LAHORE, Jan 29: The federal government on Thursday launched the fifth agriculture machinery census throughout the country, according to Agriculture Census Commissioner Muhammad Younis.

Talking to newsmen at a press conference, he said the census had become a decennial exercise and would provide the country with the latest figures on agriculture machinery. The last exercise was held in 1994.

The commissioner said a strong team of 8,380 members had been trained for the job and it was already working on ground. Planning for the census started in Jan 2003.

These teams were combing the country's hot areas and should be able to finish their job by the end of March. Work in cold areas would start in March and finished by June this year, he said.

He added that once the required data trickled in by June, its processing would take another year. He said the questionnaire prepared by the commissionerate included almost all kinds of implements used in the agriculture process starting from tractors to tubewell to laser leveller.

About the credibility of data prepared by it with the help of provincial governments, the commissioner said it had never been contradicted during the four decades. The use of land and cropping intensity had undergone tremendous change since the inception of Pakistan. He said both these things were made possible only because of the agriculture machinery.

For this reason alone credible data were required by the researchers and planners in the country. The census pro forma prepared by the commissionerate was so elaborate that nothing would be missed. The results, he said, would be credible because of quality training of staff and the nature of the pro forma.

During the last census, it included some information like cost of ploughing field that a farmer charged from others. Now it had been excluded to restore farmers' faith in the document, he added.