By Naneka Hoffman
Liberia has completed the cardinal pillar of the second phase of the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics (GSARS-II).
The initiative is aimed at integrating agriculture into the National Statistical System to ensure national data coherence and data comparability between countries.
Over the weekend, Liberia-SPARS focal person at the Ministry of Agriculture Mr. Aagon Yoko described the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO’s) intervention as critical to overcoming the data gab Liberia experiences when making crucial national development decisions in the agricultural sector.
During a technical training in Monrovia, Mr. Yoko said the current phase has developed the roadmap and the next phase will assess the National Agricultural Statistical System followed by the planning phase, which will develop a National Plan of Action to implement the L-SPARS.
Also speaking, FAO Representation in Liberia, Emmanuel Kapee, stated that the development of the SPARS road map was happening at the right time in the country.
“I say so because the development of this strategic document is going on at the time when the government in collaboration with other partners that is FAO, IFAD, and the World Bank are already working together to see how a national agriculture census can be conducted in Liberia and hopefully we are looking up to November of this year, holding all factors constant,” he said.
Mr. Kapee further said that participants should take a serious note of the word rural, because most of the actors in the agriculture sector are the smallholder farmers who are basically found in rural communities.
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FAO, he added, remains committed to working with and supporting the Government of Liberia in achieving its development goals.
“The need for data in Liberia cannot be overemphasized. As we work in the sector, we see lots of gaps for planning and decision making.”
In remarks, Emmanuel Anderson, Research Assessment and Monitoring Officer at the World Food Program Office in Liberia said it was quite critical and important for all stakeholders to take this very seriously.
For his part, Dr. Eementary Kpoeh, Acting Deputy Director for Statistics at the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), said the issue of data gap was a grave concern.
To bridge the gap, he said LISGIS must work with the relevant stakeholders in all of the sectors, including agriculture, because it is the issue of food.
“When you go to bed hungry, you know what it means. LISGIS will always work along with the MOA and all other relevant stakeholders to ensure that data gaps are bridged in this sector and that Liberia can become self-reliant in food production,” he said.
Meanwhile, the participants thanked FAO for responding to Liberia’s request to facilitate the Technical Training on the second phase of the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics.
The technical training was graced by Ministry of Agriculture, Central Agriculture Research Institute, LISGIS, Liberia Agricultural Commodity Regulatory Authority, National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority, Forestry Development Authority, and Cooperative Development Agency.
