The nation-wide agricultural census to collect data on farmers, farm size and crops cultivated among others for decision-making is faced with funding challenges that threaten the entire exercise.

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture estimates that it will need a total of GH?22million for successful implementation of the Census Agriculture (CA) operation nationwide. However, only GH¢5million has been released by the Ministry of Finance.

Fiifi Kwetey, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, last week told Parliament that: “Funding for the Census of Agriculture has been and is still a great challenge. Going by the planned activities, the main data collection for the Core and Community Modules (Phase II) was expected to start in October 2014.

“However, only GH?5million out of the approximately GH?21million required to implement this phase of the project has been released to date. This thus leaves a funding gap of approximately GH?17million for implementing the Core and Community Modules of the CA.”

The Census of Agriculture is a statistical operation for collecting, processing and disseminating data on the structure of agriculture, covering the whole or a significant part of the country.

Typical structural data collected in a census of agriculture are size of holding, land tenure, land use, crop area harvested, irrigation, livestock numbers, labour and other agricultural inputs. In an agricultural census, data are collected directly from agricultural holdings, but some community-level data may also be collected.

As things stand now, the sector minister said, the Ghana Statistical Services is waiting for the release of outstanding balance from the Finance Ministry. “The Ghana Statistical Service has written to the Ministry of Finance requesting the release of the outstanding balance. The Ministry of Finance is yet to respond to the request,” he told Parliament.

He explained that it is important to conduct CA as it will help to update the sampling frame for the annual surveys of agriculture, and provide benchmark data for assessing current and future statistical enquiries.

“We need to understand the components of the rural sector, the structure of agriculture; number of farmers involved, size of farms, distribution and level of equipment use” he said.

The census will be carried out by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) with technical support from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Emphasis will be on crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry products. . There has been a 28-year gap since the last census, instead of the recommended 10-year interval. Attempts by government to conduct the census in 2000 did not materialise.

The FAO is the lead organisation that promotes the conducting of Agriculture The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has supported the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) with US$370,000 to support an agricultural census that will provide data for planning in the sector.

The census, when completed, is expected to provide reliable data on the agricultural sector to enable the ministry plan and implement priority policies and programmes for the achievement of the country’s Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy (FASDEP11).