Agricultural Census

Question by: Gajanan Chandrakant Kirtikar, Arvind Ganpat Sawant, Dhanush M Kumar, C.N. Annadurai, Gautham Sigamani Pon

1. the rules for conducting an agriculture census in the country along with the time when an agriculture census was conducted;
2. whether the Government has recently conducted any census to ascertain the number and condition of farmers/cultivators in the country;
3. the challenges faced by the Government while conducting such a census;
4. whether according to the latest Agriculture Census about 45.70 per cent of the Net Area Sown is irrigated and if so, the steps taken by the Government to overcome this problem?

Answer by: Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (Shri Narendra Singh Tomar)

Agriculture Census in India is conducted at an interval of five years to collect information on structure of operational holdings in the country and monitor changes that take place over time. So far, ten Agriculture Censuses have been completed and Agriculture Census 2015-16 is the latest in the series.

• As per the results of latest Agriculture Census 2015-16, the total number of operational holdings has increased from 138.35 million in 2010-11 to 146.45 million in 2015-16 i.e. an increase of 5.86 per cent.
• Some of the challenges faced in the conduct of Agriculture Census include manual data collection, delay in updation of land records etc.
• As per Agriculture Census 2015-16, net irrigated area as percentage of net area sown has gone up from 45.70 in 2010-11 to 48.73 in 2015-16.
• Government of India launched the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) on 1st July, 2015 with the motto of “Har Khet KoPaani” for providing end-to-end solutions in irrigation supply chain viz. water sources, distribution network and farm level applications.
• The components of PMKSY are; Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP), PMKSY – Har Khet Ko Paani, PMKSY - Per Drop More Crop (PMKSY – PDMC) and PMKSY (Watershed).
• The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) is implementing the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of PMKSY-PDMC from 2015-16 in all the States of the country which focuses on enhancing water use efficiency at farm level through Micro Irrigation viz., Drip and Sprinkler irrigation systems.
• Besides promoting Micro Irrigation, this component also supports micro level water storage or water conservation/management activities to supplement source creation for Micro Irrigation.