The Eleventh Agricultural Census (2021-22)

The Eleventh Agricultural Census (2021-22)

Subject: Agriculture

Context:

The nationwide Eleventh Agricultural Census (2021-22) was launched on Thursday by Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.

Concept:

• The agricultural census is the main source of information on a variety of parameters, such as the number and area, operational holdings, their size, class-wise distribution, land use, tenancy and cropping pattern.
• The Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, conducts Agriculture Censuses in India in collaboration with States/UTs as part of programme of World Census of Agriculture.
• In the two Agricultural Censuses, namely, 1950 and 1960, data required for the World Agricultural Census were collected through sample Surveys carried out by the erstwhile Directorate of National Sample Survey (Now called ‘National Sample Survey Office) which gave estimates for the country as a whole and also for States.

Brief history of Agricultural census:

• The launch of first Agriculture Census was in 1970-71.
• The National Commission on Agriculture, in their report submitted in 1976, recommended that Agricultural census be conducted on quinquennial basis. Accordingly, the second Agricultural census was conducted with 1976-77 as the reference year.
• So far, ten Agriculture Censuses with reference years 1970-71, 1976-77, 1980-81, 1985-86, 1990-91, 1995-96, 2000-01, 2005-06, 2010-11 and 2015-16 have been conducted.
• The reference period in Agriculture Census is the agriculture year starting from July to June. From Input Survey 1991-92, the sample size has been raised to 7% villages in each stratum.
• The present census with reference year 2020-21 will be 11th in the series.
• Entire Census operation is conducted in three phases and operational holding is taken as statistical unit at micro level for data collection.
• Based on the agriculture census data collected in three phases, the Department brings out three detailed reports analysing trends on various parameters at All India, States/UTs level, District/Tehsil level reports are prepared by the respective States/UTs.
• A major challenge for the Census will be to estimate the number of farmers in the country correctly as all the policies and financial allocation depend on it.
• Differences in data between previous census and PM Kisan : As per the last Census, the number of farmers was estimated at 14.65 crore based on operational land holdings. The previous Census has put the operational holdings at 10.93 lakh whereas PM Kisan data show there was 23.76 lakh, which excluded ineligible farmers.

New steps in the latest census procedure:

• The government has maintained that the basis of data collection will continue to be on operational holdings and not on ownership holding.
• The government has decided to use it in Census operation, using drone and validation with the digitised land records will help reduce manual discrepancies in data as well as fool proof the statistical methodology.
• The use of digitised land records and the use of mobile apps for data collection will enable the creation of a database of operational holdings in the country
• Minister of agriculture said the agriculture census should be thought of in a broader perspective as it can also contribute to the mapping of crops and released the “Handbook on Operational Guidelines for Census” for the use of States and Union Territories while launching the ‘Data Collection Portal/App’.