The field-level data collection for the country’s 6th Agriculture Census began in the country today and it would continue till June 20.

During the Agriculture Census-2019 bearing the theme “Krishi Shumari Shofol Kori, Somriddho Bangladesh Gori”, the enumerators will collect data on food grains, fisheries and livestock, size of the agriculture households, land use, size of the cultivated land, number of cattle and poultry, agricultural machineries, food security, fisheries and forests in the urban and rural areas across the country.

Planning Minister MA Mannan formally inaugurated the Agriculture Census today through releasing balloons and pigeons at the BBS building in Dhaka this afternoon.

Marking the inauguration of the operations of the field-level data collection of Agriculture Census, a rally was also held along the road of the BBS building in the city’s Agargaon area.

Planning Minister MA Mannan attended the rally as the chief guest while Statistics and Informatics Division Secretary Saurendra Nath Chakrabhartty, BBS Director General Krishna Gain and Project Director of Agriculture Census project Md Zafar Ahmed Khan were also present there.

Speaking on the occasion, the Planning Minister said since the human being regularly go through various health diagnoses to know about their health condition, the same way various types of census including Agriculture Census are being carried out in the country to know about the actual scenario of the country’s economy.

He informed that he would start the enumeration process of the Agriculture Census with counting the country’s President Abdul Hamid and his family going to Bangabhaban this evening.

The minister said through this census, data will be collected on not only rice and jute rather on duck, chicken, cattle, goat so on and so forth.

Answering to a query, Mannan said the initial findings of the Census would be revealed within three months of its completion while the final findings within six months.

The programme was informed that the BBS has prepared the account of six major crops (Aush, Aman, Boro, wheat, potato and jute) alongside the accounts of 120 minor crops. Apart from collecting the data on temporary crops, the enumerators this time would collect data on permanent crops, medicinal and fruit bearing trees.

To make the Agriculture Census 2019 a success, an enumeration area has been formed estimating 240 households on average in rural areas, 300 households in pourashava areas and 350 households in city corporation areas.

Some 1,44,211 enumerators and 23,165 supervisors have been appointed to conduct this census. Besides, for successfully conducting this census, the 64 districts have been divided into 90 census districts where one BBS official has been given charge of each census district.

Besides, the eight administrative divisions have been split into 10 census divisions where one high BBS official would work as divisional census coordination officer.

The final data of this census would be helpful for implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Vision 2021, Sustainable Development Goals, the National Strategy for Development of Statistics and the Five Year Plan.

According to the BBS, the integrated contribution of the country’s agriculture sector to GDP is 13.31 per cent while 40 per cent of the country’s overall workforce is engaged in the agriculture sector.

Meanwhile, the BBS has already held a three-day special training programme for the census coordinators at division and district levels.

According to the BBS, the first zonal operations for the census took place from December 1 to 20 last year while the second zonal operations took place from February 9 to 20 this year.

Earlier, such agriculture census was carried out in the country in 1960, 1977, 1983-84, 1996 and 2008.