The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), on Tuesday urged Nigerians and other stakeholders to support its ongoing National Agricultural Sample Census (NASC) aimed at producing a credible statistical data on agricultural and other critical socio-economic activities in the country.
According to the Bureau, the survey, which is organized in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, World Bank, and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), kicked off last week with a four-day Training of Trainers (ToT) programme in Abuja.
The ToT is followed by a five-day Training of Enumerators (ToE) in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from Wednesday, June 29 through July 3, 2022 after which the trained enumerators will be deployed across the country to collect data from selected households and agriculture related businesses for the following 50 days.
The agency’s management stated that the objectives of the exercise were to provide basic information on the structure of the agricultural sector in Nigeria; to provide a comprehensive frame and register for conducting subsequent agriculture and household-based surveys; to collect relevant data that will assist governments at all levels to formulate policies and monitor interventions aimed at ensuring food security the country.
The NASC is also aimed at providing data for the proposed rebasing of the National Gross Domestic Product scheduled for 2023.
Based on the importance of the survey to ongoing efforts targeted at updating the national statistical system’s database, the NBS appealed “to all stakeholders for their maximum support towards making the conduct of the exercise successful.
“We also appeal to all our respondents to give the necessary information as required by the NBS data collectors. We assure all our respondents that information collected in the course of this exercise shall be treated with utmost confidentiality as is required by law”, the Bureau added.
