Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on censuses of agriculture. Global review

Abstract

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) coordinates the World Programme for the Census of Agriculture 2020 (WCA 2020). A census of agriculture is a nation-wide statistical operation, undertaken at least once every ten years, that collects data on the structure of agriculture at farm level. As a part of its monitoring role, the FAO receives regular updates from member countries on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the ongoing agricultural census activities. This paper assesses the extent to which agricultural censuses were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and proposes best practices for minimising its impact. The latest review of censuses in 155 countries and territories shows that COVID-19 has affected censuses of agriculture both in developed and developing countries. However, some countries coped with the pandemic better than others. Prior-to-the-pandemic improvements in national statistical systems, a wide range of information and communication technology (ICT) solutions, and the use of alternative data collection methods and administrative registers helped these countries to reduce significantly their reliance on face-to-face interactions, and instead made them favour online training and remote data collection. This has a potential to further accelerate the pace of innovation in census-taking. For other countries, the experience underscored the need to improve the ICT infrastructure, diversify data collection methods, adopt e-learning for training, and start using administrative registers in future censuses.