SERDANG, July 4 (Bernama) -- The implementation of the 2024 Agricultural Census is an agenda for strengthening the country’s agricultural statistical system, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.
He said through this census the government can establish a agricultural data network that includes economic, social, and environmental aspects of the agricultural ecosystem.
"Through the 2024 Agricultural Census, the country will benefit from the development of the Integrated Agricultural Statistics Database covering agricultural data that includes agricultural data at upstream and downstream levels and combines census data with administrative data from various agencies up to the state and district levels," he said.
He said this at the launch of the 2024 Agricultural Census here today. Also present was Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu.
Fadillah, who is also Energy Transition and Water Transformation Minister, said a total of 91 resettlement sessions have been and are ongoing until July 19.
Fadillah, who chairs the National Statistics and Data Council, said Malaysia is working to strengthen the National Statistics System to face future challenges.
“Various initiatives have been implemented to meet the needs of statistics and indicators at the national, state and district levels to strengthen data-based decision-making capabilities," he said.
He said the implementation of the 2024 Agricultural Census is in line with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) resolution which recommends that all countries implement it with a frequency of once every 10 years from 2016 to 2025 based on the World Programme for the Census of Agriculture manual.
"The Agricultural Census this time will focus on eight dimensions of food security as recommended by the FAO, namely availability, access, consumption and stability and sustainability," he said.
He said this is in line with the National Food Security Policy Action Plan (2021-2025) and National Agrofood Policy 2.0 (2021-2030)
He said the 2024 Agricultural Census will produce a new baseline that provides timely and reliable statistics for planning the country's agricultural sector.
Fadillah said the census this time will cover four agricultural subsectors namely crops; livestock; fisheries and aquaculture; and forestry and logging involving agricultural households and business organisations or companies.
He said the census questionnaire this time will cover various topics that are close to the soul of agricultural entrepreneurs such as farmer profiles, production information, agricultural input costs such as fertilisers, seeds and pesticides, marketing access, financing, labour use and agricultural practices.
"I call on all agricultural operators regardless of whether they are small-, medium- or large-scale operators to take the time to cooperate and complete the information accurately," he said.
Fadillah said the operation of the Agricultural Census this time will cover more than 20,000 registered organisations, institutions, cooperatives and associations.
He said at least 1.3 million residences of agricultural entrepreneurs and owners were also targeted.
Fadillah also said the census was in line with the aspirations of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who said that the need to develop food security indicators that include information on the price and availability of food at all levels in order to drive the development of the agricultural sector.
"Additionally, the element of innovation and latest technology usage such as smart farming, artificial intelligence (AI) as well as aspects of environmental conservation can be measured through this census," he said.
He added that the use of this technology not only can increase productivity and efficiency of the agricultural sector but can also attract the interest of the youth to venture into the agricultural sector.
The 2024 Agricultural Census, led by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) with the theme "Agricultural Census, Key to Agricultural Development" is the fourth census conducted in Malaysia after the last one in 2005.
The objective of the census is to make agricultural statistics the key to the development and progress of the agricultural sector by 2030.
-- BERNAMA
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