Page 85 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 1

STS407 Jairo C. et al.
Table 1. Number of countries and territories that participated in the 2010 census rounds
Population and Agricultural census
Region
housing census
Africa 49 22
North and Central America 36 17

South America 14 11
Asia 44 31
Europe 47 35
Oceania 24 12
TOTAL 214 128
Source: FAO and UNSD records, 2019.
Note: The 2010 round of PHCs covered the period 2005-2014 while that of ACs covered
the period 2006-2015.

Countries that do not conduct regular ACs and do not have access to other
reliable sources to bring up to date the sampling frame for their agricultural
surveys, often conduct these surveys using outdated frames due to the long-
time gap with the latest AC. This could have an important impact on the
reliability of currents statistics emanating from these surveys. In such
circumstances, when a new AC is conducted, serious discrepancies could be
observed between two data sets: the series released before the AC and that
based on the new AC.

3. Integrating Agricultural Censuses and Surveys
A good coordination between the AC and sample surveys means that
statistics are based on standard concepts, definitions and classifications,
preventing duplication of statistical activities, avoiding the release of
conflicting statistics, excessive response burden and waste of resources, and,
ultimately, contributes to better understanding and use of statistics by users.
In this way, the AC is not overburdened with a wide range of items that may
affect the quality of the collected data. Instead, the census can focus on a
coherent and manageable set of items, assuming that other (non-structural)
data needed more frequently are available in a comparable form through
regular agricultural sample surveys and other sources.
A schematic representation of the system of integrated ACs and surveys is
shown in Figure 1. It illustrates the links among agricultural surveys and the
AC, and between the latter and the PHCs (for the household sector).

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