In 2016, a large-scale agricultural census will be held in Russia - an event through which the competent authorities will collect data on the activities of various economic entities in the agricultural sector. It is noteworthy that the agricultural census is a phenomenon not new to the history of the Russian Federation. Similar events were held during the time of tsarist Russia. Particularly active collection of data in the form of agricultural censuses was carried out in the Soviet Union. The best experience of agrarians of the USSR can be used in solving modern tasks of collecting data reflecting the state of affairs in the agricultural sector. What is the specificity of Russian agricultural censuses? What are the features of the corresponding event to be held in 2016?
The essence of agricultural lists and the history of their implementation in Russia
An agricultural census is an event that is a collection conducted according to special regulations, as well as registration in accordance with the established procedure of information on the state of affairs in national agriculture. This event is carried out by state bodies in order to obtain information on how the adopted programs for the development of the agricultural sector are implemented, what problems are there, and what are the results of farmers' activities in certain periods.
The prototypes of agricultural censuses have been known since the time of Ancient Rus. There is evidence that in written sources of the 9th century there were records of owners of land, the number of livestock that they had at their disposal. Several similar censuses are known in the 13th century. Subsequently, information on the activities of Russian landowners was collected in the 16th and 17th centuries through scribe books. At the end of the 17th century, census books began to be used for such purposes.
The first large-scale agricultural census in the modern sense was carried out in the European part of the Russian Empire in 1877-1878. This event involved the collection of data with separate accounting of cultivated areas for various types of crops.
The first agricultural census as a formal event was held in 1916. We study its features.
Agricultural Census of 1916
The 1916 Agricultural Census was established to:
- collection of data necessary for the organization of food supply of the state in 1917-1918 during the war;
- obtaining statistical information necessary to improve the rule of law that governs agriculture.
In the documentary forms of the 1916 census, it was supposed to reflect information about landowners, livestock, and also sown areas. They also included data on stocks, the rate of expenditure of various types of food.
The data of the agricultural census of 1916 were published already in the Soviet period. They included information on 76 provinces with a population of about 104.4 million people, on whose territory about 19.2 million farms operated.
The agricultural census, which was carried out in 1916, showed that about 64.3% of the crops were occupied by food crops, about 31.6% - by forage. About 3.5% of the territory was occupied by oilseeds, 0.6% - by others. About 52% of the sown area was wheat, rye, about 29% - oats, barley. The census showed that Russian farmers owned 55.8 million head of cattle, of which 44% were cows.
In 1917-1920, a number of other agricultural censuses were conducted. We study the information about them.
Agricultural census of 1917-1920
The 1917 agricultural census was the second large-scale event in which data were collected on the state of affairs in the state’s agricultural sector. It was carried out mainly in order to organize the supply of food to the armed forces of the country.
As part of this census, data were collected on all peasant farms, artels and other forms of activity in the agricultural sector. However, only those farms in which there were field crops were taken into account.
In 1919, a census in the agricultural sector was conducted in Russia as part of a sample of 10%. It was carried out in order to identify changes in the activities of peasant farms following the abolition by the Soviet government of the institution of private land ownership, as well as the adoption of a law in accordance with which the lands were nationalized.
The 1920 All-Russian Agricultural Census was larger. It was carried out in order to obtain information on changes in the agricultural sector by the authorities following the reforms after the October Revolution. The results of this event showed that about 14.2 million households are operating in the new Soviet state. The state bodies responsible for the agricultural census of 1920 collected data on the number and composition of the labor force in the country's agricultural sector, the size of cultivated areas, and the number of livestock and poultry.
Agricultural censuses in the USSR
Subsequently, after the creation of the USSR, a large number of selective censuses were conducted in the agricultural sector. So, they could take into account indicators for 2-3, 5, 10% of households that operate in the state. It can be noted that in 1928 and 1929 a census was carried out both on state farms and on collective farms, and in 1930 - only on organizations of the second type. As part of the relevant censuses, data was collected on the composition of families engaged in agriculture, on the size of cultivated areas, on the number of livestock, on the inventory that was available to citizens who cultivate the land and raise livestock.
On the whole, the agro-industrial sector of the USSR was actively studied by competent state bodies in the years before the Great Patriotic War, in the period that corresponded to it - in the form of urgent censuses. In the years 50-80, a large number of relevant events were also held.
Let us now examine how agricultural censuses were conducted in post-Soviet Russia.
Agricultural censuses in post-Soviet Russia
In fact, the first large-scale all-Russian agricultural census after the collapse of the USSR was conducted in Russia in 2006. Its main goals were named:
- receipt by the competent authorities of information on the state of affairs and the structure of national agriculture, on its potential and the availability of resources for its development;
- obtaining statistics on the agricultural sector in municipalities;
- improving methods of statistical accounting of data in agriculture.
The information on the corresponding agricultural census was supposed to be used as a data source during subsequent activities of this type. The 2006 All-Russian Agricultural Census was the first to assess the state of affairs in the national agrarian sector of the Russian Federation, to assess the changes that occurred after the reforms carried out by the state.
It can be noted that in the course of this census both innovative data collection technologies and those approaches that were formed over the past years of the implementation of such events were applied. Agricultural census data were subsequently published on the website of the Federal State Statistics Service.
In accordance with Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 316, issued on April 10, 2013, the next agricultural census was planned in Russia in 2016. Consider the basic information about it.
