(Item 9 of the Agenda)
91. Document APCAS/08/11 "The World Programme for the Census of Agriculture (WCA 2010): Opportunities, Plans and Issues" was presented to the Commission by Mr Mukesh Srivastava. The Commission was informed that since the FAO assumed primary responsibility for the World Census of Agriculture (WCA) Programme in 1950, the number of countries participating in the programme had steadily increased, particularly during the last five decades. In the last round, which referred to the period from 1996 to 2005, among the Asia and Pacific countries, 29 had undertaken agricultural censuses and 25 provided their reports to FAO.
92. The Commission noted that the WCA 2010 was advocating an integrated statistical system approach while also providing enough flexibility to countries to create a census and survey plan best suited to their requirements and ensuring that a minimum set of essential data for international comparison would be available.
93. The important new features of this programme were highlighted to the Commission as bases for obtaining feedback from countries about their plans. The new features of the WCA 2010 included: (a) a modular approach which included a core census on a limited range of data items covering all agricultural holdings, followed by detailed inquiries in the form of supplementary modules or follow-up sample surveys based on sampling frames obtained from the core census; (b) possibility to monitor the MDGs specifically those relating to eradication of poverty and hunger, achievement of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women, and environment sustainability; (c) guidance on collection of community-level data as part of the agricultural census. The Commission was informed that Cambodia, India, Indonesia and Republic of Korea were examples of countries in the Region which had accumulated experience in community-level data collection; and (d) option of integrating national agricultural and population censuses for greater synergy in field work, cost-effectiveness, increased scope of data anlysis and complete coverage of agriculture.
94. The Commission noted that while many countries had established a routine for carrying out an agricultural census, some issues, if not adequately addressed at planning stage, would often render the census data incomplete and incomparable at international level. These issues related to the use of cut-offs based on scale of operation in definition of agricultural holdings for the census and ensuring complete coverage of agricultural areas operated by holders living in distant locations.
95. The Commission was informed of the plans of member countries for participation in WCA 2010 and the manner in which they were benefiting from the new FAO guidelines on WCA 2010. The Commission was pleased to note that out of the 24 APCAS member countries, 17 countries (Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, People's Republic of China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam), had already prepared concrete plans for participating in the WCA 2010 Programme. Cambodia, Malaysia and Afghanistan informed their intentions to participate in the current round of WCA. The Commission also learnt that many countries were already planning to integrate their agricultural census with their population census.
