USDA Helps Haiti Measure Agricultural Production

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Victoria Calderon, International Programs Office, National Agricultural Statistics Service, on April 15, 2014 at 11:00 AM

Haitian farmer taking produce to the market. USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service helped Haiti produce that country’s first-ever Statistical Agricultural Production Report, to be released tomorrow.

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.

During the month of April we will take a closer look at USDA’s Groundbreaking Research for a Revitalized Rural America, highlighting ways USDA researchers are improving the lives of Americans in ways you might never imagine, and helping improve the world.

Following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture saw the need for market information and reliable and timely agricultural data. With the help from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the government surveyed farmers across Haiti and will publish the responses in its first-ever Statistical Agricultural Production Report, scheduled to be released tomorrow, April 16.

USDA and USAID jointly assisted the Haitian government in an effort to improve the quality and quantity of agricultural information available to Haitian decision makers with funding managed by the Foreign Agricultural Service.

Prior to this effort the Haitian government would contact officials in each of the 10 departments and ask for data on the agricultural production. This information was neither standardized nor verifiable, which meant that the work to develop a statistically viable system had to be started virtually from scratch.

The international team involved nine NASS employees, 15 employees from the Agricultural Sub-Structure of Statistics and Informatics (SSSAI) and Ministry of Agriculture Natural Resources and Rural Development of Haiti (MANNDR), 200 local enumerators, 30 local supervisors, and many other USDA and Haitian government officials. Eighty percent of the 4,975 farm operators who were included in the sample responded to the survey.

NASS collaborated with the SSSAI providing guidance on the design, sample, procedures, training, analysis and implementation of the nationwide survey during 2013. We also helped develop the list frame system and a data summarization system.

The report will include data on Haiti’s livestock and spring crop season. Data will be reported at the national level and for each of its ten departments. But this report is just the first step in Haiti’s quest to strengthen its food security. Haiti has three growing seasons and this report only reflects data from the spring season.

Coming Together to Improve Human Nutrition

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Isabel Walls, Senior Advisor, Food Safety, Nutrition and Health, on April 1, 2014 at 3:00 PM

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.

During the month of April we will take a closer look at USDA’s Groundbreaking Research for a Revitalized Rural America, highlighting ways USDA researchers are improving the lives of Americans in ways you might never imagine. For example, USDA research into behavioral economics as part of nutrition research to improve diet and health.

We’ve heard it all before: you are what you eat.  We’re fueled by what we consume, so it’s important to provide our bodies with nutritious food.  That’s why the agencies within USDA’s Research, Education, and Economics (REE) mission area brought together some of the brightest minds at the Federal Government Nutrition Research Workshop last month. USDA Scientists joined forces with scientists and policy makers from other USDA agencies, Health and Human Services agencies, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the U.S. Agency for International Development to discuss the importance of nutrition research.

Despite the snowy weather, Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for REE Cathie Woteki kicked off the conference of eager participants.  Through a series of short talks and discussion, the group shared information on key topics affecting the diet and health of Americans.

A major emphasis is to investigate how Federal dietary guidelines can promote health, and reduce the risk of chronic disease and obesity. REE research is using cutting edge techniques to study this challenge. The research findings will help us understand individual responses to nutrition, for example, why some people lose weight faster than others on the same diet.  This will help develop new education strategies for improving diet and health.

Good eating habits are challenging for most of us.  So, the meeting participants paid close attention to the role of behavioral economic strategies in improving consumer choices for healthy foods.  And for young people, the decision may be even more difficult.  For example, how do we encourage children to choose healthy lunch options rather than eating candy from a snack machine?  Our research suggests that making healthier foods more visible and accessible to kids, having shorter lines/faster service for healthier choices and giving catchy names like “Rockin Broccoli” can all help encourage kids to eat more healthy foods.

Interagency working groups will continue the discussions started at the conference and improve collaborations among US Government Scientists.  “It was a wonderful opportunity to exchange information and plan for future collaboration,” noted Cheryl Jackson Lewis from USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service.