Rome - The quality of statistical information from 17 countries in sub-Saharan Africa will be dramatically increased with grant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reported FAO today.   The US$ 5.6 million grant over two years will allow the 17 countries identified, through the FAO country statistics information system...

I am happy to share with you information on an ambitious UN project, CountrySTAT, which is expected to revolutionise access to statistics for improved analysis, decision-making and monitoring.    CountrySTAT is a Web-based information technology system for food and agricultural statistics at the national and sub-national levels.    It gives decision-makers access to statistics...

Lack of reliable information on availability of markets by small-scale farmers could soon become a thing of the past as the country gets ready to implement a United Nations (UN) web-based information system to various agriculture related institutions that will be providing such information.   CountrySTAT promises a sharp paradigm shift where...

Zambia needs to work hard to come up with coordinated statistics on trade which is a challenge across government departments, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives Director of Planning Julius Shawa has said.       Shawa said that despite Zambia performing relatively well in agricultural commodities pricing due to the presence of agriculture market...

As Zambia moves towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS),more needs to be done to accelerate the pace at which this can be achieved. Following last months UN summit in New York to discuss progress towards reaching the MDGs the debate is raging as to whether Zambia will achieve the eight...

Agriculture organisations have appealed to the government to avail them a platform for sharing statistics on agriculture commodities to enable them contribute positively to the new UN-based information system, CountrySTAT which is to be launched soon.   Some farmer organisations have complained that their views are not addressed, accusing the government of...

Zambia needs to work hard to come up with coordinated statistics on trade which is a challenge across government departments, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives Director of Planning Julius Shawa has said.   Shawa said that despite Zambia performing relatively well in agricultural commodities pricing due to the presence of agriculture market...