Midterm review of the 2020 round of censuses of agriculture

Abstract

In early 2020, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) conducted a mid-term review of the plans and progress of national censuses of agriculture in the 2020 round of the World Programme for the Census of Agriculture (WCA 2020). The round covers the period 2016–2025. A brief online survey was sent to all member countries. This paper presents the main findings of the mid-term review. The findings show that an increasing number of countries are shifting their census methodologies from classical to modular approach and combining field enumeration with the use of administrative registers. CAPI is overtaking PAPI as the main data collection mode and a growing number of countries are relying on the use of new technologies such as CAWI, CATI, GIS and interactive online databases. A large number of countries postponed their censuses at least once due to lack of funds. The situation was exacerbated later by the protracted impact of COVID-19 on most census operations.