Translated material
The hat is on fire outside
The All-Russian agricultural census revealed an excess of land and a shortage of ballpoint pens
On July 25, the All-Russian Agricultural Census (ARC) ended - the first since 1920. True, so far only for owners of dachas, personal farmsteads and farms. But the scribes still have to work hard. By August 1, they must complete a control walk-through of at least 5% of objects and submit all documentation to instructors.The latter, if necessary, can selectively make a second round to check the integrity of the work of their colleagues. Only after this will the systematization and processing of about 6 million census forms begin. For this purpose, the participants in the process are promised to be transferred to a round-the-clock work schedule in four shifts.
The final results of VSKhP-2006 will be ready only in two years. And today, as Rosstat press secretary Grigory Simanovich notes, “the optimistic forecast was confirmed - people willingly and kindly answered the census takers’ questions.”
However, the first conclusions are made by the scribes themselves. On the one hand, a huge amount of abandoned and unused land has been identified from among those that are registered with citizens. The situation with the turnover of lands owned by agricultural enterprises requires a separate study. On the other hand, some owners have significantly more land available than is officially recorded. But it is problematic to legally cultivate the “extra” land. “There were cases,” one of the census takers working in the Kaluga region told Vremya Novostey on condition of anonymity, “when the chairmen of gardening cooperatives forbade summer residents to name the exact number of acres being cultivated. Only what is written in the documents.” She also complains about local census organizers who skimped on office supplies. “They were supposed to give me 25 pens, but they only gave me ten. And they had to be returned after use,” the census taker is indignant.
The weather also made adjustments to the census takers’ work schedule. In remote areas of Tuva, for example, heavy rains washed away roads and rivers overflowed their banks. The Yenisei flooded many farmsteads that had already been rewritten. Many vegetable gardens were simply washed away, and buildings were destroyed. In this regard, it was necessary to make amendments to the census forms.
It should be noted that such large-scale censuses in all agricultural countries require significant financial, material, technical and labor costs. Indeed, in accordance with the requirements of the Food Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN FAO), which deals with issues of food resources and agricultural development in various countries, census work must cover producers who produce at least 95-98% of the country’s agricultural products. This condition does not make it possible to reduce the expenditure of budget funds.
Nevertheless, over the years of censuses, financial saving techniques have been developed throughout the world. In Canada, for example, they prefer to combine the agricultural census and the population census. Thus, according to expert estimates, conducting two different censuses separately costs three times more than a combined one. At the same time, small agricultural producers are often excluded from the list of research objects. For this purpose, so-called “threshold values” are established, which can be expressed both in monetary units and in physical indicators. There is a postal method of surveying farmers, which is successfully used by the USA and Great Britain. Packaging in envelopes is carried out directly when replicating the questionnaires. If the respondent does not respond, up to three additional requests are sent to him at monthly intervals or additional telephone surveys are conducted.
“The agricultural census in Russia was carried out at a good level,” Rosstat experts say. “In accordance with international standards, but with certain adjustments for local specifics.” I would like to hope that “local specifics” will not prevent us from learning reliable census results. The first results are expected to be published next Friday.