Registry Detail

920

Proposal

30/06/2000 00:00:00

The TSG considered a proposal for ISIC breakdowns more relevant to Pacific Island countries and in particular which of the proposed activities might be meaningful at a world level. Example 1: Given the prevalence of coconuts throughout PICs (Pacific Island Countries), ISIC class 0113: "Growing of fruit, nuts, beverage and spice crops" provides a good example. A family/producer with most of its agricultural effort aimed at a coconut plantation would be classified to the same ISIC activity as another producer whose main crop was citrus fruit, or pawpaws, or breadfruit, or avocados. But the inputs and outputs of these latter crops are quite different from those of a coconut plantation, and so should be treated separately in theory. If one were to aim for an "industry" classification to be associated with agricultural activity in a PIC it would seem sensible to break ISIC 0113 into a number of finer-level activities. (There are obvious problems of classifying "mixed farming" units in such cases - that is a separate issue.) Example 2: ISIC 0111, "Growing of cereals and other crops n.e.c." - this is the very first class in ISIC, and includes activities which are common throughout the Pacific but are as diverse as the growing of peanuts, tobacco, yams and sugar cane. In most "developed" countries the growing of these crops is not sufficiently significant to justify the creation of separate industry classes, but in various PICs one or more of these activities definitely deserve treatment in their own right. For example, would an agricultural survey in Fiji want to combine the operations of sugar cane producers with those of major taro growers? ("Roots and tubers with a high starch content" are excluded from 0112: Vegetables, and specifically included in ISIC 0111). As an initial suggestion, the growing of the following crops is both common and important in a range of PICs and the activities seem worthy of separate classification because of their diverse nature: 0111 Growing of cereal crops (other than in 0112); 0112 Growing of potatoes, yam, sweet potatoes, taro, and similar crops; 0113 Melons, squash, etc (particular relevance for Tonga); 0114 Vegetables eg, tomatoes, capsicums, cabbage; 0115 Coconuts; 0116 Other fruits eg, pawpaw, breadfruit, including citrus fruits; 0117 Sugar cane; 0118 Beverage crops eg, coffee, cocoa beans 0119 Other crops, including spice crops eg, vanilla, ginger Example 3: ISIC 0122: "Other animal farming, production of animal products n.e.c." - this includes both pigs and poultry. Most PICs have some organised poultry/egg production and every PIC has extensive pig farming, although much of it is relatively informal. The difference in these activities suggests a need for separate classes of economic activity. Possibly: 0121 Farming of cattle, sheep, etc 0122 Pig farming; 0123 Poultry farming, including egg production; 0124 Other animal farming; animal products n.e.c. Example 4: ISIC 0500: "Fishing; operation of fish hatcheries and fish farms; service activities incidental to fishing" The definition currently used for Class 0500 brings together a range of activities which are extremely heterogeneous and which are also often very important in PIC economies. As such they definitely need to be treated separately for most analysis of "fisheries" activity. But as noted previously, Revision 2 of ISIC did separate out the two broad categories, "Ocean and coastal fishing" and "Fishing in inland waters, fish hatcheries, cultivated beds, fishery service activities". These were merged into a single code in Revision 3 in 1989, suggesting that it is unlikely that any future revisions of ISIC would break 0500 into more than once class - as such there may be a strong case for developing a "regional standard" set of fisheries codes. Just looking quickly at the range of activities included in 0500: * Pearl farming is a dominant feature of economic activity in the Cook Islands and French Polynesia; * Several countries, most notably New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, have very significant aquaculture projects for prawn farming. And quite a few others have tried or are trying clam farming on a significant scale. * In every PIC, "fishing" is an integral part of life but with differences in the detailed nature of the activities involved, both between PICs and within them. At the absolute minimum there is a need to distinguish generally between "coastal" fishing and "oceanic" fishing. But all types of fishing are significant in their own right, even if it is sometimes more for the importance attached to the preservation of traditional skills than it is for the size of the catch. It seems to me that the various methods of fishing are sufficiently different as to represent different activities. Some of the more common fishing methods, along with possible activity codes, are: * 0511 Coastal/reef fishing - using a line * 0512 Coastal/reef fishing - using net / spear / other gear (hopefully not including dynamite!) * 0513 Oceanic (fishing outside the reef) - bottom fishing * 0514 Oceanic - long line * 0515 Oceanic - trolling * 0516 Oceanic - netting * 0516 Inland fishing * 0520 Gathering shellfish * 0531 Pearl farming * 0532 Prawn farming * 0533 Other aquaculture (including seaweed) * 0540 Other marine activities The codes suggested above involve some distinction according to type of gear (although the 0511/0512 split may be too detailed). ISIC does not usually distinguish between modes of production eg, "whether the work is performed by power-driven machinery or by hand" in the definition of "manufacturing" on page 76. But I believe that some if not all studies of fishing activity would want to treat the differences in gear as denoting different activities, particularly in terms of monitoring shifts from "traditional" to "modern" techniques.

At world level TSG would recommend a split out of 0122 into pigs, poultry and other, and Fish farming could be split from 05. Recorded for future revision (after 2002).