Relevance: GS-3: Major crops-cropping patterns in various parts of the country, - different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints; e-technology in the aid of farmers

Key Phrases: Operational Landholding, Ownership holding, PM Kisan Scheme, Agriculture Census in India

Context

• Recently the Union Minister of Agriculture launched the nationwide Eleventh Agricultural Census (2021-22) in India. In this context, the issue of the agriculture census becomes significant.

Background

• Post-independence, the Agriculture Census started in 1970-71 in India. Prior to it, sample surveys were done to collect the data. This census is conducted once every 5 years. The tenth round in the series was done in 2015-16 but data collection for the eleventh round could not be started in time following the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.

Census Mechanism

• Agricultural Census in India is organized by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in collaboration with the States and Union Territories as part of a programme of World Census of Agriculture.

Importance of the census

• The agricultural census is the main source of information on a variety of parameters, such as the number and area, operational holdings, their size, class-wise distribution, land use, tenancy and cropping pattern.
• A database of operational holdings is created through the data collected from digitized land records and the use of mobile apps. It will aid the government’s effort of increasing farmers’ income.
• It will help India move towards digital agriculture.
• It has potential to enhance standard of living, organize & empower small farmers, attract them towards remunerative crops and ensure the quality of the produce at par with global standards.
• It can contribute to the mapping of crops as well.

Basis of data collection

• The statistical unit for data collection in this Census will continue to be operational holdings and not ownership holding.
• Operation holding is all land which is used wholly or partly for agricultural production and is operated as one technical unit by one person alone or with others without regard to title, legal form, size or location.
• A technical unit is under the same management and has the same means of production such as labour force, machinery and animals etc.
• Agricultural production includes growing different crops, fruits, seeds, tree nurseries (except those of forest trees), vegetables and flowers, plantation crops, fodder and grass etc.

Definition differs from FAO

• The concept of agricultural operational holdings adopted in India differs to some extent from that of FAO, as it does not include those holdings which are not operating any agricultural land and are engaged exclusively in livestock, poultry and fishing etc.

Need of data by operation holding

• Information by ownership holding is useful to have an idea of the distribution of wealth but information by operational holdings is more important for implementation of the Agricultural Development Programmes as it is the operational holder who makes the decisions.

Use of Technology

• As the technology infusion in crop insurance has yielded better results, the government is planning, for the first time, to use technology such as smartphones and tablets in the Census operation too.
• It is also taking into account digitized land records to ensure better accuracy in data.
• Using drones and validation with the digitized land records will help reduce manual discrepancies in data as well as full proof the statistical methodology.
• Use of technology in computation will make the post census analysis quick and efficient.

Statistics from last agriculture census

• The number of farmers was estimated at 14.65 crores based on operational land holdings.
• The contribution of agriculture is around 16% of the GDP of the country.
• The percentage of female operational holdings has increased showing the phenomenon of “feminization of agriculture”.
• The average size of operational holdings has decreased from 2.28 hectares in 1970-71 to 1.84 hectares in 1980-81, to 1.41 hectares in 1995-96 and to 1.08 hectares in 2015-16.
• There is no conclusive evidence to suggest that fragmentation of land holdings has resulted in an adverse impact on agricultural production/yield.

Major challenges involved

• The correct estimation of the number of farmers still is a challenge. This is significant as all policies of the government and its financial allocation depend on the strength of the farmers' population.
• In several States, estimation was found to be far below the actual number as highlighted by the PM-Kisan scheme. For instance, 10.93 lakh operational holdings were put by the Census against 23.76 lakh from PM Kisan data.
• Manual data collection remains the challenge considering the huge population and geographical expansion of India.
• Delay in updation of land records results in use of old records hampering the main objective of conducting census to sense the ground realities.

Way Forward

• Due to changes taking place in Indian Agriculture at a very fast pace, the period of conducting census needs to be reduced to align our policy making with the prevailing ground realities. Fast extraction of relevant data from the census would be the next big task post the census exercise. India needs to explore other technological advancements such as machine learning, and artificial intelligence tools functional over big data to make the census exercise seamless and effective.

Sources: The Hindu BL    Financial Express  

Mains Question:

Q. Conducting Agriculture Census is a very tedious exercise due to the huge population and geographical expansion of India. Discuss how technological innovations can help in this regard. [250 Words].