News

Fijians urged to cooperate during Agriculture Census

February 8, 2020 3:45 pm

Dr. Mahendra Reddy [middle]

On the eve of the 2020 Fiji Agriculture Census, Fijians in both urban and peri-urban areas are being asked to lend their support and cooperation to ensure the successful collection of factual and relevant information.

While highlighting the preparations made by all stakeholders for the upcoming Census, Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Mahendra Reddy acknowledged the co-ordinated effort put in towards the national exercise, emphasizing the importance of quality statistics as a significant component in development planning and policy formulation.

The Minister further highlighted that the Agriculture Census was a significant data collection exercise, undertaken throughout the world especially in developing countries where farming activities are key to sustainable livelihoods.

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Dr. Reddy stressed that that improvement of agricultural statistics initiative provides the vision for national and international statistical systems to produce the basic data and information required for the 21st century.”

“It is anticipated that through this Census, a baseline database on the structure of Fiji’s agriculture sector is established, providing a frame for future Agriculture Census and subsequent surveys as well as improve Fiji’s agriculture and rural statistics system to generate quality agricultural data in order to provide timely and quality evidence for planning and policy decision making for the sector”.

The 2020 Fiji Agriculture Census which will be held over a three week period from the 10th-29th of February will be an integrated Census of all four agriculture sub-sectors including crops, livestock, sugarcane, fisheries and forests.