Report of the Expert Consultation on Agribusiness Statistics Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific Bangkok, Thailand, 11 - 14 September 2001 Expert Consultation on Agricultural Statistics, 11-14 September 2001 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its territories or boundaries. Senior Statistician FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific Maliwan Mansion, 39 Phra Atit Road Bangkok, 10200 Thailand ii Expert Consultation on Agricultural Statistics, 11-14 September 2001 Report of the Expert Consultation on Agribusiness Statistics Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific Bangkok, Thailand, 11 - 14 September 2001 iii Expert Consultation on Agricultural Statistics, 11-14 September 2001 Contents Opening Session 1 Election of Officers 2 Adoption of the Agenda and Timetable 2 Satellite Accounts for Agribusiness 2 Agribusiness Focus in Improving Food and Agricultural Statistics 3 Harnessing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Facilities to Promote a User-responsive Agribusiness Statistics and Information System 4 Promoting Sustained Agricultural Sector Development through Demand-Driven Agricultural Statistics and Information Systems 6 The Role of Agricultural Cooperatives in Establishing and Maintaining a Functional Agribusiness and Information System 9 Statistical Considerations in Developing a National Agribusiness Statistics and Information System (ASIS) 10 Developing an Agribusiness Statistics and Information System 12 Utilizing and Disseminating Food and Agriculture Statistics in Support of Agribusiness Development 13 Formulation of an Agribusiness Statistical Information System Framework and Priority Setting of Information 15 Adoption of the Report and Closing of the Expert Consultation 18 Annexes 19 v Report of the Expert Consultation on Agribusiness Statistics Opening Session (Item 1 of the Agenda) 1. The Expert Consultation on Agribusiness Statistics was held at the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok on 11-14 September 2001. It was attended by representatives from China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, and Thailand; a resource person from ESCAP of the United Nations, officers of the Food and Agriculture Organization, Bangkok. (The list of participants is shown as Annex 1). 2. The Expert Consultation was convened following the recommendation made at the Eighteenth Session of the Asia and Pacific Commission on Agricultural Statistics (APCAS) held in Bali in November 2000, that FAO should take the initiative in formulating a framework for a user-friendly Agribusiness Statistical Information System (ASIS) that responds to the increasing interest of member countries to use agribusiness as a major strategy for a sustained agriculture sector development in the region. 3. In his welcome address, the Chief of the Statistical Development Service at FAO Headquarters said that the objectives of the Expert Consultation were: · To share experiences on the development of agribusiness in selected countries in the region and determine the role of agribusiness in improving national food and agricultural statistical service. · To formulate an operational framework and identify the components of a functional national agribusiness statistics and information system (ASIS) that responds to the diverse information needs of agribusiness stakeholders. · To identify priority/key statistics and information that should comprise ASIS, taking into consideration capacity of national statistical organizations. · To develop and provide recommendations on strategies and approaches for strengthening national food and agricultural statistics to support and enhance the development and promotion of agribusiness as a viable economic sector. 4. The Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative delivered the welcome address (Annex 4) on behalf of the FAO Director-General and on his own. He said he was gratified that the Asia-Pacific Rim, through the initiatives of the Asia and Pacific Commission on Agricultural Statistics (APCAS), has taken the lead in setting the foundation for an information network that would support an emerging economic activity. It was important, he continued, to restructure the statistics and information system in the light of the global liberalization of the markets. 5. Many countries in the region have started to recognize the importance of agribusiness as a tool in alleviating poverty and thus reduce the incidence of hunger and malnutrition. The agenda, he continued, aimed to cover various issues that would influence the development of a demand-driven agribusiness statistical information system at the national, regional and global levels. He noted that the resource papers described varied country experiences in responding to increasing pressures from data users for further sophistication in the statistical information to support agribusiness development. 6. He was optimistic that the Expert Consultation would be able to formulate sets of proposals on the development of agribusiness statistical information systems, taking into account the capabilities Expert Consultation on Agricultural Statistics, 11-14 September 2001 and limitations of the various countries. He said that it should also be possible to identify potential national or regional technical development assistance that would provide relief to identified national and regional level constraints in the generation and exchange of useful statistics in agriculture and agribusiness development. 7. He enjoined the participating Experts to exchange ideas and views constructively; this, he said, would contribute to the achievement to the objectives of the Expert Consultation. The Participants at the Meeting were invited in their capacity as experts rather than as representatives of their governments, to facilitate their exchange of ideas and views on an appropriate ASIS. The recommendations of the Consultation would be reported at the 19th Session of the APCAS to be held next year and would result in further action by FAO. He wished the Participants a fruitful meeting and pleasant stay in Thailand. Election of Officers (Item 2 of the Agenda) 8. The Participants elected Dr. Apichart Pongsrihadulchai of Thailand as Chairman, Dr. M.K. Srivastava of India as Vice Chairman; and Ms Celeste Molina of the Philippines as Rapporteur. Adoption of the Agenda and Timetable (Item 4 of the Agenda) 9. The Provisional Agenda and Provisional Timetable were presented. Dr. Apichart Pongsrihadulchai offered to organize a visit to the Agricultural Museum and the Talad Thai Wholesale Market, and host a dinner afterwards. The Expert Consultation expressed its appreciation and agreed to include it in the Agenda as a special activity of the Expert Consultation. With this revision, the Agenda was adopted (Annex 2). The List of Documents is shown as Annex 3. Satellite Accounts for Agribusiness (Item 4 of the Agenda) 10. The document on satellite accounts for agribusiness would refer to the detailed articulation of agribusiness within the framework of the system of national accounts. The Expert Consultation was informed that if agribusiness would refer to the production and other transactions of agriculture and related activities, it would imply that the satellite account would have to articulate this in more detail within the framework of the SNA. 11. Satellite accounts had been incorporated into the SNA to meet specific needs of analysis focusing on a particular sector, in this case, agribusiness. Within the framework, several indicators could be derived in addition to indicators that would describe temporal changes. The various accounts in the satellite accounts would allow for formulation of indicators that would provide insights on the role of agribusiness in the economy and the various transactions within agribusiness. 12. The compilation of national accounts required a wide range of basic data. However, most countries had already institutionalized national accounts compilation and thus had put in place the basic statistics for compilation although there remain many gaps in some cases. In the compilation of satellite accounts for agribusiness, additional data would be needed, which might not now be regularly available. While there are current statistics on agriculture, corporations, quasi corporation and households, they might not be disaggregated to suit agribusiness monitoring and analysis. National statistical organizations interested in developing agribusiness satellite accounts would need to expand their statistical data collection programs. 13. It was pointed out that the compilation of satellite account for agribusiness could provide valuable information for analysis, evaluation and monitoring. Moreover, as a satellite account based 2 Expert Consultation on Agricultural Statistics, 11-14 September 2001 on the central framework of the SNA, it would show the linkage of agribusiness to the total economy. The framework of an agribusiness satellite account would also provide a useful model for planning and programming future development of statistics for agribusiness. The framework was an initial attempt to conceptualize the agribusiness satellite