BRIEF INTRODUCTION

I. The data in this chapter show the basic conditions of agricultural production and rural economy, including mainly rural labour force, cultivated land, quantity of agricultural machinery, output of farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, output of major products, facilities of water conservancy and efforts to eliminate water-logging and combat alkalinity, productive fixed assets owned by the rural households, and basic conditions of the state-owned farms.

Statistics on agriculture cover all agricultural production activities except horse raising for military purpose and activities undertaken by agriculture research institutions. Included in agriculture statistics are production activities of farms specializing in crop cultivation, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery; production activities undertaken by government agencies, institutions, schools and military units; production of collective farms run by townships and villages; production activities in crop cultivation, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery undertaken by rural economic units of various types and by rural households, and commercial industrial activities undertaken by rural households as sideline production.

(1) Agriculture: includes crop cultivation and other agricultural activities. Crop cultivation refers to the cultivation of cereals, beans, tuber crops, cotton, oil-bearing crops, sugar crops, hemp, tobacco leaves, vegetables, medicinal herbs, gourds and other farm crops, as well as the operation on tea plantations, mulberry fields and orchards. Other agriculture refers to collection of the seeds, fiber, resin, oil of wild plants; gathering of firewood, wild herbs, mushrooms and fungus; and commercial industrial activities undertaken by rural households as sideline production.

(2) Forestry: includes the planting of trees (excluding the operation on tea plantations, mulberry fields and orchards), collection of forest products and the felling of bamboo and trees by village cooperative units and rural households.

(3) Animal husbandry: includes the raising and grazing of domestic animals and poultry, and the hunting and raising of wild animals.

(4) Fishery: includes cultivation and catching of aquatic animals and seaweed.

The rural social and economic statistics cover all social and economic activities in all townships except that taking place in county towns.

II. Source of data and survey methodology

(1) Data on rural grassroots units, labour force and agricultural production (tables 12-1 to 12-8, tables 12-14 to 12-21, and tables 12-27) are provided by the Rural Socio-economic Survey Organization, NBS using data from the Comprehensive Statistical Reporting on Farming, Forestry, Animal Husbandry and Fishery, the Rural Social and Economic Survey, and the Sample Survey of Farm Crops.

Comprehensive Statistical Reporting on Farming, Forestry, Animal Husbandry and Fishery is a comprehensive reporting program reported by provincial statistical bureaus to the National Bureau of Statistics. Data required in this reporting program are collected by statistical offices at all levels by means of sample surveys, surveys of key units or full enumeration depending on the local circumstances, or estimated by using information from other government agencies at the same level or from the sample survey of farm crops and rural household survey conducted by NBS. For instance, some data on condition of agriculture production and on forestry and fishery are obtained from statistics collected by other government agencies at the same level, while data on crop production are collected from the sample survey of farm crops.

Sample Survey of Farm Crops is a nation-wide survey designed by NBS and implemented by sample survey teams throughout China with unified sample selection and estimation procedure, in order to obtain high quality data on grain production and related statistics. Using data from the agriculture census as sampling frame, a total of 128,000 sample plots are selected from 714,800 villages in the country through multi-stage, stratified, systematic sampling approaches is used to estimate the crop output for China. The survey is characterized by a multi-purpose probability proportional to size sample design that keeps sampling error to +2% with the confidence probability as 95%. Like the sample survey on rural households, a rotation scheme is used in the sample survey on farm crops with the cycle of a complete rotation being 5 years.

Rural Social and Economic Survey is a special survey designed by the NBS to understand the basic condition of social and economic activities at township level, the size and transfer of total rural labour force and investment in fixed assets in rural areas. Under this survey program, a complete enumeration is conducted every 3 years to collect information on basic condition of social and economic activities at township and village levels, while sample survey is used to collect information on other items with the same sampling units as in the Rural Household Survey.

(2) Data on the fixed assets, cultivated land and sales of farm products of rural households (tables 12-11 to 12-13, tables 12-22 to12-24) are collected and provided by the Rural Socio-economic Survey Organization, NBS through the Rural Household Survey. A summary of this survey is given in Chapter 10 of this yearbook.

(3) Data on the basic conditions of the state-owned farms come from the statistical reports tabulated by the Bureau of Reclamation, Ministry of Agriculture. The statistical coverage includes 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government; only Tibet is not included.

The data are collected from the grassroots units in accordance with the statistical reporting scheme and tabulated and reported level by level. The content of indicators and calculation methods are the same as those stipulated by the National Bureau of Statistics.

(4) Data on irrigation and reservoirs, the data on the efforts to eliminate water-logging, prevent floods by water control and combat alkalinity as well as the data on the facilities of water conservancy and the area of water-logging eliminated and the improved area of saline-alkaline land come mainly from statistical reports of the Ministry of Water Conservancy. The statistical coverage includes provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government. County is the basic statistical unit. The data are collected from the counties in accordance with the statistical reporting scheme and tabulated and reported level by level.

(5)Data on some special indicators such as the number of irrigated areas, large reservoirs and the medium-sized and small reservoirs that cut across counties are collected directly by the prefectures and reported to the water conservancy departments of the provinces.