88. The organizer of this session was Mr. L. Biggeri, Senior Project Advisor for Projects GCP/CPR/020/ITA and GCP/CPR/025/ITA; and the discussant was Mr. A. Lindner, Head, Trade and Agricultural Section, National Account Division, OECD.

 

89. Three papers were presented:

(i)“The Construction of an Integrated System of Agricultural and Rural Statistics” (H. K. Oh);

(ii)“Geographical Information System for the Analysis of Census Results and the Improvement of Current Agricultural Statistical Analysis” (Zhao Qinghe);

(iii)“Reform of Chinese Agricultural Statistics after Agricultural Census” (He Huanyan).

 

90. In the first paper the need for the construction of an integrated system of agricultural and rural statistics was stressed, and the objectives and a general framework to do this were presented. Then, the kind of data necessary for the construction of the system, specifying which agency is responsible for the collection of data, were presented. It was clear that the construction of a good system of agricultural and rural statistics requires a lot of work and the strong co-operation of many agencies.

 

91. The second paper examined the main features and key issues in building up a computerised census data system, and the ways in which the system has been developed, with particular reference to the objectives and features of the Geographical Information System (GIS). The GIS project yielded a very useful Atlas for data representation at the county level. Starting from this experience, a deeper statistical analysis, based on the tabulation plan, was conducted to establish the indices that could be calculated for the future analyses, and how to represent these indices using GIS maps. Taking into account that the massive growth of the Internet has created new opportunities to develop software for distributing geographic information, a proposal for using such a data dissemination system in the context of the GIS project to disseminate and improve the utility of both census and current statistics was described and discussed.

 

92. In the third paper ideas for the reform of Chinese agricultural statistics from a methodological point of view were presented. Starting from the basis of the agricultural census data, the object and range of agricultural statistics and agricultural indicators were discussed. Then, a system of surveys was discussed, along with the issue of using a combination of different survey methods, and the integration of the information processing, transmission and use of data. Finally, the conditions necessary for constructing a new system of agricultural statistics were pointed out.

 

93. Questions arose on the way to conduct the surveys for the construction of the system of agricultural and rural statistics, the need for international comparability of the data, and the difficulties to co-ordinate the work of different agencies. The use of GIS for the analysis and dissemination of data was found to be a very important and effective tool, but it was pointed out that it would be useful to work on it using information below the county level, possibly at village level. Therefore it was suggested to FASC and NBS to continue work in implementing the proposal already made and to do further research in this field.