Preliminary results of the first stage of 2016 agricultural census

In 2016 the second in new Russian history agricultural comprehensive census is conducted in two stages. The first stage was taken in the most regions of the country from 1 July to 15 August. The second stage was taken from 15 September to 15 November in far and isolated regions, which are difficult to reach. It is required to collect information about almost 300 agricultural organizations, 795 peasant farm enterprises and 25 th private farms on these territories.

Census operation is regulated by the Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation № 316 of April 10, 2013, which identifies its major goals:

• to form official statistics data about main agricultural production indicators, condition and structure of agricultural sector of economy;
• to collect information about availability and actual use of agricultural resources;
• to get detailed features of agricultural entities;
• to compile data about municipal entities;
• to increase the data bank for international comparison.

The operational research results of the first stage of census show, that on the vast majority of the country it was managed to collect detailed statistics data about 36 400 agricultural entities, 174 800 peasant farm enterprises and individual entrepreneurs, 18 200 000 private and personal subsidiary husbandries and 76 300 nonprofit associations of citizens.

Thus the share of researched subjects, which transferred data in electronic form, among agriculture entities amounted to 26,8%, among micro entities - 11,7%, among subsidiary husbandries of nonagricultural entities - 13,2%.

0,2% of the researched subjects among personal subsidiary husbandries refused to provide information for the census, as well as 0,01% of peasant farm enterprises, 0,03% of horticultural, vegetable and garden plots owners, 0,04% of individual entrepreneurs.

According to experts, the main outcome of the first and main stage of the census is specification of the general totality of agricultural units. In the future it will allow to improve the current agricultural statistics, that, accordingly, will positively influence on the process of agricultural management and effectiveness of its state support.

The primary analysis of the collected data indicates about significant structural shifts, i.e. decrease in agricultural manufacturers and increase in farms area. This allows to apply modern production technologies and reduces employment in agriculture, but at the same time the decrease in the number of rural settlements and higher migration flow to cities take place.

The Federal State Statistics Service will start to sum up the final results of the census after the completion of its second stage. It is planned to present the preliminary results in October – November 2017. The final results will be published from May to December 2018.