The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, launched the country's Eleventh Agricultural Census (2021-22) today. Tomar, speaking on the occasion, stated that this computation will be extremely beneficial in a vast and agricultural country like India.
Tomar stated that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, an emphasis is being placed on increasing farmer income. Aside from that, there is a need to improve their standard of living, organize small farmers in order to empower them, attract them to profitable crops, and ensure the quality of the produce meets global standards.
During the programme, Tomar expressed his greetings for the Agriculture Census and stated that the Agriculture sector is reaping the benefits of Prime Minister Modi's concrete steps and that the country is rapidly moving toward digital agriculture. Now is the time to fully utilize technology in this computation.
He stated that the Agriculture Census should be viewed in a broader context. Agricultural computations can also help with crop mapping, allowing the country to reap the benefits. Tomar has asked the Central Departments, State Governments, and relevant institutions to devote their full attention to this census.
On this occasion, Tomar released the Handbook on Census Operational Guidelines for States/UTs, as well as the Data Collection Portal/App. Shobha Karandlaje and Kailash Choudhary, Union Ministers of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Agriculture Secretary Manoj Ahuja, Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor Sanjeev Kumar, and Senior Officers of the States/UTs attended the programme.
The agriculture Census is conducted every five years, and it is now being conducted after a five-year delay due to the corona pandemic. The agricultural census fieldwork will begin in August 2022. The Agricultural Census is the primary source of information on a wide range of agricultural parameters at the most granular level, including the number and area of operational holdings, their size, class-wise distribution, land use, tenancy, and cropping pattern, among others.
This is the first time that agricultural census data will be collected on smartphones and tablets, ensuring that data is available on time. The majority of states have digitized their land records and surveys, which will speed up the collection of agricultural census data. The use of digitized land records and data collection via mobile apps will allow the creation of a database of operational holdings in the country.
The key features of the Agriculture Census Implementation Procedure, web portal, and mobile app were demonstrated during the technical session. The new initiatives highlighted in the presentation include the use of digital land records such as land title records and survey reports, data collection via smartphone/tablet app/software, complete enumeration of all villages in non-land record states during Phase-I as done in land record states, and real-time monitoring of progress and processing.
