Project Description

Since 1998 the International Conference on Agricultural Statistics (ICAS) has been held every three years under the auspices of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) Committee on Agricultural Statistics.ICAS VII is organized by the Italian National Institute of Statistics in close collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). The theme of the conference this year is “Modernization of Agriculture Statistics in Support of the Sustainable Development Agenda”.

The conference convenes senior agricultural statisticians from all over the world, both from developed and developing countries. Most of them represent national statistical offices and ministries of agriculture.

Therefore, ICAS VII focuses on bringing together research and best practices in the field of agriculture statistics in response to the changing needs and opportunities for agricultural statistics, in view to develop the indicator framework for the Sustainable Development Goals.

The technical content of this Seventh International Conference on Agricultural Statistics is set by the ICAS VII Scientific Programme Committee, co-chaired by the President of the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) and the Chair of ISI CAS.

ICAS conferences are open to all producers, suppliers, trainers and users of agricultural statistics, such as economists, statisticians, agronomists, researchers, analysts and decision-makers from government entities, academia, development partners and international organisations.

Previous editions have been the means for improving the quality of agricultural statistics worldwide. Discussions have focused on providing information to monitor poverty related to development programs, particularly in low income countries. A major outcome of recent conferences has been a growing awareness that the quality of agricultural statistics was
declining. Furthermore, there was widespread recognition that new issues, such as food security, environmental sustainability, and rural development, bring new demands for better statistics. This growing concern resulted in the development both of the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics and of the Action Plan for its implementation unanimously endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission.