Mr Zhu Zhixin, Commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS); H. E. Ambassador Bruni, Ambassador to Italy; Professor Zuliani, President of the Istituto Centrale di Statistica (ISTAT); Distinguished Participants; Ladies and Gentlemen:

 

On behalf of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), it gives me great pleasure to be here in Beijing on this important occasion, which marks the culmination of 13 years of China, Italy, and FAO Cooperation carrying out the First National Agriculture Census in China.

 

I would like to start by congratulating the Chinese Government on the success of their First Agricultural Census and to thank them for organizing this International Seminar, which will provide insight to the international community on the new picture of the agricultural sector that is emerging as the results of the census become available. I would also like to welcome all of the distinguished participants, many of whom have had to find time in their busy schedules to participate in, and contribute to, this seminar.

 

FAO attaches the highest importance to information and statistics. Article One of FAO’s Constitution states that “The Organization shall collect, analyse, interpret and disseminate information relating to nutrition, food and agriculture". The performance of the agricultural sector is, perhaps, one of the most difficult sectors to measure. Yet without reliable data, it is difficult, if not impossible, to analyse constraints, develop sound strategies and monitor the effectiveness of policies.

 

Agricultural census is more than just data. Information is knowledge and power. It underpins planning, and is the basis for decision-making. It provides a means for informed decisions by political leaders, economic managers, farmers and private entrepreneurs. Information is so crucial for a modern and responsive agriculture, in particular, in such an increasingly complex, globalised and competitive environment. Clearly, agricultural census information empowers the agricultural and rural sectors.

 

In the case of China, the agricultural sector has particular significance. With some 1.2 billion mouths to feed, the performance of the sector is crucial if food security is to be ensured and poverty eliminated. It is, therefore, particularly gratifying for FAO to have been involved with this census, the first in China’s long history, providing a comprehensive picture of the structure of Chinese agriculture.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, taking an agricultural census in any country is a big challenge. In China, it is even bigger. Over 200 million rural households were visited and interviewed by more than seven million enumerators, all in the space of only a few weeks in January 1997. The cost to the Chinese Government was 1.65 billion Yuan (nearly US$200 million) and the Italian Government’s contribution, through FAO, was US$16.5 million.

 

The census collected information on land use, crop areas, livestock, agricultural employment, machinery, etc., as well as information on administrative villages and town and township facilities. In fact, the census was far more than agricultural, in terms of its definition and scope, since it covered many of the structural aspects of rural life, “per se". It revealed that, despite the rapid economic growth and structural transformations, China continues to be a predominantly rural economy, about 80 percent of the 697 million economically active people being rural.

 

The census results have now been released in a series of publications, and through other media such as CD-ROMs and the Internet. Numerous publications have been produced at the provincial level as well as at lower administrative levels, and considerable analysis has also been undertaken at these disaggregated administrative levels.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, as well as being a success for China, the census represents a “success story of international cooperation". Through the FAO/Italy Cooperative Programme, technical assistance was provided to China in support of the census for more than 13 years. This is by far the longest period of continuous support for a single statistical activity at the national level that FAO has ever been associated with, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Government of Italy for their contribution to this mammoth undertaking, which enabled FAO’s participation.

 

Indeed, this China-FAO-Italy partnership is a mammoth service to humanity in understanding the mechanism of agriculture growth and performance, in a wide and varied landscape of ecological settings and farming systems. For China not only constitutes about a quarter of the world’s population, what China accomplishes matters to the rest of humankind.

 

Lester Brown once asked: “who will feed China?" As Chinese farmers secure their country’s food supply, so do they for the rest of the world. The experiences of the Chinese census are bound to enlighten the World Census of Agriculture 2000.

 

Today, we are gathered at the start of a four-day seminar to discuss and debate the implications of the Census results with particular focus on the “New Picture  of China’s Agricultural Sector". Many interesting papers will be presented on a broad range of topics, and I am convinced that we can all look forward to an informative and thought-provoking seminar.

 

I note that several of the papers go beyond routine data and, and will be gauging, as noted by the editor Theo Sommers, the “hidden pattern of change". He noted that all too often “we register the dramatic flare-ups; yet, the geological changes underfoot often escape our notice. We revel in linear extrapolations of existing trends, but we are inclined to forget that every trend begets its own countertrend; every vision its revision. We cling to a tawdry belief in the calculability of events, yet deep down we know that it is the incalculable, the imponderable and the unforeseeable that rule the course of history."

 

Such currents are sweeping through the nations of the global village. The census results will help us in understanding the patterns of change and in formulating new strategies, plans and policies to meet the challenges and opportunities for the uplift of our peoples. The internationality and veritability of the programme of this seminar are bound to ensure the human face of the Census of Agriculture.

 

Finally, permit me once again to congratulate the Chinese Government on the enormous commitment to this subject, impacting not only China but also the whole world.

 

Thank you.