THE data entry process for the country’s biggest agricultural census is 60 per cent complete and is expected to be finished by the end of the year, said a senior official with the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.

The director general of the Settlement and Land Records Department, U Win Kyi, said the census was the most detailed to have been conducted in Myanmar.

It involved interviewing more than 3.7 million people who were asked 200 questions under 32 subject headings covering the agriculture, livestock and fisheries sectors, he said.

U Win Kyi said about 8400 departmental staff had fanned out throughout the country to conduct the census over 45 days from early last October. The information they had gathered from farmers included the size of their farms, cultivated acreage, economic conditions, educational standard and whether they had any other businesses.

“We used our own human resources for data collection to save costs,” he said.
U Win Kyi said it had cost K4 million to print the census forms.

Before the census began, data collection exercises were conducted at Maubin in Ayeyarwaddy Division, Pyay in Bago Division, Kalaw in Shan State and Myeik in Tanintharyi Division with the assistance of US$290,000 from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The data from the census is being processed at five centres equipped with a total of more than 150 computers. There are two centres in Yangon and one each in Mandalay and at Taunggyi and Lashio in Shan State.

The biggest of the centres is in Mandalay, which is being used to process data collected from 1.57 million farmers.

“Although the data entry process is scheduled to finish by the end of this year, it will take time to analyse and we hope the final report will come out at the end of 2006,” U Win Kyi said.

As well as a national report, reports would also be issued on each state and division, he said.

U Win Kyi said the census, which would be internationally recognised as it adhered to guidelines adopted by the FAO in 2000, was of crucial importance because it would be used by the government for planning.