Agricultural Statistics Surveys

Under Agriculture Surveys, Field Operations Division has the overall responsibility of providing technical guidance to the States in developing suitable survey techniques for obtaining timely and reliable estimates of crop yield, bringing out uniformity in definition and concept and providing assistance in training to the State field personnel. The Division also exercises supervision over the primary field work of the State Governments in respect of Area Enumeration, Area Aggregation  and   Crop Cutting    Experiments. The supervision on field work for qualitative improvement in Agricultural Statistics is carried out through well organised sample surveys under Improvement of Crop Statistics (ICS) Scheme. The Scheme aims at locating, through joint efforts of Central  and State agencies, the deficiencies in the State system of Crop Statistics and suggesting remedial measures for effecting lasting  improvements.

The ICS scheme is in operation in 19 Land Record States/UTs and 3 Non-land Record States (For list of 19 States and -UTs Click here). The responsibilities of supervisory staff of the NSSO (FOD) and the State Governments, inter-alia, involve sample check in non-overlapping samples on (i) area enumeration and aggregation in about 10,000 sample villages in each season (ii) about 30,000 Crop Cutting Experiments in a year carried out by the State primary workers. The findings of the sample supervision are brought out in the form of State-wise reports for two major seasons and an All India Status Report titled ’Review of Crop Statistics System in India through Scheme for Improvement of Crop Statistics’. Work related to planning of survey, compilation & analysis of data and publication of the reports is done at Agricultural Statistics (AS) Wing of NSSO (FOD) located at Faridabad ( Haryana ).

Another important activity of the FOD under Agricultural Statistics is the consolidation of results of General Crop Estimation Surveys carried out by State Governments every year for yield estimation. Based on these results, the AS Wing brings out an annual report titled ‘Consolidated Results of Crop Estimation Surveys on Principal Crops’. These reports are primarily for official use but can be made available to public on demand.

In the year 2000, the AS Wing has brought out the Indian Crop Calendar in two phases for various Agriculture activities based on the information supplied by State Agriculture Departments. While in Phase-I, information relating to the periods of Agricultural operations namely sowing, harvesting and marketing in different States from month to month has been compiled, Phase-II consists of similar information at District level in two volumes."Agriculture Statistics Report/Publication".