CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (PIA)--The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)-10 expressed optimism for an improved data gathering turnout for the 2022 Census of Agriculture and Fisheries (CAF).

During the 3rd quarter meeting of the Regional Statistics Committee (RSC)-10, the PSA reported a low census turnout for the first two weeks of the CAF rollout.

Accordingly, out of the 807,803 total households in the region that will be interviewed, only 53,031 have been completed as of September 16. Turnout per province was reported as follows: Bukidnon (2.26%), Misamis Oriental (16.27%), Misamis Occidental (3.81%), Camiguin (25.01%), and Lanao del Norte (0.34%).

Several reasons have been cited for the low turnout. These include enumerators withdrawing due to personal, health, and political reasons; heavy rainfall in certain areas, particularly in the afternoon; difficulty in penetrating barangays affected by tribal and political conflicts; and security risks in some hard-to-reach locations.

Delays in the deployment of workload and user accounts for enumerators and supervisors also contributed to the low turnout in Lanao del Norte.

Moreover, the CAF system application encountered updating problems, especially for tablets already deployed in hard-to-reach areas due to poor or no internet connections at all.

"The low turnout during the first two weeks is always expected in all surveys and enumerations because they are still adjusting and also familiarizing themselves with the questions. But in the third and fourth weeks, basin mas paspas na (maybe it would be faster). The end of the enumeration is October 25, so I'm sure we can cope," said PSA-10 officer-in-charge Janith Aves.

RSC-10 chairperson and National Economic and Development Authority-10 Regional Director, Mylah Faye Aurora Cariño, meanwhile, recommended convening the sub-regional committees for the 2022 CAF to address some of the issues. (APB/PIA-10)