The census is likely to be completed by January 2023
ANN| New Delhi, 31st Oct 2022
The 11th Agriculture Census, delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is expected to start by mid-November in Kerala. The census is likely to be completed by January 2023. It will cover all the wards. The census is conducted every 5 years. The 10th Agriculture Census was conducted in the State in 2015-16 and it covered only selected wards.
The Agriculture Census Division of the Economics and Statistics Department has been tasked with conducting the exercise. The State-level panel is chaired by the Additional Chief Secretary, Planning and Economic Affairs who will be the State Agriculture Census Commissioner. This panel has the Director, Economics and Statistics Department, as its convener. At the district-level, the District Collector will act as the District Agriculture Census Officer.
The data will be gathered through field visits and enumerators will be using a mobile app to upload the data collected by them via smart phones, an official of the Economics and Statistics Department said.
The 2015-16 census had reported an increase of 11.02% in the total number of operational holdings in the State. The number of holdings went up from 68.31 lakh in 2010-11 to 75.83 lakh in 2015-16. But it noted a decrease in the area from 15.11 lakh hectares to 13.95 lakhs hectare (7.67%). The average size of operational holdings declined to 0.18 hectare in 2015-16 compared to 0.22 hectare in 2010-11. The 2015-16 census had also reported that the share of female operational holders had gone up from 19.61% in 2010-11 to 22.98%. Only 27% of the net area sown was found to be irrigated.
The ‘operational holding’ will be treated as the statistical unit at micro-level for data collection as it is considered the basic unit where agriculture-related decisions are taken.
An ‘operational holding’ is defined as ”all land used wholly or partly for agricultural production and is operated as one technical unit by one person alone or with others without regard to the title, legal form, size or location.”
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