Centre needs to revamp farm statistics gathering process

NEW DELHI: In a resounding critique of the farm ministry’s crop production estimation methods, an expert panel headed by Prof A Vaidyanathan has said that the Centre needs to urgently revamp its farm statistics gathering process.

Recommending the setting up a National Crop Statistics Centre (NCSC) to be run jointly by the departments of space and agriculture, the panel pointed to glaring area and yield deficiencies in estimation methods in its report submitted to agriculture secretary P K Basu on Friday.

The immediate focus, the panel said, should be on putting in place an institutional arrangement that would provide reliable and timely data needed for monitoring agricultural trends and for policy making at the state and national levels.

The NCSC’s primary responsibility will be to provide reliable and timely estimates, at state and national levels, of area under major crops through complete enumeration of plots in selected sample villages and of crop yields based on properly conducted crop cutting experiments.

The panel has recommended expansion of the present remote sensing programme.

The aim is to provide reliable and validated in-season forecasts and end-season estimates of area for a wider range of crops at state and national levels, as well as comprehensive and detailed plot level data of land use and crops at village level.

The remote sensing unit, it is suggested, should be an integral part of the NCSC and work under the guidance of its governing council.

It should provide independent estimates of land use and crop area in the villages selected for NCSC’s field survey for a rigorous comparison of RS estimates with estimates based on plot wise data collected in these villages
Significantly, the huge deficiencies in crop output estimation have cost both country and consumer dearly in the recent past for commodities including sugar and wheat.

In the case of sugar, erroneous lower estimates on production led in 2009-10 to high priced imports besides forcing sugar prices up to record highs both at home and globally on the back of implied shortage.

The estimates were jacked up by a good four million tonne later in the year, leading a 5 million tonne sugar carryover in the current year.

The Committee of Experts, headed by Prof. A Vaidyanathan, was constituted in 2009 to study a system of agricultural statistics and recommend necessary improvements.