CHAPTER I

PART i

1. ·HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND ORGANISATION OF AGRICULTURAL CENSUS

Evolution of Land Records System

. 1.1. Despite large scale industrialisation under-taken during the last three decades or so, India'seconomy has predominantly been dependent uponagriculture. About 40% of the total Gross DomesticProduct (GDP) in the country is still accounted for bythe Agricultural sector. Land revenue had been themain source of Income of the State for a long time!particularly during the Mughal and British periods. Inthe process of its assessment and collection by theforeign rulers, an elaborate system of land recordscame to be evolved and has been in vogue in most ofthe states in the country till today.

1.2. In the i6th Century, land settlement operationswere initiated and later systematised during the reignof Akbar. In the British period, drastic changes weremade to further improve the system and to augmentthe State revenue. These changes resulted in theevolution of two major. types of land revenue systemsi.e. Zamindari system and Ryotwari system. In cer-tain parts of the country, permanent settlement wasintroduced! where private landlords were created towhom Government granted some but not all rights ofprivate property in land. These new landlords actedas intermediaries between the Government and theactual cultivators. This land revenue system came tobe known as the Zamindari System. In other parts, anentirely different land revenue system was developedwherein only temporary settlements were made. Inthis system, known as the Ryotwari System, theGovernment directly dealt with the cultivators or ryots.

1.3. After the. attainment of Independence, variousland laws were enacted providing for abolition ofintermediaries in the areas where Zamindari Systemprevailed. In Ryotwari areas, the land laws Were

I enacted to provide protection to the tenants, actualtillers of the land.

Land Records as Source of Agricultural Statistics

1.4. The gradual evolution of the land systems inthe country necessitated the maintenance of the villageforms and registers providing details of the lands heldand the conditions under which these were held. Aregular system of revenue administration came into-existence for the purpose. The main objective ofthese forms and registers has been to furnish basic

. material for land revenue' assessment etc. These formsand registers in vogue for the maintenance of landrecords constitute the basis for the land utilisation,crop and irrigation statistics.

Adoption of Standard Forms

1.5. With a view to ensuring collection of land useand crop area statistics according to - standard classi-fication and uniform concepts and definitions, the Com-mittee on Improvement of Agricultural Statistics(CIAS) examined the basic and abstract land recordsforms and the land records manuals of differentStates and suggested suitable modifications for adop-tion by the States. Although most of the States haveaccepted the revised proformae with some modifica-tions to suit local conditions, some of them have notyet implemented them for one reason or other.

Methods of Collection of Agricultural Statistics

1.6. From the standpoint of collection of Land usestatistics, the country can be divided into three cate-gories. In the first category are the former temporarilysettled States where the village revenue agency collectsthe statistics as part of land records. The agency con-sists of village officials-one in-charge of a village ora group of villages. The collection of primary dataon the basis of field to field inspection of crops andland utilisation at periodic intervals is part of theirduty. After each crop inspection, the village officialis required to submit to his superior officer a statementshowing the land utilisation statistics in each seasonin standard forms prescribed for the purpose. Thesestatistics are then aggregated at the level of RevenueInspector Circle, Tehsil, District and State by theheirarchy of officers in the Revenue Administrationand/ or Agriculture Departments.

1.7. The second category consists of the formerpermanently settled states of West Bengal, Orissa andKerala where no such Revenue Agency exists. ACentrally Sponsored Scheme entitled 'Establishment ofan Agency for Reporting of Agricultural Statistics'(EARAS) was taken up for implementation in thesestates during 1975-76 and has been continuing in theSixth/Seventh Plan. Under the scheme, estimates ofarea shown to principal crops and land utilisation arebuilt up on the basis of complete field to field enume-ration in each season each year in a sample of 20 %villages selected at random in such a way that in courseof five years, the entire state is covered. While Keralaand Orissa have achieved the 'target of covering 20%villages, West Bengal had started late and conductedaPilot sample in 1980-81. It has been increasing thesample size over the subsequent years and had covered14% mouzas in 1985-86.

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1.8. The third category consists of States and UnionTerritories mostly in the North Eastern region (exceptAssam) which are neither cadastrally surveyed norpossess the requisite revenue agency for collection ofdata. In these areas the statistics reported have beenin the nature of eye-estimates or impressionistic esti-mates based on the personal knowledge of the Revenueofficers, Agricultural officers, etc. Thus, of the totalreporting area of about 304.2 million "hectares in thecountry, estimates for 87.4 per cent of area are basedon complete enumeration, 9.3 per cent on samplesurveys and those for the remaining 3.3 per cent ofthe area are based on conventional methods or impres-sionistic estimates.

Improvements in Agricultural Statistics

1.9. With the ushering in of the planning era since1951-52, a number of schemes have been undertakento improve the reporting of agricultural statistics foruse in policies and programmes relating to procure-ment of foodgrains, imports, exports and pricing ofagricultural commodities etc. Efforts have been madeto introduce a complete field to field enumerationsystem in the three permanently settled states ofKerala, Orissa and West. Bengal as per the recom-mendation made by the National Commission onAgriculture. West Bengal has already undertakensteps in this direction. The other two states are alsoexamining the proposal in an active manner. Effortsare also underway to introduce an EARAS type ofscheme in the North Eastern States. However, due to'financial constraints, the progress has been slow,

1.10. The National Commission on Agriculture afterexamining the various alternatives for collection ofagricultural statistics had come to the conclusion thatthe collection of data based on land records is the bestprovided the basic records are maintained properly.Since the basic land records are maintained by thepatwari, he is the best person to do the crop inspec-tion. He is the most knowledgeable man in the fieldand, as such, the most "sultable person for collectingthe reliable information. The basic structure for col-lection of agricultural statistics can be improved byenabling the Patwaris to do his job better and alsoto ensure that the Patwari and the Revenue Inspectorsat higher level devote adequate attention to the col-lection of agricultural statistics and assign top priorityto the work especially during the period of crop inspec-tion. For this purpose, the jurisdiction of Patwarishould be reduced to manageable proportion in theStates where it is widely spread. Secondly, intensivesupervision both by normal revenue agencies andstatistical staff, should be organised to ensure qualityof data at the primary level. The primary and super!visory agencies, therefore, need to be suitablystrengthened.

Statistics of Land Holdings

1.11. As is evident from the preceding paragraphs,the current Agricultural Statistics mostly relate to

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aggregates of area, production and land use at variousgeographical levels. They do not exhibit the charac-teristics of different size classes of holdings operatedunder various types of tenancies etc. The FamineEnquiry Commission of 1945 which had tried togauge the relationship between the land tenancy systemand the efficiency of agricultural production had felthandicapped in this regard due to non-availability ofdata on cultivators' holdings and had made! a numberof recommendations for improvement of agriculturalstatistics. But these recommendations could not beimplemented because of various reasons. It was onlyin 1948 when the FAO requested India to participatein the Second World Census of Agriculture that aTechnical Committee on Coordination of AgriculturalStatistics was set up by Ministry of Agriculture to lookinto all the issues. The Committee recommended thatthe opportunity provided by the FAO should beutilised for over-hauling the. country's machinery forcollection of agricultural Statistics. Hence detailedforms were prepared for collecting comprehensive datarelating to agricultural economy of the country. Therecommendation of the Committee for carrying outAgricultural Census with 1950-51 as the reference yearcould not, however, be implemented due to resourcesconstraints. The Third World Agricultural Census wasproposed to be carried out in 1960-61. Here . alsoIndia could not go in for a comprehensive AgriculturalCensus in the country. However, data on operationalholdings were collected on a sample basis for 1950World Census of Agriculture by the National SampleSurvey Organsation (NSSO) as part of the socio-economic survey in the 8th round (July, 1954-March, 1955). The NSSO again carried out a surveyof land holdings in its 16th round (July, 1960-June, 1961) and 17th round (September, 1961-July,1962) . Because of the limited sample size, thesesurveys were designed to provide reliable data only atthe All India/State levels and were of limited valuefor micro-level planning, say, for District!Tehsils/Blocks. National Sample Survey Organisationhave also carried out a sample survey of land holdingsin its 26th and 37th rounds.

Need for Census of Operational Holdings

1.12. The operational holding as distinct from theownership holding is the fundamental unit of decisionmaking in propagating the programmes of agriculturaldevelopment. In the ultimate analysis, it is the farmerwho takes the decision what to produce, when to pro-duce and how much to produce. The various pro-grammes and' incentives meant for the farmers shouldalso take into cognisance the basic characteristics ofthe farmers'holdings such as size distribution, patternof land use, availability of water and the croppingpattern etc. in order to have maximum acceptabilityand gain in agricultural production. It is in this con-text that Agricultural Census, through complete enume-ration of holdings, becomes important for providingnecessary data on the characteristics of holdings invarious size classes, viz., number and area of opera-tional holdings, tenancy particulars, land wise, sourcewise irrigation and cropping pattern.

First Agricultural Cen~u§

1.13. Realising the importance of data on the struc-ture and characteristics of agricultural holdings, theGovt. of India decided to conduct the first AgriculturalCensus with agricultural year 1970-71· (July to June)as the reference year, as part of the 1970 WorldAgricultural Census Programme sponsored by theFAO. The methodology adopted for the 1970-71Agricultural Census was complete enumeration byretabulation of data already available in the landrecords. In the States where comprehensive landrecords are not maintained, e.g. Kerala, West Bengal,Orissa and the States and UTs in the North-EasternRegion, the data were collected through SampleSurveys. The All India report on the Census waspublished in 1975. Various States/U'Ts . had alsobrought out detailed reports giving the data for Stateas well as the districts.

Second Agricultural Census

1.14. In the light of the data generated by the firstAgricultural Census and its utility for planning pur-poses, the National Commission on Agriculture in theirReport submitted in 1976 recommended that theAgricultural Census in India be carried out at intervalsof five years. Accordingly the second AgriculturalCensus was planned to be conducted on sample surveybasis with 1975-76 as the reference period. However,as a number of changes were likely to take place inthe existing land records during 1975-76, it wasdecided to postpone the reference year to 1976~77. Inthis .Census, information on number and area ofoperational holdings was collected on complete enume-ration basis in the States where comprehensive landrecords exist. For the rest of the items, the necessaryinformation was collected on sample basis. In thecase of non-land records States, the entire Census wascarried out on sample survey basis. In the 1976-77Agricultural Census, Sikkim and Mizoram were alsocovered for the first time to have a complete coverageat all India level. But the census could not be carriedout in Punjab because of non-cooperation of patwaris.

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problems of non-cooperation of the primary fieldagencies. In States like Kerala, Orissa, West Bengal.and the States & Union Territories in the North-

. Eastern region, where comprehensive land records donot exist, the Census was carried out on sample basisas in the past. The coverage of items in this Censuswas the same as in the previous Censuses. However,the data for the holdings of Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes were collected separately for thefirst time in the 1980'-81 Agricultural Census. ThisReport presents the detailed results of the 1980-81Agricultural Census.

1.17. As part of the third Census, an Input Surveywas also conducted with the Agricultural year 1981-82as the reference period on a sample basis in all States/UTs. The sample size for this survey was increasedfrom 2 % to 7 % of villages to provide reliable esti-mates at the district level. Report on this survey isbeing published separately.

Uses of Census Data

1.18. The data of the past Agricultural Censuseshave been found to be extremely useful for the formu-lation of Small Farmers Development Agency (SFDA)and Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Labourers(MFAL) programmes. I The Census data were alsouseful in the formulation of the scheme relating toIntensive Fertilizer Promotion Programmes and variousother schemes for extending subsidy on inputs andmake available cheaper agricultural credit, etc. to theweaker sections. -

