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Journal o f Philippine Development Number Thirty, Volume XVII, No. 1,1990
EVALUATION
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OF PHILIPPINE CORN STATISTICS
I. P. David, A. Nenette C. Mendoza and David C. Besa1
I. INTRODUCTION In discharging its function as official gatherer of agricultural statistics, the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) relies on a system of surveys collectively called lately as the Integrated Agricultural Surveys (lASs).2 The Rice and Corn Surveys (ROSs) are the centerpiece of the lASs, and these are the sourcesof practically all data on the country's two principal foodcrops. Becausethe RCSs draw the lion's share of BAS resources,which undoubtedly is due to the strategic importance of these crops,these surveysare reputedly the best planned and executed among the lASs. The implication is that, of all agricultural statistics,those on rice and corn are the best, i.e., most accurate. It is widely known in statistical circlesthat the RCSsand their predecessorshave been designedto produce better statisticsfor rice than for corn. A review of what has been written about the RCSs sampling procedures will readily show that such is the case [see, e.g., (1), (2), (10)]. Indeed, aggregate statistics on rice area and production appear to be accepted generally nowadays to be "in the ballpark." Users, however, will welcome improvements in the accuracyof disaggregatedestimates (e.g., by province or by type of cultural management)and in the level of detail with which the statistics are presented particularly those on farm inputs (e.g., fertilizers by kind insteadof lumping all kinds together). Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of statistics on corn. In the first place, hardly anything has been written about how these statisticsare produced. Aside from the estimatesthemselves,most of what is known could be found in the BAS field manuals. Secondly, 1. I. P. David and A.N,C, Mendoza are with the Asian Development Bank. D. C. Besa, formerly with the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, Department of Agriculture, is now with the National Security Council; his work on the paper was supported by a UNDP-UP Statistical Education Support Project (SESP) grant. The views expressed in the paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of their respective institutions. 2. The BAS was known until 1986 as the Bureau of Agricultural Economics (BAEcon). Also, until 1968 the lASs were called the Crop and Livestock Surveys (CLSs).