2016 Agricultural Census: Key Event Details
So, the second All-Russian agricultural census is held in 2016 at the initiative of the government of the Russian Federation. This event is planned to be carried out in 2 stages. From July 1 to August 15, the census will be conducted in the most accessible territories of Russia, from September 15 to November 15 - in hard-to-reach regions of the country.
The Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, responsible for the census in 2016, must collect data on 167.6 thousand farms, 31.4 thousand agricultural organizations, 29.6 thousand economic entities in the status of microenterprises, 55 thousand farmers in the status Individual entrepreneurs, about 20 million personal households of citizens, as well as about 80 thousand non-profit associations of gardeners and summer residents.
Each of the corresponding types of business entities can deal with specific types of tasks specific only for enterprises of a certain scale, which are located in a specific region of the Russian Federation. One of the tasks of the agricultural census is to identify such patterns and analyze them from the point of view of applicability in order to increase the effectiveness of state policy in the field of agricultural development.
We will now study the goals and objectives to be solved by the participants of the event in question.
Goals and objectives of the 2016 agricultural census
The 2016 All-Russian Agricultural Census assumes that the competent authorities solve problems in general that are similar to those set in the framework of the corresponding event in 2006.
So, they have to:
- to collect statistics on the status and structure of the agricultural sector of the Russian Federation, on the resources that it possesses, as well as its potential;
- to formulate detailed characteristics of the activities of economic entities in the agricultural sector - in order to develop a development strategy for the industry, develop tools for economic impact on it in order to stimulate development;
- obtaining data to characterize the level of food security of the state.
We will study what key indicators are supposed to be fixed in the framework of the 2016 agricultural census.
2016 Agricultural Census: Key Indicators
Agricultural Census 2016 - an event during which competent specialists will collect information:
- the size of land owned by citizens and organizations, their structure and methods of use;
- related to demographic indicators for various census objects;
- on employment in agriculture;
- about the area under crops of various crops, classified by species;
- on the number of livestock and poultry - also in relation to their individual species;
- the availability of various types of machinery, equipment and other infrastructure at the disposal of an economic entity.
Let us examine in more detail which economic entities can be objects of the agricultural census in 2016.
2016 Agricultural Census: items
In accordance with the provisions of a separate federal law, the objects of the 2016 agricultural census may be individuals and organizations:
- Owning, leasing or otherwise using land plots that are used for agricultural production;
- owning farm animals.
Agricultural producers in accordance with the legislation are classified into the following categories of economic entities:
- legal entities;
- peasant farms;
- individual entrepreneurs;
- subsidiary plots of citizens;
- horticultural and country non-profit associations of agricultural producers.
The next important aspect of an event such as the agricultural census is preparation. Consider its features in relation to the 2016 agricultural census, in more detail.
Agricultural Census Preparation 2016
The way in which this area of work of agricultural census participants is carried out in 2016 is determined, as a rule, at the level of a specific municipality, but in accordance with the norms of federal laws. So, most often in the territories of local subordination, special commissions for conducting the agricultural census are established. They usually include representatives of municipal authorities, Rosstat, experts in the field of agriculture, representatives of law enforcement and supervisory authorities.
It is noteworthy that the preparation for the 2016 agricultural census in most cases has been carried out since 2015. So, by the time of the relevant event, it was assumed that competent specialists would successfully solve such problems as:
- formation of a list of business entities for which data should be collected;
- implementation of census zoning - dividing a municipality into separate territories and census plots to increase the efficiency of the work of specialists responsible for data collection;
- attraction of registrars - in order to formulate an official list of agricultural census objects.
The procedure for conducting an agricultural census, reflected in the legislation, provides for the mandatory protection of the personal data of participants in the relevant event. We will study this nuance in more detail.
2016 Agricultural Census: Protecting Members' Personal Data
The fact that data on census participants are subject to protection is reflected in several sources of law at once. Firstly, it is a federal law in accordance with which an agricultural census is organized. Secondly, this is a separate Federal Law on the protection of personal data.
In accordance with the rules of law applicable in the legislation of the Russian Federation, information that is included in the census registers should be considered as information that is not subject to unauthorized disclosure. The only way to use it is to transfer to the appropriate information systems. Users of this information may only competent authorities and other entities to which this right is granted by law.
The processing of data contained in the census registers should be subject to the necessary protection, that is, using reliable modern encryption and data transfer technologies. Employees of authorities involved in the agricultural census are obliged, in accordance with the law, not to disclose information contained in the census registers.
At the same time, it is worth noting that the results of the agricultural census - in the form in which the criterion for confidentiality of information about certain economic entities will be met, is subsequently supposed to be published - in print and on the Internet. This or that information, thus, will be depersonalized and will not contain links to specific agricultural enterprises.
Summary
So, we examined the essence of the concept of agricultural census, the history of these events. Many types of agriculture have historically been developed in Russia, and in order to build an effective policy of support and development of this sphere, the state regularly collects data on the situation in the relevant industry.
In 2016, the second agricultural census is held in the Russian Federation after the collapse of the USSR. In turn, in the Soviet period, these events were carried out very often: the experience of those times, the practice of collecting information on the agricultural sector are also involved in solving the current tasks set by the Ministry of Agriculture and other interested state structures.
In 2016, one of the largest agricultural censuses will be held. The competent authorities will collect data on all the main economic entities of the agrarian sector and classify them within a large number of different categories - so as to form an information base that can be used to objectively analyze the situation in the agricultural sector of Russia. Subsequently, the agricultural census data will be used by the authorities in building new priorities in the development policy of the agricultural sector and the sectors of the country's economy that depend on it.