Page 19 - 1960 (3) Pakistan Census Of Agriculture Vol 2 West Pakistan

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drawn from the Ministries and the departments of Legal Basis
the Central and Provincial Governments. After the
completion of initial planning for the <;;ensus the member- 10. In order to provide a legal basis for the C~nsus
ship of the Committee was reduced to fifteen. The the National Parliament had passed the AgriculturaF
Committee held four meeti11gs. In the first meeting Census Act of 1958 which authorised the Government
it considered the type of census that should be held to appoint a Census Commissioner and other n~cessary
and discussed the relative merits of a complete and staff for the sake of undertaking a Census in the whole
simultaneous census; a sample census·-; or a complete of Pakistan. It made it binding . on the respondents
·progressive census. The Committee also discussed to answer questions put to them by authorised enumera-'
the ra·nge of items to be covered by the Census and tors. At the same time it ensured confidentiality oi
suggested some amendments to the proposed tabulation that information. The provisions of the Act were
plan. In the second meeting the Committee discussed widely publicised. It is gratifying to note that n6
the proposed methodology for the census in East Pakis- recourse to legal action under the Act was felt necessary
tan. The third meeting was devoted to the discussions at any stage of the Census operations. The Act authoris-
of the Census question~naire and the methodology for ed collection of -information on the following sub-
West Pakistan. The fourth meeting discussed the jects :-
processing procedu~e and the :final tabulation plans.
(i) Land and Land tenure ;
Test and Pilot Censuses
(ii) Agricultural holdings and fragmentation;
9. This being the first census of agriculture there
was not previous experience to fall back upon. Con- (iii) Land utilization;
sequently, a number of test and pilot censuses had to
be conducted with the object of collecting basic infor- (iv) Crop acreage and production;
mation needed for detailed planning of the census
operations. In the beginning the tests covered ind- (v) Livestock and poultry;
ividual farmers but later the tests ex.tended to a whole
village at a time, finally a full-dress Pilot Census (vi) Employment in Agriculture ;
of two complete tehsils was taken. The main items
.investigated in the test and pilot censuses included :- (1Vii) Agricultural population ;
(viii) Agricultural power and machinery
(i) The form of the census questionnaire and
the wording of the questions;
(ix) Irrigation and draip.age;
(ii) Approximate number of cultivators in
villages of different sizes; (x) Fertilizers and soil dressings;
(iii) Time taken to list the farmers in a village
and the best method for obtaining a complete (xi) Wood and fishery products;
and accurate list;
( xii) Agricultural Credit ; and
(iv) Time required for the completion of an
interview with one farmer, and for the ex- (xiii) Fruit and vegetable production.
traction of information about his farm, from
the records;
( v) The ability of the farmers to understand Publicity
various types of questions and to give precise
answers to questions such as the area op- 11. The name of agricultural census was hear&
erated, area under crops, indebtedness, etc; never before in the country. The respondent farmers.
were totally ignorant. Therefore, when the project
( vi) The reaction of the farmers to questions was launched the first reactions to _it were one of wonder
of personal nature such as that of indebt-
edness etc; and amazement. As is the fate of every new idea or·
scheme, the launching of this project stimulated wild
( vii) Type of persons suitable to work as enumer- conjectures and unfounded rumours about the objectives.
ators; of the Census. Therefore, it was imperative that
(viii) Extent and nature of training to be given wide publicity be given to the objectives of the Census.
to the enumerators; in order to enlist the cooperation of the farmers.
12. With the help of the members of the Basic
(ix) Type of assistance needed by the enumera- Democracies the Census Organization was able to-
tors from the village authorities; counter-act false rumours by launching an extensive_
(x) Feasibility of obtaining the proposed -in- propaganda drive. Publicity leaflets, pamphlets and'
formation; posters were distributed in tlie sample villages, pro-
paganda on the radio was conducted at regular intervals,
(xi) Adequacy and suitability of the instruction
manuals ; and and along with that publicity committees :were organized
in the \Tillages in order to conduct vocal propaganda
(xii) Organizationa~ plans during enumeration. among the illiterate farm population. It is gratifying
,..