Agriculture Census
Topic: Geographical Data: Sources, Compilation and Processing · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Agriculture Census is a count of operational holdings in India. An operational holding is land that is farmed as one unit, whether the farmer owns it or not. The census records how many holdings there are, their size, their tenure (owned or rented) and how the land is used. It has been held every five years since 1970-71. Planners use it to track things like the shrinking size of farms.
Example
The 11th Agriculture Census (2021-22) was the first to use smartphones and digitised land records to collect data (verify current).
Don't confuse with
- Livestock Census: it counts animals and poultry, not landholdings, and has been held since 1919-20.