Centre launches Agricultural Census, data to be collected digitally for first time

New Delhi [India], July 28 (ANI): The Centre on Thursday launched the 11th Agricultural Census (2021-22) in the country.
Launching the Agricultural Census, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said that this computation will bring huge benefits in a vast agricultural country like India. Tomar said emphasis is being given to increasing farmers' income. Besides, there is a need to change their standard of living, organize small farmers in order to empower them, attract them towards remunerative crops and ensure the quality of the produce is at par with global standards.

"Agriculture sector is reaping the fruits of concrete steps taken by Prime Minister Modi, the country is rapidly moving towards digital agriculture. This is the time to make full use of technology in this computation," said the Minister.
Tomar said agricultural computations can also contribute to the mapping of crops so that the country gets its benefits.
He asked the central departments, state governments and concerned institutions to carry out this census with full dedication.
On the occasion, Tomar released the Handbook on Operational Guidelines for Census for the use of States/UTs, and launched the Data Collection Portal/App.
Agriculture Census is conducted every five years, which is being undertaken now after a delay due to the COVID pandemic. The fieldwork for Agricultural Census will start in August 2022.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Agricultural Census is the main source of information on a variety of agricultural parameters at a relatively minute level, such as the number and area of operational holdings, their size, class-wise distribution, land use, tenancy and cropping pattern, etc. This is the first time that data collection for Agricultural Census will be conducted on smartphones and tablets, so that data is available in time.
Most of the States have digitized their land records and surveys, which will further accelerate the collection of agricultural census data. The use of digitized land records and the use of mobile apps for data collection will enable the creation of a database of operational holdings in the country, the Ministry said.
During the technical session, the salient features of the Agriculture Census implementation procedure and web portal and mobile app were demonstrated.
The new initiatives highlighted in the presentation include use of digital land records like land title records and survey reports, collection of data through app/software using smartphone/tablet, complete enumeration of all villages in states with non-land records during Phase-I as done in states having land records, and real-time monitoring of progress and processing, said the Ministry. (ANI)