Organisational 'arrangements for Census at the Centreand the States

1.19. Agricultural Census is a Central plan schemeorganised and administered by the Ministry of Agri-culture, Government of India. The Agricultural Cen-sus Division in the Ministry is headed by a Joint Sec-retary who is also designated as the Agricultural Cen-sus Commissioner. The agricultural Census Divi-sion consists of 3j Director, 2 Joint Directors2 Deputy Directors, 2 Research Officers, 5 ResearchInvestigators and a part-time Under-Secretary>, a Sec-tion Officer and other supporting staff. In the States/UTs, a S~n~or Officer either the Revenue Secretaryor Commissioner of Land Records/Reforms, FiancialCommisioner 'has been declared as the State Agricul-tural Census Comfi?issio~er who is in overall charge ofthe C~nsus op~ratlOns l~ the respective States /U'I's,A ~emor technical officer either from the revenue oragnculture or statistical department of the State assiststhe State Agricultural Census Commissioner in dis-c~arging. his dutie~ effecti.ve!y. Each State/UT is pro-vided WIth a unit consistmg of full time technicalofficers and other staff to attend to the AgriculturalCensus work.

1.15. An Input Survey in a sample of. 2% of vil-lages was also carried out as part of the second Agri-cultural Census. Information on the use of variousInputs such as fertilizers, manuers, pesticides, livestockand agricultural implements and machinery for 5 broadsize groups of operational holdings was collected inthe Input Survey.

Third Agricultural Census

1.16. The third Agricultural Census was carried outin the country with agricultural year 1980-81 as thereference period. This Census was undertaken oncomplete enumeration basis in most of the Stateshaving comprehensive land records, except in Hima- Finanringchal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan where it was 1 20 A

. carried out on a sample basis due to' certain local " . s per the Scheme, the entire expenditure on_______________ .'-..tr;:';:;f,~~:r:;;,:~1CiiM---t-he_s-a-la-n-e-s-a.-n .,d~a=ll.:o-w.:.:.=an::.c::.:e::s-O:f:.....:::th:.:e=--:h::::e:ad~q:.:u:a~r~te:rs~s~ta~ff

=converted to fult time basis with effect from January, 1987

at the Centre and in the States, their travelling allow-ances and contingency are borne by the Governmentof India. Besides, the total amount of honorariumpaid to the primary and supervisory staff for field workof the census as also the cost of tabulation of Censusdata are paid by the Govt. of India. The States/U'I'son their part were required to meet the cost of printing(Schedules & instructions and State Report), stationeryand accommodation charges.

FieJd Agency1.21. The field work was carried out by patwaris/

talathis/karnams/village'accountants in the case of landrecords States and by Revenue Inspectors VLWs/Ex-tension staff and others in the case of non-land recordsStates.

Training of Field and Supervisory Staff

1.22. Training of the primary field and supervisorystaff is an important aspect for the successful comple-tion of any survey. In the Agricultural Census too,adequate emphasis was laid on this important aspect.The Agricultural Census Units in the States in colla-boration with the representative from the Centre or-ganised training programmes for the Senior Technicalofficers of the States and in turn were charged withthe responsibility of arranging training programmesfor the Supervisory and field staff at the district Hqrs.In a number of States, a three-tier training program-me was organised. The various concepts and defini-tions of the terms, the sampling procedure etc. werediscussed in detail in these training programmes. ASenior Officer Of the Agricultural Census Division inthe Ministry of Agriculture was usually associated atthe State level. training programmes organised forsenior officers.

Supervision

1.23. Effective supervision of the field work done b);the Patwaris was conducted by the concerned depart-mental officers like tehsildars, revenue inspectors, etc.under the overall charge of the District Census offi-cers who are often District Collectors. Statistical super-vision was. also arranged by deploying staff from thestatistical agencies.

Tobuldiion

1.24. The field work involving the collection ofdata was, however, the first phase of agricultural cen-sus work. The second phase consisted of summarisa-tion and condensation of data in the form of tablesat various levels. The tabulation programme for 1980-81 Agricultural Census comprised of the followingtables :-

. Table 1:-Number and areas of operational hold-ings.

Table 2A-Number and area of operational hold-ings by tenure and tenancy status.

Table 2~-Leased in area by terms of leasing.

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Table

Table3-Area under different land uses.

4-Number and area of operational holdingsby irrigation status.

Table 5A-Number of operational holdings re-ceiving irrigation and area irrigatedby different sources

Table 5B-Number of wells and tubewells.

Table 6-Irrigated and unirrigated area underdifferent crops.

