FAO, USAID deal to enthrone new age in agricultural data collection

NaijaAgroNet:

A new age of data collection in the agriculture sector may have taken root with the recent agreement between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to the tune of $15 million Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), reports NaijaAgroNet.

According to the FAO Chief Statistician, Pietro Gennari, from the two organisations, the need for better, cost-effective and timely statistical data for agricultural and rural areas is widely recognized. 

Critical gaps in data production and dissemination persist in several countries - a consequence of long-standing issues such as shortages of financial and human resources, and the resulting limitations in technical capacities. 

FAO, Gennari noted has already been addressing such issues through the" Global Strategy to improve agricultural and rural statistics" (GSARS) programme, an umbrella effort working to enhance  the capacity of developing countries to produce and use agricultural and rural statistics and to strengthen statistical governance mechanisms. AGRIS is a spin-off of the Global Strategy's research programme. 

"With efforts like our Global Strategy and ‘next generation' tools like AGRIS, we're engaging with partners to spark what we hope will be a new era in agricultural data collection," Gennari said.

AGRIS, NaijaAgroNet, is being implemented by FAO within the context of the multi-agency Global Rural and Agricultural Integrated Surveys (GRAInS) Partnership, which is currently establishing in Rome as a Global Survey Hub.

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US donates AGRIS tools to pilot data collection

NaijaAgroNet:

The United States (US) government has donated some Agricultural Integrated Surveys (AGRIS) tools as part of its recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to pilot data collections in four developing countries, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The donation received by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on behalf of benefiting countries to be named soon, NaijaAgroNet gathered, was made through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The endowment, NaijaAgroNet reports would cover the first phase of an FAO-led project that will run from 2016 to 2021 starting with pilot efforts in four developing countries, two in Sub-Saharan Africa, one in Latin America and one in Asia. A dialogue is under way with eligible countries.

The goal, NaijaAgroNet also gathered is to design and implement a new and cost-effective approach to agricultural data collection in developing world contexts, known as agricultural integrated surveys (AGRIS).

The AGRIS methodology will not only capture improved annual data on agricultural production, but also broader and more detailed structural information relating to farms, including employment, machinery use, production costs, farming practices, and environmental impacts.

This will incorporate recent innovations like remote sensing, Global Positioning System (GPS), mobile technology and various uses of "big data." These tools will introduce more objective approaches to measuring agricultural performance, in some cases replacing traditional, more expensive methods.

In addition to better and more detailed data, NaijaAgroNet reports that AGRIS will also promote the integration of disparate data sources, improve data timeliness and usability, and cut data collection costs.

The end result will be high-quality data on a wide range of technical, economic, environmental and social dimensions of agriculture that will help governments analyse and understand the impacts of agricultural policies, assess progress toward the SDGs and other goals, and shape better policies.

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USAID, FAO sign $15m MoU to boost agro data collection

NaijaAgroNet:

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have signed a $15 million Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost the capacity of developing countries to track key agricultural data -information that is essential to good policy making, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This MoU, NaijaAgroNet gathered will assist in tracking progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly considering the second goal of SDGs which is to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. 

Director-General at FAO, José Graziano da Silva, said that in the decades to come, humanity will need to produce more food for a growing population using natural resources such as water, land and biodiversity in a sustainable way, while coping with the challenges imposed by climate change.

"Our ability to boost food yields sustainably and meet the SDG hunger eradication target will hinge on the availability of better, cost-effective and timely statistical data for agriculture and rural areas" he said.

The Assistant to the Administrator for USAID’s Bureau for Food Security and Deputy Coordinator for Development for the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative, Beth Dunford, said that they are pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with the FAO on this important endeavor that will help build sustainable agricultural and food systems.

“Strong national data systems are critical for governments and private sector actors to make informed and smart decisions that foster food security and economic prosperity. Our work with FAO under the Feed the Future initiative builds on years of success and lessons learned, and is essential to bring about the types of data systems to support the more catalytic investments needed to achieve a food-secure world by 2030”​ she said.

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Open data concept, application for agriculture according to Steve Nyumba

 NaijaAgroNet:

The co-founding director at the Local Development Research Institute (LDRI), Mr. Stephen Nyumba has offered some insights on how open data concept could be leveraged through application for the agriculture sector by African media, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Nyumba, in a presentation at the recently concluded week-long training for CAADP Journalists Network in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, dwelt on “Open Data for Agriculture” said that in being open connotes a lot for different people and media practitioners must ensure whatever definition they are using is seemingly holistic.

