Agricultural Census 2001 - Tonga

Abstract
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The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) was entrusted with the responsibility to lead the implementation of the agricultural census project with the assistance of the Statistics Department (SD). The Census was conducted under the National Statistics Act 1978 which provides for obligation of the citizens to provide information, confidentiality of information provided and the duties of the census staff. A National Agriculture Census Committee was constituted to guide and supervise the entire census exercise. Technical and financial assistance for undertaking the census was provided by the FAO of the UN.

The undertaking of the AC 2001 was envisioned to:
1. provide benchmark or basic data on the structure of agricultural holdings and their main characteristics;
2. use this information to develop a regular system of agricultural statistics;
3. build up some important village and regional level statistics;
4. establish a technical and organizational foundation on which to build up a comprehensive and integrated system of food and agricultural statistics; and
5. provide a frame from which samples can be drawn to study certain aspects of agricultural activities in greater depth.

Geographic coverage
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National

Analysis unit
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- Household
- Agricultural Holding

Universe
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The Agricultural Census 2001 was conducted at the household level and a complete enumeration of all households residing in Tonga during the period of the census enumeration. However, households that left for abroad and came back after the period of the census taking and those that were permanently living in other countries were no longer included.

Kind of data
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Census/enumeration data [cen]

Mode of data collection
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Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument
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Considerable time was spent in designing the census questionnaires. The census questionnaires were in three forms, namely,
AC Form 1 – Household Questionnaire,
AC Form 2 – Holding Questionnaire and
AC Form 3 – Parcel Questionnaire.

The draft questionnaires were presented first to the Working Committee then to the User–Producer Consultation Meeting which was held on September 24, 2001. Afterwards these were tested in the field from August 27-31, 2001. From the results of the field test, the census questionnaires were finalized for printing.

Data appraisal
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Data Limitation
The AC 2001, as stated in one of its objectives, provides basic information on the structure of agricultural holdings in the Kingdom and its characteristics that do not change over a certain period of time. Like any other census and surveys, it has limitations which are enumerated in the following:
1. No data on crop production was included in this census since this information would be better asked in a follow up survey specifically designed for major crops.
2. The level of agricultural activity of a household was determined only through its involvement in the cultivation/growing of crops and size of its agricultural land which should be more than 1/8 of an acre. A household having only livestock or poultry was not considered to have an agricultural holding for this census.
3. The size of the agricultural holding, to be considered as an agricultural holder, was more than 1/8 of an acre.
4. The economic characteristics of the household members were asked for member 15 years old and over as recommended and being done internationally and in other local surveys.
5. Apart from Livestock animals, only information on dogs was included in the Livestock Section of this census. Other domesticated animals such as cats and birds like parrots were excluded.
6. Fisheries Section was asked for only few data items such as main purpose of fishing, type of fishing method engaged in, use of fishing boats and proportion of fish/other sea products sold.
7. The holding and parcels included only those agricultural lands cultivated by the holder whether owned or leased from other households. On the other hand, all lands owned by the holder but rented out to other households whether for a fee or for free were excluded in the Holding Questionnaire and Parcel Questionnaire.
8. Sections on Agricultural Income and Loan, Agro-Forestry on the Holding and Handicraft Making were asked only for agriculturally active households. The nonagricultural and minor agricultural households did not have such information.
9. Questions on the use of fertilizers were answerable only by “Yes” or “No” and questions on agricultural chemicals were the name of chemical and crops it was used on. Quantities on these agricultural inputs were not taken for it is best to include these items in a follow-up survey.
10. Small implements such as knife, spade and other gardening tools were not included in this census since it is assumed that almost all agriculturally active households owned and used such small tools.
11. The section on Agro-forestry was limited to the name of the trees/shrubs and its uses, not on the number of trees for this would create problems on data processing. Hence, a follow-up survey using this information as a frame can be done to get additional information on agro-forestry.
12. The section on Crops Planted and Already Harvested of the Parcel Questionnaire was supposed to be answered by all agricultural holders who answered the section on Parcel Details of the Holding Questionnaire. However, due to memory recall of the respondents, information on this section might have been under reported.
13. The quality of the data collected can be affected by many factors. For example, the complete enumeration and coverage limits the completeness of data, the concepts and interpretation of questionnaires may not be fully understood by enumerators, inadequate supervision and others.