Manual Versus Mechanical Tabulation

1.25. There were two principal methods of tabula-tion adopted by the StateslUTs for processing the datafor generation of required output tables. Most of theStates had 'adopted manual tabulation of Census data,as this method w'~s considered cheaper though it wastime consuming. Only 9 States had 'adopted theEDP /mechanical tabulation method for processingthe data.

Committee On Coordination of Agricultural Census

1.26. The Agricultural Census work at the Centrewas coordinated by the Central Technical Committeeon Agricultural Census in finalising the schedules, in-structions, sampling procedure, wherever needed, 'andother details. This Committee was headed by anAdditional Secretary in the Department of Agricultureand Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture who wasoverall incharge of Agricultuaral census and had JointSecretary (Agricultural Census) 'and representativesfrom Planning Commission, Central Statistical Orga-nisation (CSO) , Indian Agricultural Statistics Re-search Institute (IASRI) , National Sample SurveyOrganisation (NSSO), and Economic & StatisticalAdviser' (ESA) as members. The Director (Agri-cultural Census), Government of India, 'acted as itsmember secretary. At the State level too, the StateLevel Coordination Committees were constituted toCoordinate the work of Agricultural' Census in therespective States. At the district level also, suitableCommittees headed by the District AgriculturalCensus Officers existed to implement the programmeand arrange for inspection of Census work. The officersfrom the Centre also visited States to inspect the fieldwork. The periodical review of Agricultural Censuswork was also undertaken at the various meetings ofState Agricultural Census Commissioners heldregionally or at the Centre.

Organisational & Technical Problems Faced in theConductoj 1980-81 Agricultural Census

1.27. The entire programme of the AgriculturalCensus including the writing of the Report shouldnormally be completed within the five year planperiod. However, this could not be achieved in thepresent census due to the following problems :_

(i) The Agricultural Census is one of the big-gest ventures in agricultural statistics. Over

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one lakh village level functionaries were in-valved in the collection of data on variouscharacteristics of about -89 million opera-tional holdings in the country. Printing ofthe requisite number of copies of the formsin different languages for the purpose takestime. Shortage of printing paper' was alsoexperienced in certain States. Director Gene-ral, Supplies & Disposals (DGS&D) was re-quested to arrange the supply of the requisitequantum of printing paper to the needyStates. Some of the State GovernmentPresses could not give adequate priority tothe printing. of the schedules because ofmore pressing jobs in hand. The non-avail-ability of printed forms in time resulted indelayed commencement of the field work inthese States which in turn, affected the sub-sequent operations of the Census.

(iii )

In Maharashtra, the census work was under-taken on complete enumeration basis but wasconsiderably delayed due to initial resistanceof talathis to undertake the work.

Another problem related to the delay in tabu-lation which was indeed a huge task and tookabout 18 to 24 months. For 'the 1980-81

.Agricultural Census, the tabulation load washeavier, as the data were tabulated separa-tely for the holdings of Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes. Most of the States hadadopted manual tabulation of data. Sincethetabulation work was of adhoc nature, recruit-·mentof trained statistical staff for a shortperiod also posed problems,

(iv) The States were also asked to compare theCensus data with official Agricultural Statis-tics in respect of 4 broad aggregates viz.,gross cropped area, net area sown, gross irri-gated area and net irrigated area. Apartfrom the differences between the two sets offigures, certain inconsistencies in the Censusdata were observed and the States were ask-ed_to rectify the errors. They· were also a-sk-ed to probe the data further for identifyingthe factors for differences between the Cen-sus figures arid official agricultural statistics.This process took considerable time in fina-lising the data. -

(ii).

The patwaris in some States like HimachalPradesh, i>u~jab, Rajasthan and Maharashtradid not agree to undertake the_work of Agri-cultural Census en the _ground that this was~oJ a part of the manual of duties of the pat-waris. As a result, the Agricultural Census1980-81, which was to be conducted on com-plete enumeration basis in allthe Land Re-cord States, had to be carried out on a sam-ple basis in three land record States, viz.,Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan,

'-391 PeJitt. of A~. &: CO'dp./87