According to him, for a data to be open means that the “Open data and content can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose.”

On the concept and application overview to agriculture, Mr. Nyumba pointed out that open data and content is very often provided by the publisher with “explicit permission allowing for it’s use, re-use, re-distribution or re-purposing with little or no restriction.”

He canvassed that before reuse, it is important for the user which in this case could be a media outlet or practitioner, who wants to tell his or her story differently with infographics to check if the potential content is open or restricted.

This, Nyumba said, could be achieved by way of looking critically at the license of the publication, which very often comes as Creative Commons, otherwise, he advised that the publisher be asked for permission or clarification, so as to eschew any kind of legal bottleneck afterwards.

As said by him, taking most of these precautions would afford the user and precisely media practitioners the opportunity to make informed assumptions, citing for instance, the Gro Intelligence produces which was provided under an open license.

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Pix: Mr. Stephen Nyumba

LDRI launches comprehensive source for agriculture data on Africa

NaijaAgroNet:

The Local Development Research Institute (LDRI) has launched a knowledge and data portal encompassing research, reports, policy briefs and news on agriculture in Africa, known as TransformAgriculture.org, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The Executive Assistant and Communications Officer, Wangui Muriu, in a press statement sighted by NaijaAgroNet, quoted the LDRI’s Executive Director, Mr. Muchiri Nyaggah as saying that the portal makes it possible to find, for the first time, data, research and news on Africa’s agriculture from multiple sources in one place.

“The portal is also the online home of a multi-stakeholder collective known as the Network for Agricultural Transformation in Africa (NATA),” he said.

Data and research on Africa’s agricultural transformation agenda, Nyaggah said, currently resides in numerous locations spread out across the Internet. This makes discovery of insights, content and data for decision-making fairly difficult for the continent’s growing number of public, private sector and Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) experts.

He explained that TransformAgriculture.org has been designed to solve this problem for members of the network and any expert looking for data, research or news on Africa’s agricultural transformation journey.

Organized along the categories used by the results framework for the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), Nyaggah said, the portal will make it possible for those supporting or reporting on the CAADP Biennial Review to find the information they need.

“During the last quarter of 2016, additional functionality to accommodate the Agenda 2063 and 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals have been provided to further improve discoverability of content within those frameworks,” he said.

Nyaggah emphasised that numerous organizations at the multi-lateral or NGO level are producing data and research as part of efforts to end extreme poverty, hunger and reduce inequality in Africa.

“The data and research are vital for implementation of CAADP as well as the SDGs and Agenda 2063; making it easier to find and share is therefore very important in empowering our continent’s experts to get their job done,” he enthused.

Equally speaking, the Co-founder and Director for Technology at LDRI, Mr. Steve Nyumba, said that TransformAgriculture.org will help to reduce the signal-to-noise ratio for those seeking data, research and news related to implementation of Africa’s agricultural transformation agenda.

“It is part of our commitment to support African Union member states in implementing programmes such as CAADP that have transformative impact on the continent’s growing population” Nyumba said.

Reassuring that LDRI and partners will continue to add content to the portal on an almost daily basis and welcome data and content publishers wishing to use it as one of their dissemination tools. Even as LDRI collaborates with the African Media Initiative in data journalism training across Africa.

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South Africa: Agric leads in job creation

NaijaAgroNet

The data made public from South Africa indicated that the agricultural sector was the leading job creator in the first quarter of 2015, adding 150, 000 jobs, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Statistics South Africa in 2015 released the data showing an estimated 891 000 people employed in the sector. This NaijaAgroNet gathered, accounts for about 6% of South Africa’s total employment figures which is a significant achievement, considering the challenges within the sector, ranging from land policy to climatic conditions.

NaijaAgroNet learnt that South Africa leads the continent in the advancement of agricultural technology, particularly in crop production. This is being driven by climate change and growing variability that have increased the need for research and development.

Agricultural meetings are significantly about development and production, with an emphasis on technological advancement, to optimize productivity to meet yawning food demand and to improve the resilience of agriculture. Many research institutions equally are working with organized agriculture with focus on the sector’s potential to create jobs, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The National Development Plan (NDP) reports that agriculture has the potential to create close to one million new jobs by 2030, a significant contribution to the overall employment target.

To achieve this, NaijaAgroNet was informed, the NDP primarily focuses on improving production to achieve sustainability in smallholder and commercial farming, but the onus for labour training and education is placed mostly on farmers.

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