摘要
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农业与林业部（MAF）受托负责在统计局（SD）的协助下领导实施农业普查项目。普查工作依据1978年国家统计法进行，该法规定公民提供信息的义务、所提供信息的保密性以及普查工作人员的职责。成立了一个国家农业普查委员会，以指导和监督整个普查工作。联合国粮农组织（FAO）提供了技术和经济援助以支持普查的实施。

2001年农业普查的实施旨在：
1. 提供关于农业经营结构及其主要特征的基准或基础数据；
2. 利用这些信息建立农业统计的常规体系；
3. 建立一些重要的村级和地区级统计；
4. 奠定技术和管理基础，以构建一个全面且综合的食品和农业统计体系；
5. 提供一个框架，从中抽取样本以深入研究农业活动的某些方面。

地理覆盖范围
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全国

分析单元
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- 家庭
- 农业经营

总体
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2001年农业普查在家庭层面进行，并对普查期间居住在汤加的所有家庭进行了全面普查。然而，那些在普查期间出国并在之后返回的家庭，以及那些永久居住在其他国家的家庭不再被包括在内。

数据类型
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普查/登记数据 [cen]

数据收集方式
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面对面 [f2f]

研究工具
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在制定普查问卷上花费了相当多的时间。普查问卷分为三种形式，分别是：
AC 表格 1 – 家庭问卷，
AC 表格 2 – 经营问卷，
AC 表格 3 – 地块问卷。
草案问卷首先提交给工作委员会，然后于2001年9月24日召开的用户-生产者咨询会议。之后，这些问卷于2001年8月27日至31日在现场进行了测试。根据现场测试的结果，普查问卷最终完成打印。

数据评估
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数据局限性

2001年农业普查，如其中一项目标所述，提供了关于王国农业经营结构及其在一定时期内不变的特征的基本信息。像任何其他普查和调查一样，它也存在以下局限性：
1. 由于此类信息更适合在针对主要作物的后续专门调查中询问，因此本普查未包括作物生产数据。
2. 家庭的农业活动水平仅通过其参与作物种植/生长及其农业土地的大小（应超过1/8英亩）来确定。只有牲畜或家禽的家庭在此普查中不被视为拥有农业经营。
3. 被视为农业经营者的农业经营规模应超过1/8英亩。
4. 询问了15岁及以上家庭成员的经济特征，这是根据国际和当地调查的建议进行的。
5. 除了牲畜动物外，本普查的牲畜部分仅包括关于狗的信息。其他家畜，如猫和鸟类（如鹦鹉）被排除在外。
6. 渔业部分仅询问了少数数据项，如捕鱼的主要目的、参与的捕鱼方法类型、渔船的使用以及鱼/其他海产品的销售比例。
7. 经营和地块仅包括持有人耕种的农业土地，无论是否拥有或从其他家庭租用。另一方面，在经营问卷和地块问卷中排除了持有人拥有的但租给其他家庭（无论是否收费或免费）的所有土地。
8. 仅对农业活跃家庭询问农业收入和贷款、经营林业以及手工艺制作部分。非农业和次要农业家庭没有此类信息。
9. 关于肥料的使用仅能回答“是”或“否”，关于农业化学品的询问是化学品的名称和它所使用的作物。这些农业投入品的数量没有记录，因为最好将这些项目包括在后续调查中。
10. 由于假设几乎所有农业活跃家庭都拥有和使用此类小型工具，因此本普查不包括如刀、铲和其他园艺工具等小型工具。
11. 农业林业部分仅限于树木/灌木的名称及其用途，而不是树木的数量，因为这会在数据处理上造成问题。因此，可以使用这些信息作为框架的后续调查可以进行，以获取关于农业林业的更多信息。
12. 地块问卷中关于种植和已收获作物的部分应由回答了经营问卷地块详情部分的所有农业经营者回答。然而，由于受访者的记忆回忆，该部分的信息可能被低估。
13. 收集到的数据质量可能受许多因素的影响。例如，完全普查和覆盖率限制数据完整性，调查的概念和解释可能不被普查员充分理解，监督不足等。