The emergence of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics’ (BAS) was spurred by government efforts to improve the agricultural data base in the country. In the past, the agricultural data system suffered from significant gaps, some duplications and occasional issues on the relevance of some data series to users. The major reasons were: (1) the agency responsible for agricultural statistics, the then Bureau of Agricultural Economics (BAEcon), was originally set up as a user rather than a producer of statistics, (2) the development of agriculture statistics received very low priority in the sharing of limited resources allotted to the statistical system, and (3) the widespread duplication of statistical activities among government agencies resulting in conflicting figures and confusion among data users.

To address this situation, the BAS was established as one of the seven (7) bureaus of the Department of Agriculture under Executive Order No. 116 issued on January 30, 1987, to take charge of the production of statistics on agriculture, fishery and related fields. The BAS has assumed most of the functions of its predecessor, the BAEcon. In year 2000, the BAS structural organization was strengthened and reoriented pursuant to the relevant provisions of DA Administrative Order No. 6 series of 1998 in compliance with the provisions of the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act or RA8435 of 1997. This law designates BAS as the central information source and server of the National Information Network (NIN) of the DA.