The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in collaboration with the World Bank, has trained over 50 enumerators for the National Agricultural Sample census in Nasarawa State.
The exercise which was also in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Agricultural Organisation, was last conducted 28 years ago, precisely in 1993/1994.
The Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive of NBS, Adeyemi Adeniran, disclosed this at the training of the enumerators in Lafia.
Adeniran, who was represented by the Nasarawa State Officer of NBS, Bem Benjamin said, about 3,096 enumerators have undergone training nationwide, in order to generate data base on agriculture across the 774 local government areas of the federation.
According to him, about 52 enumerators, who are undergoing training in Lafia, the state capital, will be posted to the 13 local government areas of the state to carryout the exercise.
“At the end of the training, about 52 enumerators will be posted to cover all the local government areas in Nasarawa State.
“We are going to post four persons per local government to cover up to 40 enumeration areas within a period of 50 days.
“The purpose is to canvas for statistics base on agriculture, in order to provide basic information in the agricultural sector that will be helpful to government for planning and all the people that use statistics.
“The end users will also benefit from the exercise and even students and the private sector will also benefit from the data that will be generated,” he said.
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Adeniran further said that NBS was working in collaborating with the World Bank, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, as well as Food and Agriculture Organisation to ensure that the basic information on the structure of agriculture in the country were collected for proper planning in the agricultural sector.
He, therefore, called on chairmen of the various local governments to cooperate with the enumerators to enable them carry out the task.
Nuhu Oshafu, the state Commissioner of Agriculture and Water Resources, stressed the need for government at all levels to invest hugely in the agriculture sector
Oshafu, represented by the Director, Agriculture and Engineering Services, Yakubu Jama noted that no nation can survive without agriculture.
He, commended NBS and its partners for embarking on the exercise after two decades, saying it will help the government to plan ahead.
He urged the enumerators to ensure accurate data while carryout their task.
The state Acting Statistician General, Isa Osama, while declaring the training open, said the state government was committed to ensuring the existence of robust and reliable statistics for the growth and development of the state.
“We are determined to entrench a system that will eliminate the attitude of falsifying information for self-interest, as well as doing things without recourse to facts and figures by the enumerators.
“It is therefore, historic particularly as this exercise is taking place in Lafia since the last one in 1993/1994 in Nigeria.
“We are aware that this enumerators training was organised by National Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with the World Bank to enable enumerators get from the field a uniform comprehensive, accurate and reliable agriculture data for Nigeria.
“We believe that through the census of agriculture, producers can show the nation the value and importance of agriculture and can influence decisions that will shape the future of Nigeria agricultural sector,” he said.
He, therefore, charged enumerators to put in their best by getting accurate data from the field as it will help in refocusing agriculture statistics for efficient and effective service delivery.
