Statistical Service Targets Improved Growth With Agric Census

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) is optimistic it will help reverse the trend of the declining contribution of agriculture to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with the census it is about to conduct on the sector.

The census which will be conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), will survey all institutions and communities involved in agriculture in the country.

Speaking to Citi Business News on the matter, the Director of Communication and Dissemination at the Ghana Statistical Service, David Kombat was of the view that the census which will be conducted in April, will help the sector increase its contribution to GDP.

“Agriculture plays an important part in Ghana’s economy, in fact it’s the largest employer and it used to contribute highest to the country’s GDP but it has declined and therefore there is the need for us to have up to date statistics on agriculture”.

He also explained the need for the census seeing that it had been many years since one had been conducted.

“The last census on agric was conducted many years ago and we think that there is a need for us to go out and do a total census of agric to enable us update our data on agriculture and we will also use it to work on our GDP figures and to ensure the figures we have been getting from our GDP on agriculture is accurate”.

Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the General Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU), Edward Kareweh believes the census will guide the government in its agricultural related policies such as the Planting for Food and Jobs as well as provide accurate figures on jobs created under such policies.

“Once we have information that is current about the sector, it will help government come out with the right policies to help develop the sector”.

He added, “If you recall when it came to the ministry coming out that they have been able to create seven hundred and forty five thousand (745,000) jobs through the planting for food and jobs, our opinion was that , it shouldn’t lie on the authority of the ministry to decide the number of jobs that they have created in the agricultural sector. We wanted an institution like the statistical service to be able to tell us that because that is the institution that has been mandated and credited with the resources to conduct such a research at the national level”