Annual agricultural production survey under way |03 May 2013

The two-week survey, which is covering all registered farmers on Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, aims to get a complete inventory of all registered farms and all land under agricultural development.

Data collected will be most vital for making decisions on the agricultural sector and its development, as our local producers play a very important role in the food security of our country.
The survey will cover some 600 farms.

Other reasons for such a survey include:

• Finding out the major problems faced by farmers;

• Collecting statistics so as to work out our annual local production which is vital for decision making;

• Finding out the productivity/utilisation of the agricultural land, especially the scarce state land allocated for agricultural development;

• Educating farmers on the upcoming project ‘Mobile Learning’. Mobile learning is a new system that will help the Seychelles Agricultural Agency to introduce mobile based extension by the use of information communication technologies. This will hopefully boost the rate at which data is shared with the Agricultural Extension Services and farmers, as well as deliver a more professional service to farmers and other partners;

• Updating the list of farmers. A complete updated list of farmers is essential for all decision makers. This will be an excellent opportunity to finalise and update this list;

• Receiving feedback from farmers on the services being done by the Seychelles Agricultural Agency (SAA) so as to improve and offer a better service; 

• Having a snap shot of the prices of local agricultural products at the farm gates.

The survey is being carried out by officials from the Agricultural Lands Management, Agricultural Extension Services, Statistics Unit and the Livestock Development Section.