April 21, Kathmandu- The Central Statistics Office has started the National Seventh Agriculture Census 2078. The department informed that the agricultural census started at a press conference in Kathmandu on Thursday. According to the department, the data collection work for the agricultural census started on April 19 will be completed by the end of Jestha.

Dr. Mahesh Kumar Subedi, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Livestock Census, said that the agricultural census was conducted with the objective of providing data on agriculture required by all three levels of government. He said that preparations for the agricultural census have been started for the last two years and the agricultural census has been started on April 20.

Director Subedi informed that the census will start from Friday only in the case of Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur. He said that the preliminary results of the agricultural census would be available by the end of Mangsir and all the collected forms would be brought to the center by the end of Ashadha. He said that Rs 50 million has been spent on the agricultural census so far and it is estimated that Rs 720 million will be spent this year as it is the main time of the census. Similarly, it is estimated that a total of Rs. 860 million will be spent for data entry and publication next year.

From the year 2018 BS, agriculture is calculated every 10 years. As only district-level agricultural data has been published in the past agricultural censuses, this time agricultural data of all 753 village municipalities will be collected.

The aim is to collect details related to agriculture and animal husbandry through the Farmer Family Questionnaire by selecting about 350,000 farming families using the scientific method. For the agricultural census, 5,150 enumerators, 1,350 supervisors and 77,200 staff including 77 agricultural census officers will be directly involved in the field work.