DDI_WB_LSO_1999_AgCENS_v01_M World Bank, Development Economics Data Group <_value> NADA Version 01: (July 2011) Agricultural Census 1999-2000 Sixth round AgCENS 1999-00 LSO_1999_AgCENS_v01_M Bureau of Statistics (BoS) Ministry of Agriculture NADA Food and Agriculture Organization Agricultural Census [ag/census] The 1999/2000 Lesotho Agricultural Census (ACL) is the sixth decenial census. ACL is designed and conducted by BoS in collaboration with other national and International agencies. It is designed to measure agricultural events which do not change frequently. Lesotho Agrcultural Census was undertaken to investigate characteristics of agricultural households, access of food crop production and to provide benchmark data for agriculture industry. An added significance for 1999/2000 ACL is that it coincides with the Government 's policy of alleviating poverty. The census is intended to provide on land-use, crops, livestock and agriculutral holdings. Lesotho The survey covered all farming households in the country. Agricultural households, institutions and administrative units The census covered all districts, ecological zones within the districts I.E. lowlands, foothills, mountains, senqu river valley and the urban centres. The census also included institution farms like schools, churches and correctional services. Census/enumeration data [cen] The 1999-2000 Lesotho Agriculatural Census covered the following topics: * HOUSEHOLDS: Household charecteristics, farming households ( those with fields and livestock) * LIVESTOCK: Livestock species by age and sex * CROPS: Area planted, Fallow, harvested, production and failure * HORTICULTURE: Vegetable production * AVAILABILITY AND UTILIZATION OF CEREALS: Availability and Utiliozation at end of the year. * STRUCTURAL INFORMATION: Machinery, Farm equipment, Inputs, Pesticides, Auxiliary activities and Agricultural employment A stratified multi-stage sampling scheme was adopted for the selection of the sample for the Census. Large enumeration areas constituted Primary Sampling Units (PSU) and individual agricultural holdings (farming households) constituteed secondary sampling units (SSU) for estimation of land use, crop areas and livestock population. Fields under specific crops formed the secondary sampling units for estimation of crop yield. Two subplots for crop cutting in each selected field formed the tertiary sampling units for yield estimation. 110 PSUs in rural areas that covered over 3000 holdings were selected, there being about 27 selected holdings in each PSU. A maximum of 10 fields for each of the main crops per PSU constituted the sample for the crop cutting part of the Census, which covered both winter and summer seasons. The PSUs have been selected with probability proportional to size, the size estimate being obtained from the 1996 Population Census. In each PSU, about 27 agricultural households were selected through systematic sampling from a list of all agricultural households. The same sampling method applied to the urban areas where 20 PSU's were selected but no fields were selected for crop cutting. There were no deviations made. All selected psus were covered. Face-to-face [f2f] One questionnaire was used which comprised of the following sections: AC-1 Household listing AC-2 Household Members AC-3 Field Ownership AC-4 Area measurement AC-6 Operation and imputs AC-7 Crop Cutting AC-9 Crop failure and pre harvest losses AC-11 Structural information Previous agricultural survey was used as a pretest. Enumerators were trained however during the survey additional enumerators had to be recruited. The average interview lasted for 45 minutes. The survey was conducted in Sesotho, however the questionnaire was in english no translations were provided. Supervision was done by Headquarters staff, Regional Field officers and District Field Officers Sample weights were calculated for all variables. Sample weights for the household data were computed as the inverse of the selection probability of the household. Selection probability of a household is the product of the probability of selecting a psu and the probability of selecting a household within the selected psu. Weights were also computed for the third stage sampling, where the fields within the selected households formed the third stage of sampling. There were few non-response rate in some variables, but yield estimation data had higher non-response rate. The legislation stresses the confidentiality of information collected i.e. all information collected during the census is strictly confidential and should not be disclosed to anyone other than officers supervising the census for official purpose only. Numerical tables, summaries and general conclusions drawn from data collected, can only be released with the permission from proper legal authority. The legislation was ready sufficiently in advance of the planning of the census. No activity ever took place without the support of the corresponding law.