RAWALPINDI: Agriculture census will start in the country, including in Rawalpindi district after 14 years from August to October.

The district administration has made all necessary arrangements in this regard.

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has asked the district administration to make preparation for the agriculture census in August for which training of staff will start from next month.

Deputy Commissioner Dr Hassan Waqar Cheema asked the land revenue department to finalise the list of staff that would participate in this census.

A senior district administration official told Dawn that the agriculture census would be launched across the country after 14 years. He said 11,054 mouzas had been selected for enumeration across the country out of which 8,997 were in the rural areas and 2,057 in urban areas.

He said six agriculture censuses had been conducted in the country from 1960 to 2010 (1960, 1972, 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010).

“There have been five agricultural machinery censuses - the first one held in 1968 and the last in 2004. Similarly, four livestock censuses had been carried out - the first in 1976 and the last in 2006,” he said.

The official said data of 40 indicators would be taken in the agricultural census, adding that“as many as 148 rural mouzas and 25 urban blocks of Rawalpindi and Murree districts had been selected. He said 124 people would participate in the census out of whom 101 would be enumerators and 23 supervisors, adding that they would be provided 132 tablets to conduct the census across the district.

The district administration official said the government would provide Rs6,000 to each enumerator and supervisor for the training session. However, he said Rs54,000 would be paid to the supervisor for census duty and Rs22,000 to each numerator.

Deputy Commissioner Dr Hassan Waqar Cheema said the agriculture census would be held from August to October this year, adding that all resources would be utilised to make the agriculture census a success.

He said the agriculture census in Pakistan was vital for policymakers, offering crucial data insights that were essential for informed policy decisions and targeted investments.

It may be mentioned here that Agriculture Census Organisation (ACO) was established in 1958 as an attached department of the then Ministry of Agriculture under the legal cover of Agriculture Census Act 1958.

Immediately after its inception, ACO conducted Agriculture Census of 1960 to fulfill national and international requirements of data on agriculture. Subsequently, ACO conducted Livestock Census in 1976 to provide data on livestock and related parameters as the last assignment carried out under the Ministry of Agriculture.

This organisation was merged with the newly-established Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Dec 23, 2011 as its Agriculture Census Wing (ACW).

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2024