| Statisticians approach the agricultural census fully armed The Federal State Statistics Service yesterday presented a new system of distance training for personnel, which it intends to use in preparation for the agricultural census. All-Russian count of cows, pigs, other domestic animals, land resources, sales volume of agricultural products, etc. will take place in July next year. To visit more than 50 thousand agricultural organizations and enterprises, over 350 thousand farms, including country houses, and also to describe 23.6 million (!) private farms, according to Rosstat estimates, approximately 300 thousand census takers will be needed. The training of census takers will be a test of professional suitability for the new system developed by the RBC Soft company (it won the tender) and based on the use of modern computer technologies.
The project was implemented with funds from a World Bank loan allocated back in 1999 for the state program for the development of the statistical system in Russia. Eight training centers have been created to train personnel under the new system. Two are in Moscow, the rest are in key regional centers - St. Petersburg, Khabarovsk Territory, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov, Sverdlovsk and Novosibirsk regions.
According to the head of Rosstat, Vladimir Sokolin, the upcoming census (the first since 1920), for which 5.5 billion rubles will be allocated from the federal budget, will make it possible to give an objective assessment of the state of affairs in the countryside. “The country must know what it has, otherwise it is difficult to pursue a competent agricultural policy,” he is sure. Mr. Sokolin considers the fears that villagers will either give incorrect or even hide information to be unfounded. According to him, a pilot agricultural census conducted in August 2004 in four regions showed that such fears were unfounded. Although, he suggested, maybe someone remembers the calculation in the early 60s, after which the Soviet government introduced a tax on each head of livestock. Now, Mr. Sokolin assures, no one is even thinking about anything like this. In order for villagers to open their gates to census takers, it is planned to carry out powerful explanatory work. A company has already been identified (also based on the results of a tender) that will engage in this kind of PR.
However, even after the census, distance learning centers will not be empty. Rosstat has 25 thousand employees, and by law, according to Mr. Sokolin, each of them must improve their qualifications every three years. Last year, 4 thousand statisticians went through the necessary procedure instead of 7 thousand.
However, despite the breakthrough in the last four years due to a loan from the World Bank, the Russian statistical service seriously lags behind similar structures in developed countries in terms of technical equipment. Deputy head of Rosstat Alexander Surinov said that only 80% of Russian statisticians have a computer on their desktop. And in the USA, for example, there are three computers for each employee. However, the re-equipment of Rosstat is not completed. “Of course, the Accounts Chamber will check, but I believe that we are effectively using the money from the World Bank loan,” Mr. Surinov noted. Mikhail VOROBYEV |
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