This was announced by the National Statistics Office Regional Office 10 during the consultative forum on the conduct of 2012 Census of Agriculture and Fisheries (CAF) held 13 August, in Chali Beach Resort Conference Center.

Dr Salvador A. Aves, regional director of NSO-10, said the census-taking is important because the statistics that will be generated will be used in making meaningful decisions in the utilization of resources as well as in measuring the progress in the agriculture and fishery sector.

He said up-to-date information about the sector will enable development planners and policy-makers to respond to the prevailing challenges and opportunities.

Agriculture is the bedrock of the rural industry, it is the major source of raw resources in which the rest of the economy depends, he cited.

Taken every ten years, the CAF is a large-scale government operation that will gather data to determine the structural characteristics of agriculture, aquaculture, and fisheries sectors for use in national and subnational development planning.

The sixth of a series of decennial census on agriculture and the fifth on fisheries, the 2012 CAF will use census module approach recommended by the World Programme for the Census of Agriculture (WCA).

It will also use a census supplementary module in addition to the core module that will cover selected themes such as irrigation and cropping pattern, livestock and poultry in order to provide more detailed data.

A community or barangay module will also be used for the first time to provide a useful source of data on agriculture and fisheries infrastructure affecting farmer’s income and access to agricultural services and facilities.