to strategic goals and will be the

seed for statistical outputs and the development activities.

Key strategic goals include:

• Improving Policy, Regulatory & Institutional Frame work

• Developing Statistical Infrastructure

• Data Development and Management

• Rationalizing Investment in Physical Infrastructure & Equipment

Twelve strategic objectives (SO) have been formulated

NSS Development Framework 2010-2020

Statistical Framework

Statistics Indicators

Economic Others Social and

Culture

• NSA &Price • Agriculture • Industrial and

manufacturing • Energy and

mining • Transportation

and Post and communication

• Services • Others

• Education • Health • Labor • Others

Data

• Data collection, sharing and analysis • Metat data compilation and assesment • Harmoniation and Classification • Adopt/adaptation of international

recoganized methodologies • Quality and timeliness

Enabling Mechanism

• Institutional framework, Legislation • Infrastructure • HR and HRD /Capacity building • Data network /information system • Support Budget

Programmes

Development partners

Statistical Outputs/Use

Dissemination/Communication

Yearbook

Other Communication

Survey’s Reports

Web site and Lao Info

Database (micro data)

Prodcucer and User Forum

• Population and demographics Gender

• Environment • Poverty ….

Indicators

National Sectoral

Adminis-trative

Survey

8

C. Status of the compilation of agricultural

and rural statistics

• The Lao Census of Agriculture 2010/11 was the

second agricultural census undertaken in Lao PDR;

the first was conducted in 1998/99.

• The Lao Census of Agriculture 2010/11 covered the

whole of Lao PDR, including all 143 districts in the

country. The census had three components: – Village component: a survey of all villages in the country to collect data

from village heads on rural infrastructure and services.

– Household component: a survey of all households in Lao PDR to collect

basic data on crops and livestock.

– Sample farm household component: a sample survey of 41,660 farm

households to collect detailed data on agricultural activities.

C. Status of the compilation of agricultural

and rural statistics (Continue..)

• The Government of Lao PDR is also appreciative of the

support for the census provided through FAO by the Swiss

Agency for Development and Cooperation and to other

donors – IFAD, Aus AID, AFD and GIZ – who supported the

census data collection and processing. Financial assistance

was also received from the Sustainable Natural Resource

Management and Productivity Enhancement Project

(ADB/IFAD).

– Note: Information on the census methodology is given in Annexes 1:

Status of the compilation of agricultural

and rural statistics (Continue..)

JICA is helping MAF in conducting crop cutting and area

estimation surveys.

– Since 2007 MAF attempts has been made to introduce

modern methods of surveys based on interview with farmers,

measurement of area planted and crop cutting.

– Two stage sampling method has been employed for the

survey. Villages are the primary sampling unit (PSU) and

farm households in the sample villages are the secondary

sampling unit (SSU). Number of PSUs is 10 villages per

DAFO. Number of SSUs is 2 farm households per village. 2

spots per sampled household have been randomly selected to

carry out the crop cutting experiments. The probability

proportional sampling to size of planted area is applied to

PSU sampling Villages have been selected using

systematic random sampling technique.

Rice Assessment Survey 2008 wet season crop

• The project, TCP/LAO/3202 – Strengthening capacity for statistical

assessment the situation and outlook of rice in Lao PDR, which has been

executed under the leadership of the Department of Planning, Ministry of

Agriculture and Forestry (DOP MAF) with cooperation from the Department

of Statistics, Ministry of Planning and Investment is part of the commitment

of the FAO to assist developing member countries strengthening national

statistical systems.

• Moreover, to meet its objective, the project embarked to do four specific

strategies, all national in scope:

a) Secondary analysis of important parameters for a knowledge-based

assessment of the rice economy in the country;

b) Rice assessment survey of households and villages;

c) Rapid assessment of stock and marketing systems for paddy/rice; and

d) Desk research on small area estimation to generate selected parameters

at district level.

What are the agricultural and rural statistics that you compile regularly? How

frequent do you compile each one? Which units are responsible for the compilation?

What is the compilation method?

The government of Lao PDR adopts a decentralized

system for agricultural statistics

• National Statistics Center (NSC) under the Ministry of

Agriculture and Forestry (MPI) is responsible for population

census and other survey concerned with agriculture sector.

• Center for Statistics and Information of the Planning

Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has been

assigned the collection and compilation of data relating to

agriculture and livestock from various sources to prepare and

distribute an annual yearbook on agriculture and forestry

statistics. It is also responsible for the cooperation and

coordination with other relevant agencies for specific survey

activities for example: Rice survey, livestock survey, Crop

cutting survey...

• Department of Agriculture and Extension collects and compiles

data on crop situation and prepares monthly and seasonal reports

on important economic crops based on information received

from provincial and district offices of the department.

