Stats SA plans major farm census

27 July 2007, IOL
URL: http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5018765

Pretoria: Statistics South Africa is to conduct a R30 million commercial agricultural census from about 60,000 farming units in the agricultural business sector, it announced on Tuesday.

"The agricultural sector remains one of the key contributors of economic growth in the country and the data collected will be effective in identifying areas of challenge within the farming fraternity," manager of Agricultural statistics Moses Mnyaka said.

He said the data collected would also assist in managing the interests of agriculture and farmers at national and provincial level.

The information will be collected by means of a questionnaire, which will be posted to the respondent. The questionnaires will be posted in August and will be collected until May 31 next year.  Preliminary results are expected in June 2009.

All farming units registered for value added tax (VAT) or income tax, will be included in the census regardless of their size.