from careful decisions about data and information are high. For that reason ~reat attention m~st oe devoted to the needs of the users - pre$ent needs indeed but also1 and above aJle future needs to prepare right now the data base and the time series for the future9 This paper reviewed the· data n~quirements of agricultural planners accord­ ing to the planning methodologies; the distinction was made between •qualitative" and "quantitative• planning procedures. The qua1 itative procedureS ·• includillq the monitoring ,lnd evalu­ ation procedures • rely m3 i nl y on aggregated or processed a·ata= data on production levels. final and interme~iat e consumption, agricultural incotne and a set of socio-economic indicators at the national or regional le11el. Comparatively little tnfonnation is nee<Jed on the technologies used for product ion, how the different i npu·~s are mi x"2'd and what are the possible alternatives. The quality criteria of the stati sties dre the absence of bias and the consistency of the aggf"e­ gdti:on.. from this viewpoint, it is unf or tuna te that mo-st of the national ag~icultura1 statistics are published according to the admin­ istrative divisions of the country rather than following relevant agro-cH ·m<Jtic zoni.nq or agronomic consid"erations {e.q •• irrigated ver­ sus rain-fed areas)• Nevertheless the ~uality of current agriculturdl statistics published by the statistical organi l_,tions of the ECWA countries is rather good. Improvements <Jre needed in the production of socio-economic data and indicators related to the rura1 population and in the consistency of time series when chanqes in data specifica­ tion are not al~~o~a)IS made explicit to the reader's. fhe data requirements of the planning-oriented quantitative mod­ els a~e by their nature very different: because the interest is not only on "what" i·s produced but also on •why" and •how" it is produced~ 