Agriculture Census in India coordinated by the Agriculture census Division of the Ministry of Agriculture requires a high degree of coordination, technical expertise, statistical control and supervision over the States.
The Agriculture Census is restricted to information on number of operational holdings and the area operated thereof with attendant details on tenure, land use, irrigation, cropping pattern and scatterdness of holdings. The census does not go into yield and production aspects which are of immediate interest for Agriculture policies and are thus covered under current Agriculture Statistics.
The Agriculture Census in India is carried out at an interval of five years during each plan period although World Census of Agriculture (WCA) of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) are in favour of conducting Agriculture Census once in ten years.
Operational Holdings
The basic unit of collecting data in Agriculture Census is the ‘Agriculture Operational Holding’ as distinct from ‘Ownership Holding’. This is so as the operational holding is the fundamental unit of decision making in agricultural planning. The operational holdings corresponds to who actually cultivates the land rather than ownership.
The concept of agricultural operational holdings does not include those holdings which are not operating any agricultural land and are engaged exclusively in livestock, poultry and fishing etc.
Findings of Agriculture Census 2015-16
#1. Total number of operational holdings were estimated as 138.35 million.
#2. The total operated area was 159.59 million hectare.
#3. The average size of the holding has been estimated as 1.15 hectare. The average size of holdings has shown a steady declining trend over various Agriculture Censuses since, 1970-71.
#4. The Size Group wise percentage of number and area of operational holdings are given in the following table.
| Sl.No | Size-Group | Percentage of number of operational holdings to total | Percentage of area operated to total |
| 1 | Marginal (below 1.00 ha.) | 67.10 | 22.50 |
| 2 | Small (1.00 – 2.00 ha.) | 17.91 | 22.08 |
| 3 | Semi-medium (2.00 – 4.00 ha.) | 10.04 | 23.63 |
| 4 | Medium (4.00 – 10.00 ha.) | 4.25 | 21.20 |
| 5 | Large (10.00 ha. & above) | 0.70 | 10.59 |
#5. The number of small and marginal agricultural land holdings in the country (known as operational holdings) has registered a marginal increase in 2015-16 compared to 2010-11, according to the the tenth agricultural census. This means that there are more people who now own smaller parcels of agricultural land.
#6. The percentage of land holders who are women has increased from 12.79% in 2010-11 to 13.87% in 2015-16, with a corresponding increase of 1.2 percentage points in the operated area. This shows that more and more females are participating in the management and operation of agricultural lands.
#7. Small and marginal holdings (Below two hectares) constituted 86.21% of the total land holdings, an increase of 1.2 percentage points compared to 2010-11. Large land holdings account for only 9% of the total operational area.
Questions
1. World Census of Agriculture is released by ?
2. Agricultural operational holdings includes agricultural land that are engaged exclusively in livestock, poultry and fishing etc., (True or False)
