Action Plan of the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics

The recent food crisis and the ongoing debates on food price volatility, the impact of climate change on agriculture and food security clearly highlight the weaknesses in the available agricultural data. They also highlight the urgent need for evidence on which to base implementation of the relevant effective policies at the global, regional and national levels. These data requirements are emerging at the same time that many countries, especially in the developing world, are lacking the capacity to produce and report even the minimum set of agricultural data needed to monitor national trends or inform the international development debate.

The Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics is a ground-breaking effort to strengthen agricultural statistics (World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and United Nations Statistical Commission, 2011). The Global Strategy is a framework for national and international statistical systems that will enable them to produce, and to apply, the basic data and information needed in the twenty-first century.

Spanish language edition.