INTRODUCTORY SESSION:

THE FIRST NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL CENSUS IN CHINA

12. Three papers were presented:

(i) “The First National Agricultural Census in China” (Zhu Zhixin);

(ii) “FAO/Italy Co-operative Programme: The Role of Technical Assistance in Capacity Building and Institutional Strengthening” (M. Gorgoni);

(iii) “Programme for the World Census of Agriculture 2000 and FAO’s Role as a UN Technical Agency” (H. Som).

13. Mr. Zhu Zhixin, in presenting his paper, reminded the seminar of the background and the basis for the international definitions and practices for the methodological choices adopted in the implementation of the census. He also introduced the main activities undertaken in the census and the main results achieved.

He pointed out the significance of the agricultural census data for accelerating the development of agriculture, the rural areas, and even the whole national economy, as well as for setting up a new agricultural statistics system. He concluded by reminding the seminar of the five main aspects in the success of the census: strong and powerful organization and leadership, wide ranging publicity, scientific working methods and means, good working conditions, and a qualified working team.

14. Mr. Marcello Gorgoni, in presenting his paper, mentioned that the seminar was the crowning activity of an ambitious and complex exercise in international development Co-operation, lasting more than a decade. He provided a brief history of the implementation of the different projects within the FAO/Italy Co-operative Program mentioning that, at the beginning, the assistance was for the restructuring and modernizing of the agricultural and rural statistical system of PRC. The chances for an agricultural census had actually been remote; in fact, this became an important objective only with the new phase starting with the implementation of the second project. He reminded the seminar that, notwithstanding the good, but partial, results of the subsequent projects, the difficulties encountered for some important issues, including the preparation of this seminar, might have led to Italy withdrawing on more than one occasion. Luckily, this did not happen and the FAO/Italy Co-operative Program now had various reasons for satisfaction in the rewarding partnership in the modernization process of the agricultural statistics in such an important country as PRC. In his view, the support provided to the preparation of the first Agricultural Census in PRC had further strengthened and better highlighted the normative role of FAO and the importance attached to it by Italy.  In fact, the projects had offered the Italian Co-operation Program the opportunity for mobilizing not only financial resources but also professional skills and experience available in selected Italian institutions, which had also hosted fellows from PRC for training, particularly on-the-job training. Mr. Gorgoni affirmed that the undertaking of the Agricultural Census would not have been possible without the continuous strong commitment on the Chinese side at all levels. He also concluded that the dissemination of the census results had taken more time than anticipated, but that now the seminar, with its rich program, would promote interest in the census and stimulate exchange of views in the international community. There was ground for expecting that there would be a lively and frank discussion.

15. Mr. Hiek Som, in presenting his paper, firstly outlined the eighth decennial Programme for the World Census of Agriculture, which was devised to foster harmonization of national census practices. He mentioned the recommendations of the programme on the objectives, concepts, definitions, scope, basic tabulations, and changes with respect to previous census programmes. He clarified that a census of agriculture should be undertaken as a component of an integrated national food and agricultural statistical system. He commented that the Chinese Agricultural Census is the largest undertaken in the history of the World Census of Agriculture, and stated that the results would be included in the FAO publication ”report on the World Census of Agriculture 2000”. He recalled that the projects financed by Italy have become a major component of the Trust Fund Programme, and stressed the importance of the FAO technical assistance to PRC in training and capacity building, in the provision of equipment and, particularly, in technical backstopping to ensure smooth implementation of the project. He concluded by mentioning the following three factors that contributed to the success of the PRC/Italy/FAO co-operation: (i) the Chinese Government’s commitment to this large scale statistical operation; (ii) the partnership between NBS and various Italian institutes (e.g. ISTAT) and universities; and (iii) the combination of FAO’s unique international knowledge and experience of census taking with Italy’s in depth national experience and academic prowess in statistics.