In order to secure updated and reliable data that serve decision-makers and policy-makers related to the agricultural sector, the Qatari Ministry of Municipality and Environment continues to collect data for the country's 2021 agricultural census project, in cooperation with the Institute for Social and Economic Survey Research at Qatar University.
The census - which began its first phase on January 27 last - aims to collect information on the structure of the agricultural sector in all regions of the country, to provide data on the structure and structure of agriculture for use as features of current agricultural statistics and to document them, as well as provide frameworks for surveys for samples of agricultural surveys and to identify Changes in the agricultural sector, setting development plans and formulating agricultural policies.
The target parties include all registered private and governmental farms and estates, including mobile ones, outside planning farms, complexes and land homes, in addition to all governmental and private agricultural processing establishments.
The methodology used targets the entire agricultural season in the country (winter and summer) from January to June 2021, followed by surveys of sample costs and productivity that will continue until May 2022.
The comprehensive agricultural census is considered the most important statistical process that countries undertake to collect data and information on the components of the agricultural sector, both plant and animal, according to the instructions of international agricultural organizations that call for a comprehensive agricultural census every 5 or 10 years.
The global program of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for the agricultural census provides support and guidance to countries to implement national agricultural censuses. Data collection also provides an overview of the state of the agricultural sector in the concerned country, including the size of holdings, land tenure, land use, harvested area, irrigation, Livestock, employment, and other agricultural inputs, especially since this information is vital in agricultural planning, policy development, research and development, and monitoring the impact of agriculture on the environment.
The agricultural census is the statistical operations undertaken by countries in order to raise self-sufficiency and restructure the agricultural sector (Al-Jazeera)
Multiple advantages
Dr. Al-Mugheerah Fadlallah (Principal Investigator of the Agricultural Census Project at the Institute for Social and Economic Survey Research at Qatar University) listed the advantages of the agricultural census as it provides data on the agricultural structure and a true picture of the size of the agricultural sector, identifying the changes that have occurred in this sector, setting development plans and drawing up Policies and providing survey frameworks for agricultural survey samples.
Fadlallah added, in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, that the results of the census help to draw strategic plans for the agricultural sector, because it provides an accurate picture of the reality of the sector, which facilitates the process of supporting the sector and producers and providing production inputs that feed into Qatar's food security strategy.
He explained that the agricultural census helps to estimate the expected growth of livestock and its contribution to food security, in addition to providing and documenting large data on natural resources and the potential of the agricultural and animal sectors, as well as determining the full cost of the agricultural product to measure its competition.
Al-Yafei: The agricultural census aims to help formulate the policies and plans required for the advancement of the sector better and to achieve self-sufficiency and food security in the State of Qatar
Fadlallah called for the necessity of the existence of integrated systems in Qatar and all the countries of the Middle East, which means that there should be updated information with every change that occurs to the farmer, whether the size of his annual cultivation, the camels that were purchased or the crops taken by the agriculture, stressing that these systems will contribute Significantly, in achieving a strong information infrastructure, and countries do not need to conduct new agricultural surveys.
As for Adel Al-Yafei (head of the technical committee for the census at the Ministry of Municipality), he considered that the agricultural census they are currently carrying out aims to assist in setting up the policies and plans required for the advancement of the agricultural sector in a better way, and reaching an economic stage of self-sufficiency and food security in the state.
He added that the last agricultural census was conducted in 2000, explaining that the agricultural census in general is the statistical operations that countries undertake in order to raise self-sufficiency and raise the structure and development of the agricultural sector in general, noting that all countries carry out the agricultural census periodically, according to circumstances. These states and the need for agricultural census operations.