The Union Territory has joined the nation-wide effort to undertake and compile the 10th Agriculture Census 2015-16, which will be the benchmark to guide policy intervention across States and Union Territories in the country.
The Directorate of Economics and Statistics has been conducting the Agriculture Census and Input Survey since 1970-71 at five year (quinquennial) intervals.
The ongoing Agriculture Census is the tenth and the Input Survey is ninth in the series with 2015-16 and 2016-17 agriculture year as reference year respectively.
Three stages
“The Census conducted once every five year is rolled out in three stages…. the first involving data collection on operational holdings from revenue records, the next targeted at mapping agricultural profiles of the holdings through field visits and the last focused on surveying inputs that farmers have used,” said R. Ramakrishnan, Director, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Puducherry.
While most States and UTs have a system of land records, there are some states such as West Bengal and Kerala which do not maintain such a system, he pointed out.
The basic unit of enumeration in the Agriculture Census is the ‘operational holding’ as distinct from the ownership holding, as it is the operational holding which is the fundamental unit of decision making in the programme of agricultural development.
The Agriculture Census forms part of a broader system of collection of agricultural statistics.
It is a large-scale statistical operation for the collection and derivation of quantitative information about the structure of agriculture in the country.
An agricultural operational holding is the ultimate unit for taking decision for development of agriculture at micro level.
It is for this reason that an operational holding is taken as the statistical unit of data collection for describing the structure of agriculture.
Through Agriculture Census it is endeavoured to collect basic data on important aspects of agricultural economy for all the operational holdings in the country, aggregation of data is done at various levels of administrative units.
Interestingly, the Union Territory of Puducherry had participated in the 1970-71 Census sponsored by the Union Government for the first time. Data required for the first census were collected by the method of re-tabulation on the lines suggested by I.J. Naidu, the first Agriculture Census Commissioner, Government of India who had made on-the-spot study of the situation in 1971 in the UT. Accordingly, the list of operational holders furnishing the particulars of survey numbers operated with particulars of tenancy were compiled by the Karnams of the Revenue Department and the re-tabulation of the data was done by the field supervisors of the Directorate of Economics and Statistics with the help of the list of holders furnished by the Karnams and Khasara Registers prepared by the Field Supervisors of Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Puducherry. The 10th Agriculture Census 2015-16 has been undertaken in the Union Territory on complete enumeration basis in collaboration with the Revenue Department through re-tabulation of data available in the village land records of the Revenue Department and Khasara Registers maintained by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics at the village level during 2016-17.
The Agriculture Census is conducted in three phases. In Phase I, all the operational holdings in the U.T. of Puducherry are enumerated. In phase II, the detailed information on aspects such as tenancy, land use, irrigation, cropping pattern of all the operational holdings is collected.
In phase III of the Agriculture Census which is known as Input Survey, the data is collected on use of different inputs used for agriculture production.
In respect of Agriculture Census 2015-16 L-1, L-2 and L-3 schedules of the village of all four regions have fully been collected by the officials of Directorate of Economics and Statistics from the Revenue officials after duly filled in and scrutinised by the appropriate officers of the department concerned.
The Input Survey which follows the main census accumulates information on application of various inputs such as chemical fertilisers, farm-yard manures, pesticides, livestock, agricultural machinery and implements, institutional credit, seed and application of Integrated Pest Management.
Information on soil health has been collected since the Input Survey 2011-12.
The main objective of the survey is to generate data on consumption of various agriculture inputs, according to major size-groups of operational holdings, viz., marginal (below 1 ha.), small (1-1.99 ha.), semi-medium (2-3.99 ha.), medium (4-9.99 ha.) and large (10 ha. and above) for getting an insight into the consumption pattern of inputs by various categories of farmers.
This information is vital for planning production, imports and distribution of fertilizers.
Inputs covered
The inputs covered in the survey include chemical fertilizers, HYV seeds, pesticides, farmyard manures/compost, bio-fertilisers, agricultural implements and machinery, livestock and agricultural credit.
The survey covers the whole country. All type of agricultural holdings, except institutional holdings and holdings operated by persons not residing in the village, are enumerated.
Thus, only individual and joint holdings operated by resident cultivators constitute the population for this survey. It is stated that Input Survey 2016-17 as a follow-up to the Survey of Agriculture Census 2015-16 was also undertaken in the U.T. of Puducherry as per the guidelines given by the Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture and Co-operation.
According to data for 2015-16 (Season and Crop Report), the important field crops in the Union Territory were paddy (65829 metric tonne/16263 ha.), pulses (797 mt./1698 ha.), coconut (1995 ha.), groundnut (893 mt./359 ha.) and sugarcane (213968 mt./1995 ha.).
In the Union Territory, the data of the Phase-I of the 10th Agriculture Census has been scrutinised and analysed. The provisional Table-1 has already been finalised after approval of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India.
“The Phase II and Phase III (Input Survey) field works have been completed in the Union Territory of Puducherry,” an official said.
The effort will involve all the VAOs for Phase I and 20 enumerators for Phase II and Phase III.
Starting with the second Agriculture Census 1976-77, the Input Survey has been conducted as a follow-up survey of the quinquennial Agriculture Census, which is a large scale Government sponsored statistical operation for collection and derivation of quantitative information about structure of Indian agriculture using the concept of ‘Operational Holding’ as the statistical unit for data collection.
So far, eight Input Surveys with reference years 1976-77, 1981-82, 1986-87, 1991-92, 1996-97, 2001-02, 2006-07 and 2011-12 have been completed, and the latest Input Survey is the ninth in the series with reference year 2016-17 (as against the Agriculture Census year 2015-16).
The Directorate of Economics and Statistics conducted the ninth Agriculture Census 2010-11 in the Union Territory and the Input Survey 2011-12, as a follow-up Survey of Agriculture Census 2010-11 was also undertaken here as per the guidelines given by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Department of Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation.
The main objective of these input surveys is to generate data on consumption of various agricultural inputs, according to major size-groups of operational holdings. For policy planners, this produces invaluable data sets for getting an insight into the consumption pattern of inputs by various categories of farmers.
This information is vital for planning production, imports and distribution of fertilizers.
The inputs covered in the survey include chemical fertilizers, HYV seeds, pesticides, farmyard manures/compost, bio-fertilisers, agricultural implements and machinery, livestock and agricultural credit. Besides, the information of certified/notified seeds, pest control measurements adopted by cultivators, educational qualification, age and size of households of operational holders are captured through Input Survey.
All types of agriculture holdings, except institutional holdings and holdings operated by persons not residing in the village, are enumerated. Thus, only individual and joint holdings operated by resident cultivators were covered for this Survey.
The target group for the survey is the operational holder (farmer).
Even though an insignificant amount of agriculture takes place in urban areas also, the survey is primarily intended to cover the rural area where agriculture is practiced as a profession. In the UT, the survey encompasses 129 revenue villages spread across Puducherry, Karaikal (TN), Mahe (Kerala) and Yanam (AP).
According to the results of the last Input Survey, it is estimated that there were 32,856 land holdings in the U.T. of Puducherry in 2011-12 with an operated area of 20,505 hectares.