• Department of Livestock and Fishery collects and compiles data

on numbers and disease of various livestock reported by

provincials, district and village levels officers.

• Department of Forestry collects and compiles data relation to

forestry, their quantitative exploitation and replanting of tree,

source of water/river, national forestry resource.

• Besides the above mentioned departments, the Department of

Meteorology and Hydrology, Irrigation department, rural

development division, Personnel department also collect data

mostly for their use, case study, monitoring and planning

activities.

What are the agricultural and rural statistics that you compile regularly? How

frequent do you compile each one? Which units are responsible for the compilation?

What is the compilation method?

How is data quality of agricultural statistics assessed?

How is data quality maintained?

• The quality of data collected by field staff could be improved by

providing training to data collectors. Provision of pre-designed data

collection schedules along with comprehensive instruction manual

would result into improvement in quality of data. Instead of entire data

being collected by complete enumeration on reporting basis, the

collection of agricultural statistics should be started on sample basis in

1 or 2 provinces on a pilot basis by deploying trained data collectors.

• This would result into :

+ collection of greater range of data through sample surveys;

+ improvement in quality of data through scrutiny and verification;

• The supervision of the data collection process should be made

mandatory.

How is data quality of agricultural statistics

assessed? How is data quality maintained

• Presently, with the transport facilities to villages being

very limited and budgetary constraint severe, the

perception is that District staff generally fills up the farms

based on their perception rather than collecting the data

from records. Since, there exists no system of supervision,

the data reported by District staff goes unchecked. As a

result, the estimates are inaccurate and unreliable.

How are the agricultural and rural statistics disseminated?

Who are their major users?

• Statistical data are officially reported through an annual

publication “ Agricultural Statistics “. MAF and its departments

and institutions internally use most of other data. There is a plan

to disseminate the data through Internet Web Pages.

• We are now happy to participate in the development of an

ASEAN-wide information network. MAF has already to open

the Lao Web Page for agricultural statistics within the

framework of a joint project by ASEAN and FAO for

information network system. We uploaded Agricultural

Statistics on the Web Page in March 2004.

• Address Website: http://www.faorap-apcas.org;

http://afsis.oae.go.th

• The major users are Researchers, Policy makers, planners. . ,

International Organization, Student, etc.

• Does the government’s development plan use

agricultural and rural statistics for monitoring purposes?

• MAF Policies in Agriculture are: – Food production program

– Promotion of commodity production support program

– Reducing shifting cultivation

– Irrigation development scheme

– Agricultural & forestry research program

– Human resource development

– Rural development & poverty alleviation.

• Does the government’s development plan use

agricultural and rural statistics for monitoring purposes?

• To effectively monitor the progress of

development in the agricultural sector and

to carry out effective agricultural planning,

Government needs good statistics.

• For Example: Using Census Data for

monitoring and Evaluation for rural poverty

and what are the changing in the last 10

years.

E. Preparatory Steps for the Country Action Plan

Problem & Constraints (1)

1. Problems

• Availability of agricultural statistics:

Mostly production-related

• Accuracy, reliability and timeliness:

Need to be improved

• Data analysis and dissemination

Insufficient

Problems & Constraints (2)

2. Constraints

• Organization and responsibility

• Data collection methods

• Manpower and human capacity

• Budget

• Infrastructure

What are the major plans for

improving agricultural and rural

statistics in the next few years?

Strategies for Statistical

Improvement • Establish higher priority in statistics &

information

• Strengthen link between MAF and Province

• Focus on human resources development

• Optimum combination of survey methods

• Long-term perspectives & phased approach

• Cooperation with international donors

Activities

(1) Widen data coverage

(2) Improve data collection technology

(3) Utilize information technology

(4) Promote data utilization and

dissemination

(5) Strengthen capacity of organization

and human resources

The Future Plan

• Lao PDR intends to develop its capacity of

data collection, analysis and dissemination

for agricultural statistics.

– Improving Food Security Data

– Human Resource Development

– Developing Information Network

Action Plan

• Preparing National & Sub national

Analytical Report from Lao Census for

Agriculture, 2010/11

• LECS V 2012-2013

• In September 2012, Risk & Vulnerability

Survey support through FAO by Aus Aid

• Rice Market Intelligence and Policy

Support Project (RIMIPS), Lao PDR

support by FAO, 2012 ?? (GCP/LAO ???)

What is the level of government support? How can

the government support be improved?

• The budget and human resources for statistics and

information for MAF are constrained by financial

situation of the Government. Certain development

efforts are being made through our own fund and

contributions from other international donors.

However, technical and financial resources

available to us are not sufficient. Therefore, we

desire to achieve the above-mentioned targets with

the support from the Donors or Existing Project in

the Region.

THANK YOU !

For your Kind Attention