AGRICULTURE

Agric census training takes off in Sunyani
Training for a total of 63 District Trainers from the 27 districts Assemblies in the Brong Ahafo Region, who will be training over 500 field enumerators has taken off smoothly in Sunyani in the Region.

Date Created : 3/21/2018 4:37:54 AM : Story Author : Imoro Ayibani/Ghanadistricts.com

Mr. Amatus Nobabumah the Brong Ahafo Regional Statistician in his welcome address said the training would equip the officers with the necessary skills to train field enumerators for Agricultural Census to be conducted in April 2018.

He said eight (8) days training for the enumerators starts on 2nd April and by 22nd April, 2018 field work will start throughout the Region. He noted that the Regional training was part of a nationwide exercise being carried out by the Ghana Statistical Services (GSS) to conduct the Agric census.

He added that the first phase will be 28days of complete enumeration or listing of Agricultural households. That is, Agricultural households would be identified within 28 days of the Phase one exercise. Apart from the Agricultural households, the team will also identify institutions engaged in Agriculture or Agricultural institutions.

He also after the 28 days of enumeration, the enumerators would now have 32 days to go back to administer core households questionnaire to all Agric households that were identified during the listing.

The enumerators would also be expected to administer one community questionnaire in every community that will involve chiefs and opinion leaders. The Agric Institutions he noted will also be administered with institutional questionnaire.

Touching on the objectives of the Agric Census, he said the data would help in rebasing of Ghana's economy taking into the overall contribution of the Agric sector.

Mr. Amatus added that it will also help establish sampling frame for the Agric households.

The Regional Statistician further said the census report will also help establish a credible baseline data for monitoring of Agricultural production in Ghana, to know the sector contribution to poverty alleviation and ensuring food security as well as set-up an agricultural information system that can stimulate the growth of the agricultural sector. He emphasis that it will also improve the production and dissemination of statistics on food and agriculture to meet the data requirement of Ghana’s Development Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Dr. Cyril Quist, the Regional Director of MOFA in his opening remarks said officials use to make or rely on projections on the contributions of the Agric Sector. He noted that results or findings from the census would enable the sector to have reliable information on the sector for planning and investment decisions by Government and her development partners.

Participants are drawn from GSS, Department of Agric, Municipal and District Assemblies, Information Services Department and Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA).