The Programme for the World Census of Agriculture 2000 assists countries by providing definitions, concepts, standards and guidelines for censuses in the decade 1996 - 2005. This is to generate a database of internationally comparable figures, such as number of farms by size, number of livestock by type and age/sex classification, and land use by crops and agricultural inputs.

The census programme can be considered as the means to achieve harmonization of national practices: FAO encourages countries to follow the Programme as closely as national conditions and practices allow.

The programme has been prepared by the FAO statistics division in collaboration with many agricultural statisticians all over the world and has been discussed and elaborated in various international meetings. FAO is grateful to all who have provided inputs and hopes member countries will find it facilitates their conduct of national censuses of agriculture so as to advance their quantified knowledge of the agricultural sector.

The 2000 programme covered the censuses carried out during the decade (1996 - 2005). Some 122 countries are reported to have carried out an agriculture census during the decade, and 114 countries made available their census reports to FAO. These reports served as the basis for preparation of internationally comparable data and metadata on the agricultural censuses reported in the publication.