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To elucidate the above issues, the need to rely on traditional data sources in addition to the resources required to collect field data was primarily to ensure that once the model was constructed, its need for periodic updating would not be constrained by the need to allocate resources for purposes of obtaining the needed data. However, recent events seem to show that this was not a problem as the data collection capacity and quality have been improved considerably. In the case of
(b) above, the progression from field data to model was important as a
training device in model construction and it also provided for consistency checks. That is, the raw data were converted into regional budgets. This allowed for consistency checks with other estimates of regional product and input supplies and also helped provide our counterparts with a better initial perspective on the agricultural sector.
The specification of the model to reflect the instruments and
constraints which are within the realm of the policy makers authority to manipulate, is, in retrospect, perhaps one of the most important considerations determining the eventual complete institutionalization of the method in the policy-decision making process. It also is perhaps the most difficult. While the Tunisian ASA model is decomposed regionally and subsectorally, further decomposition would yield additional utility to the Direction.
This follows because the program imp lement ing funct ion s of several of the offices rely on instruments and resources that are more decomposed than those appearing in the model. Furthermore, some of the variables appearing in the model are not at the discretion of the ministry of agriculture to-manipulate. For instance, agricultural product prices