On average in low income countries, the agricultural sector accounts for over 20 percent of gross domestic product and 60 percent of the total workforce, making it a vital aspect of economic growth and poverty reduction in the developing world. In many developing countries, however, agricultural statistics--requisite for management and policy formation--are often unreliable, incomplete, or difficult to access. Contributing to the improvement and dissemination of subnational-level agricultural statistics, the Syrian National Agricultural Policy Centre (NAPC) has created a free, on-line database that provides a detailed and up-to-date statistical picture of Syria's agricultural sector.

The Syrian Agricultural Database 2006

The Syrian Agricultural Database (SADB) was first published in 2003 with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The 2006 edition, released in February of 2007, is available in CD-ROM and on-line formats in both Arabic and English and covers the years between 1985 and 2005. The SADB's user-friendly interface (based on FAOSTAT) allows users to access over 700,000 statistical data entries relating to:

• agricultural production, including all types of agricultural products;
• national economic data, including statistics on taxation, customs and ministry investments;
• agricultural inputs, including fertilizer, pesticides, veterinary medicine and agricultural machinery;
• land and water, including data on rainfall, regional land use, crop areas, irrigated areas, and irrigation types;
• agricultural trade, including the origin and destinations of imported and exported items;
• cost and prices, including annual/monthly retail and whole prices, major inputs and crop budget; and
• census, including information from the most recent agricultural census.

To view agricultural data for other developing and industrialized countries around the world, visit EarthTrends' searchable database on Agriculture and Food.

RELATED LINKS:

FAO Government Cooperative Program, Syria

Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)

International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

EarthTrends

Data Table: Food and Agriculture Overview 2005 (pdf)

September 2006 Monthly Update: Can a Green Revolution Catalyze African Development?