Brief Introduction
I.
Main Contents and Statistical Scopes
The data in this chapter
show the basic conditions of agricultural production and rural economy,
including mainly cultivated land, quantity of agricultural machinery, output of
agriculture, 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 rural households, basic
conditions of State-owned farms.
Statistics on
agriculture cover all agricultural production activities except horse raising
for military purpose and agricultural production activities undertaken by
agriculture research institutions. In other words, included in agriculture
statistics are production activities in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry
and fishery undertaken by rural economic units of various types and by rural
households; production activities of farms specializing in agriculture,
forestry, animal husbandry and fishery; production activities in agriculture
undertaken by government agencies, institutions, schools and military units;
production activities in agriculture undertaken by collective farms run by
townships and villages; and production activities in agriculture, forestry,
animal husbandry and fishery undertaken by manufacturing and mining
enterprises.
(1) Agriculture: refers to cultivation of
farm crops, including cereals, beans, tuber crops, cotton, oil-bearing crops,
sugar crops, hemp, tobacco leaves, vegetables, gardening plants, fruits, nuts,
crops for beverages and spices, medicinal herbs and other farm crops.
(2) Forestry: includes the planting of
trees (excluding the operations of planting, management and harvesting on tea
plantations, mulberry fields and orchards), cutting and transport of timber and
bamboo and collection of forest products.
(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.
(5) Services in support of agriculture, forestry,
animal husbandry and fishery: include supporting services to production
activities in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery but do not
include activities of science and technology and professional services.
Rural social and
economic statistics cover social and economic activities in all townships
except county towns.
II. Data Sources and
Survey Methods
(1) Data on agricultural production
(Table 13-1 to Table 13-6 and Table 13-13 to Table 13-20) are provided by the Department
of Rural Social and Economic Survey of the NBS using data from the Statistical
Reporting Form System on Agriculture, Forestry, Animal Husbandry and
Fishery; the Statistical Reporting System on Agricultural Output and
Prices; the System of Rural Social and Economic Survey;
and the Sample Survey System of Farm Crops.
Statistical
Reporting Form System on Agriculture, Forestry, Animal Husbandry and Fishery is a comprehensive reporting program for reporting 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 complete enumeration
depending on the local circumstances, or estimated by using information from
other government agencies at the same level. For instance, some data on
condition of agriculture production and on forestry and fishery are obtained
from statistics data collected by other government agencies at the same level.
Sample Survey System
of Farm Crops is a nation-wide survey
designed by the 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 130,000 sample plots are
selected from some 15,000 villages in the country through a comprehensive
multi-stage and multi-phase stratified systematic sampling programme. Actual
crop cutting and measuring is conducted on these plots to estimate the national
production. The survey is characterized by a multi-purpose probability
proportional to size sample design that keeps sampling error to ±2% with the
confidence probability at 95%. A rotation scheme is used in the sample survey
on farm crops with the cycle of a complete rotation being 4 years. Data on crop
production, cotton production, crop planting acreage and production of major
animal husbandry products are collected from the Sample Survey System of
Farm Crops.
System
of Rural Social and Economic Survey is a special survey designed by the NBS to understand
the basic conditions of social and economic activities at township level, the
investment in fixed assets of rural areas household and the energy consumption
of the units engaged in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery.
Under this survey system, a complete enumeration is conducted every 3 years to
collect information on the basic conditions of all towns, townships and villages,
and a complete enumeration is conducted every year in administratively
designated towns. Sampling surveys are used to collect information on other items, The household samples for the survey on investment in
fixed assets are the same as in the rural household survey.
(2) Data on fixed assets, cultivated land and sales of farm products of
rural households (Table 13-10 to Table 13-12, Table 13-22 and
Table 13-23) are collected and compiled by the
Department of Rural Social and Economic Survey of the NBS through the System of Rural Household Survey. Please refer to Chapter 10 (People’s
Living Conditions) of the Yearbook for description of the System of Rural Household
Survey.
(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 scope includes 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities
directly under the Central Government; except
(4) Data on irrigation
and reservoirs, data on efforts to eliminate water-logging, to prevent floods
by water control and to combat alkalinity as well as 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 Resources. The statistical scope includes provinces,
autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government.
Data are collected from individual counties in accordance with the statistical
reporting system and are tabulated and reported level by level. 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 provincial departments of water
resources.
(5) Data on
disaster-covered area and disaster-affected area are figures jointly confirmed
by the NBS in consultation with the Ministry of Civil affairs, the Ministry of
Water Resources and the China Meteorological Administration.