Study will reveal the profile of the Puerto Rican farmer

Study will reveal the profile of the Puerto Rican farmer

It will also help strengthen our food security

May 30, 2022. The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) launched the questionnaire “Study on the Profile of the Puerto Rican Farmer” with the objective of collecting information, data and statistics on farmers and their crops, as well as incentives received by the Department of Agriculture.

“The information obtained in this questionnaire will help to develop a profile of farmers in Puerto Rico, which will allow us to identify possible barriers and challenges that they currently present. Getting to know our farmers better will help us promote and improve local agriculture and strengthen our food security,” said Dr. Orville M. Disdier Flores, executive director of the Institute, who called on all farmers to invest a few minutes to complete and share the questionnaire with other farmers before June 20. The questionnaire can be accessed through the following link: Farmer Profile Study

Disdier explained that the data obtained will also serve to justify various initiatives, such as, for example, the development of new public policies that promote better services for farmers and aid to improve food production in Puerto Rico. The information collected, Disdier explained, will also make it possible to strengthen data on the Statistics and Indicators of Agricultural Production in Puerto Rico, tool recently launched by the Institute and which is available at the following link: Agriculture.

For questions or help with the questionnaire, please contact Manuel A. Mangual, project coordinator, at the following email manuel.mangual@estadisticas.pr or at (787) 819-0730.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is a governmental entity in the executive branch, with fiscal and administrative autonomy, whose main purpose is to ensure that Puerto Rico has complete, reliable statistics that are quickly and universally accessible. To learn more about the Institute of Statistics, you can access the website: www.estadisticas.pr.gov. On social media through Facebook accounts (@statistics.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR), Instagram (@institutodeestadisticas) and LinkedIn (Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics).

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PRESS RELEASE

The Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics has a new president of its Board of Directors

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) has a new president of its Board of Directors. The Board elected the economist and former university professor, Nicolás Muñoz, as president after the resignation on April 3 of Arnaldo Cruz, who had been president for the past three years. Muñoz, who served as vice-president of the Institute's Board, has a master's degree in economics from the University of Puerto Rico and is president of Tactical Planners, Inc., a firm dedicated to economic consulting and strategic planning. Muñoz has held other ad honorem positions in the government of Puerto Rico, including a member of the Governor's Council of Economists, president of the Workforce Investment Board (WIA), a member of the Governor's Committee for the review of the minimum wage in Puerto Rico and a member of the Employment Opportunity Promotion Board of the Department of Labor.

Board members do not earn compensation for their services. The Board is composed, in addition to Muñoz, of Dr. Idania Rodríguez Ayuso, vice-president, Mrs. Carola Ballester Descartes, secretary, Mr. Vicente Feliciano Pérez and the Hon. Manuel Laboy. This Board of Directors, as established in Act 209 of August 28, 2003, is the governing body that establishes the administrative policy of the institute, which is led by Dr. Orville M. Disdier.

Dr. Idania Rodríguez Ayuso has a master's degree in Epidemiology from the University of Puerto Rico and a doctorate in Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology from Walden University. Rodríguez is also an independent consultant in epidemiology, statistics and research and a professor at Ana G. Méndez University. Mrs. Carola Ballester Descartes has a master's degree in Planning from the University of Puerto Rico, where she is also a professor and associate dean of the School of Architecture, and a master's degree in Landscape Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico.

On the other hand, Mr. Vicente Feliciano Pérez has a bachelor's degree in Economics from Harvard University and an MBA, IMD Business School in Switzerland. Feliciano is also founder and president of Advantage Business Consulting. The Hon. Manuel Laboy Rivera, who represents the government official in the Board as established by law, has a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico and a master's degree from the University of Turabo. Laboy is the secretary of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce and executive director of the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company.

As reported, the new members of the Board will concentrate their work on implementing the institute's Strategic Plan, which includes several goals, including: Develop an administrative structure that allows the proper functioning of internal processes, restructuring the statistical coordination committee so that it operates effectively and increases compliance with the law that governs the institute and establishes its mission, and improving the budget or capital by diversifying the institute's services and projects to obtain external income or funds non-governmental.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity tasked with coordinating the government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and accessible quickly and universally.

To learn more about the Institute of Statistics, you can access the website: www.estadisticas.pr.gov. On social media through Facebook (@estadisticas .pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.

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Contact: Idia M. Martínez, R‐28 787‐603‐3200

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PRESS RELEASE

Statistics Institute releases new version of the Occupied Positions Report

A new programming improves the visualization of the statistics of positions held in the government

A new programming carried out by the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics will allow a better visualization of the Occupied Positions (PO) Report in the Government and the ability to compare current information with previous months, among other advantages. For the redesign of this report, free of charge and open source software was used R, so now it is done completely through this program, eliminating manual processes that were previously carried out.

“This new program is an advanced one because it optimizes the efficiency and effectiveness of statistical processes on this topic, improves our ability to monitor government positions with updated information, and allows comparisons to be made with previous years.”, said Dr. Orville M. Disdier, executive director of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics.

The new design, as indicated by Ana Gabriela Jara Castro, manager of statistical projects at the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, includes a monthly report tabulated by agency and type of position, in addition to the time series, with the following information:

1. Number of POs at the end of the reference month, broken down by type of position (career, trust, temporary, irregular, among others) and by type of agency.
2. Monthly change in the number of POs by type of position and by type of entity.
3. Total PO for each government entity.

Jara Castro explained that, within this new format, a table (Table 4) was included that represents entities that have not reported their positions to the Office of the Comptroller for more than six months.

“The inclusion of this new table will allow the accountability process, for positions in government entities, to be a more transparent one, and more accessible to the population. The main objective of this report is to summarize the information of all the agencies represented in the Office of the Comptroller on its website,” said Ana G. Jara Castro, who was primarily responsible for the redesign of the report.

According to the website of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, the statistics presented in the Report on Statistics of Occupied Government Positions, come from the Register of Occupied Positions and Related Information, created under Act No. 103-2006, known as the Puerto Rico Government Tax Reform Act of 2006. This law states that every governmental entity has a duty to certify this information to the Comptroller's Office on a monthly basis. In those cases where the entity has not fulfilled its duty to certify its figures in a timely manner, the Statistics Institute performs a simple statistical attribution of the missing data to complete the statistics. All figures are under constant review and may change in future reports. The January 2021 edition is the most recent edition of this report and reflects that the number of total POs in government has fallen from 275,448 in January 2008 to 150,502 in January 2021. In the same way, “De Carrera” POs have fallen from 218,540 in January 2008 to 109,975 in January 2021. The report can be accessed through the following link: Statistics of Occupied Positions in the Government.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity tasked with coordinating the government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and accessible quickly and universally.

For more information you can visit the website: https://estadisticas.pr.gov/. In addition, you can follow the Institute on social networks, through Facebook (@estadisticas .pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.

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Contact:

Idia M. Martinez, R-28

787-603-3200

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