The pilot census of agriculture in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) will be conducted from October 15th to 30th this year in all statistical institutions of BiH in accordance with the jointly established methodology.
Director of the Federal Statistical Office of BiH, Emir Kremic, points out that the last census of agriculture in BiH was conducted in 1960, and that a unique methodology has now been adopted at the level of BiH, in cooperation with all three statistical institutions (Agency for Statistics of BiH, Federal Statistical Office, and RS Institute of Statistics), as well as a unique questionnaire based on European Union (EU) norms to carry out that census.
The census, he says, will provide the necessary structural data on agriculture, which is an obligation of BiH on the way to obtaining the status of a candidate for EU membership, and one of the conditions of the Stabilization and Association Agreement.
”We must mention that statistics has its own special chapter when it comes to negotiations with the EU, and that is chapter 18. The pilot census of agriculture, that is, a trial census will be conducted from October 15th to 30th this year, just as the pilot population census was done, to see, that is, to test how the questionnaire and applications work, although the standards of EUROSTAT (Statistical Office of the EU) were adopted when it comes to this census,” Kremic points out.
This year, he adds, the trial census is being conducted on the basis of about 9.000 farms and households when talking about the Federation of BiH (FBiH). In total, about 200 census circles are being conducted, of which 112 are in the FBiH, and the rest are in the RS in Brcko District.
”In the official census planned for next year, probably at the same time as this census, there should be about 300 thousand households or farms,” he adds.
Kremic points out that during the establishment of that register, support will be provided in an adequate way to the entity ministries of agriculture, and that based on these data, they will be able to apply for additional funds from the EU for both agriculture and the livestock fund in BiH.
All data collected from individual households, he says, is considered an official secret, and the data obtained from the pilot list will not be used publicly.
”We need to get the exact data, for example, how much land is sown, how much is arable, how much is uncultivable, how much is in the rural part, what are the agricultural crops and how many of them there are, data on livestock and the importance of the pilot census is that after the realization and analysis of the obtained results, all the necessary prerequisites for the realization of a full census of agriculture will be ensured,” Kremic concluded, Vijesti.ba writes.
E.Dz.
