Seventh agricultural census from tomorrow

The agricultural census will be started from Tuesday at the homes of 350,000 farmers in 753 municipalities of 77 districts. Hemraj Regmi, Deputy Director General of the Central Statistics Office, informed that 5,200 enumerators and 1,300 supervisors have reached their workplaces for the agricultural census.

 Earlier, the agricultural census was conducted in 2011 AD. The Central Statistics Office has been starting agricultural census every 10 years. This is the seventh agricultural census. The first agricultural census in Nepal was conducted in 1961 AD.

The agricultural census, which will be conducted from 19 April to 2nd May, will collect details of agricultural activities through personal interviews with a total of 350,000 farming families selected by scientific method at the local level. There is a time limit of 45 days for enumerators and supervisors to collect data.

 In the seventh agricultural census, the enumerator will collect the data of the endangered species of livestock, all the crops, fish, livestock and the condition of the cultivable land. The Central Statistics Office had estimated a total of 24 questions to be asked to farmer in the agricultural census which is taking place six months after the start of the national census.

 According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Nepal currently has about 66 percent farmers and the contribution of agriculture and livestock sector to the GDP is 27 percent. Even though Nepal is an agricultural country, according to the latest statistics of the customs department, up to mid-March of the current fiscal year, about one third of the total imports are from direct agricultural production.

 In this year's agricultural census, data on family, commercial and institutional barren lands will be collected. According to the previous agricultural census, one million hectares of land is barren. According to experts, the statistics of barren land in Nepal is becoming wider.

 The census will provide statistics on the number of farmers, livestock census, agricultural credit, agricultural labor, women's participation in agriculture, irrigation, number of farmers receiving subsidy, use of agricultural implements, mechanization in agriculture, agricultural insurance, use of chemical fertilizers, improved seed sowing etc.

 Rajan Silwal, director of the department, said that the agricultural census can be expected to help in planning and policy making, monitoring and evaluation, policy and manufacturers.

 Although the state has paid attention to agricultural production, the return has not been as expected. Dependence on agriculture is increasing due to foreign employment of young people who are engaged in agriculture, failure to construct irrigation projects of national pride on time, conversion of arable land into ditches, failure of the state to provide chemical fertilizers and improved seeds in a timely manner.

 In the budget presented for the Fiscal Year 2021/22, the use of barren land and allotment of land to landless squatters are secondary even though the plan has been put forward for sustainable development of agriculture within the next five years through modernization, commercialization and mechanization of agriculture. The number of landless and small farmers in Nepal is estimated at 4 million.

 The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has not been able to provide the required land to those who want to engage in contract farming. Imports in agriculture are on the rise due to inability to stop the fragmentation of arable land, inability to utilize barren and barren lands.

 The state has not been able to provide land to agricultural laborers, landless and marginalized, medium and farmers engaged in agriculture. According to the Sixth Agricultural Census 2012, 116,000 people could not engage in agriculture due to lack of land. According to the census, 71 percent of the people are full-time farmers, 83 percent of the people are self-reliant in agriculture and 42 percent of the farmers have not been able to get agricultural loans. We have to wait for about 50 days for the results of the next agricultural census to come.