In the past decades, Nigeria has experienced substantial gaps in producing adequate and timely data to inform policy making. In particular, the country is lagging behind in producing sufficient and accurate agricultural production statistics. The current set of household and farm surveys conducted by the NBS covers a wide range of sectors. Except for the Harmonized National Living Standard Survey (HNLSS) which covers multiple topics, these different sectors are usually covered in separate surveys none of which is conducted as a panel. As part of the efforts to continue to improve data collection and usability, the NBS has revised the content of the annual General household survey (GHS) and added a panel component. The GHS-Panel is conducted every 2 years covering multiple sectors with a focus to improve data from the agriculture sector. The Nigeria General Hosehold Survey-Panel, is the result of a partnership that NBS has established with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMA&RD), the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the World Bank (WB). Under this partnership, a method to collect agricultural and household data in such a way as to allow the study of agriculture's role in household welfare over time was developed. This GHS-Panel Survey responds to the needs of the country, given the dependence of a high percentage of households on agriculture activities in the country, for information on household agricultural activities along with other information on the households like human capital, other economic activities, access to services and resources. The ability to follow the same households over time, makes the GHS-Panel a new and powerful tool for studying and understanding the role of agriculture in household welfare over time as it allows analyses to be made of how households add to their human and physical capital, how education affects earnings and the role of government policies and programs on poverty, inter alia. The objectives of the survey are as follows i Allowing welfare levels to be produced at the state level using small area estimation techniques resulting in state-level poverty figures ii With the integration of the longitudinal panel survey with GHS, it will be possible to conduct a more comprehensive analysis of poverty indicators and socio-economic characteristics iii Support the development and implementation of a Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) application for the paperless collection of GHS iv Developing an innovative model for collecting agricultural data v Capacity building and developing sustainable systems for the production of accurate and timely information on agricultural households in Nigeria. vi Active dissemination of agriculture statistics The second wave consists of two visits to the household: the postplanting visit occurred directly after the planting season to collect information on preparation of plots, inputs used, labour used for planting and other issues related to the planting season. The post-harvest visit occurred after the harvest season and collected information on crops harvested, labour used for cultivating and harvest activities, and other issues related to the harvest cycle.
