The Committee of Experts, headed by Prof. A Vaidyanathan, was constituted in 2009 to study a system of agricultural statistics and recommend necessary improvements.

The Expert Committee today submitted its final report to Agriculture Secretary, Shri P.K. Basu. The Committee had earlier submits its interim report in July, 2010.

The Report has brought out that the deficiencies in the current system, of both area and yield estimation, arise from serious lacunae in institutional arrangements to collect, supervise and validate basic data on large scale on diverse crops. The immediate focus, therefore, should be on putting in place an institutional arrangement that would provide reliable and timely data needed for monitoring agricultural trends and for policy making at the state and national levels.

The Committee has recommended setting up of National Crop Statistics Centre (NCSC) as the nodal agency to undertake the work in collaboration with the Departments of Agriculture and Space. Its primary responsibility will be to provide reliable and timely estimates, at state and national levels, of area under major crops through complete enumeration of plots in selected sample villages and of crop yields based on properly conducted crop cutting experiments.

The Committee has also recommended the expansion of the present remote sensing programme. The aim is to provide reliable and validated in-season forecasts and end-season estimates of area for a wider range of crops at state and national levels, as well as comprehensive and detailed plot level data of land use and crops at village level.

The remote sensing unit will be an integral part of the NCSC and will work under the guidance of its governing council. It should provide independent estimates of land use and crop area in the villages selected for NCSC’s field survey for a rigorous comparison of RS estimates with estimates based on plot wise data collected in these villages. In addition it should be responsible for developing improved techniques of image analysis and validation; arranging for training of personnel in the state and regional remote sensing centres; providing technical advice and analysis needed for informed decisions on the design of satellites and hardware to meet the data needs of users at affordable cost; and help in planning strategies for expanding the scope and scale of RS techniques. In all these activities, the unit is expected to function under the overall policy guidance of the NCSC governing council and work in close collaboration with the Ministry, NRSA and agricultural research organizations.

The Committee has also suggested strengthening of the Directorate of Economics & Statistics for effective implementation of the recommendations of the Committee.

Background on the setting up of the Expert Committee

In pursuance to recommendations of Steering Committee on Agriculture & Allied Sector for formulation of 11th Five Year Plan set up by Planning Commission for thorough review of Schemes for collection of Agricultural Statistics for bringing about lasting improvements in basic system of agricultural statistics and as per decisions taken in the meeting with National Statistical Commission (NSC), the Government constituted a Committee of Experts to (a) look into the problems relating to the methodology and procedures followed for the collection/ estimation of data on land use, cropping and yields and suggest measures for improvement and (b) assess the potential of remote sensing techniques to collect these data and to indicate how to utilize this potential and (c) suggest institutional framework for improvement of agricultural statistics.

The Composition of Committee is as follows:

1. Prof. A. Vaidyanathan, Eminent Agriculture Economist, Chennai - Chairman
2. Prof S.P. Mukherjee, Chairman, Calcutta Statistical Association - Member
3. Prof. U.R. Rao, Former Chairman, Space Commission - Member
4. Dr. S. M. Jharwal, the then Principal Adviser, D/o Agriculture & Cooperation, M/o Agriculture - Member
5. Economic and Statistical Adviser, Directorate of Economics & Statistics, M/o Agriculture - Member
6. Additional Director General, NSSO, FOD M/o Statistics and Programme Implementation - Member
7. Dr. S. D. Sharma, Additional Director General, ICAR, New Delhi - Member
8. Dr. Prem Narain, Agriculture Scientist - Member
9. Shri P C Mohanan, Deputy Director General, Computer Centre, MOSPI, New Delhi - Member
10-13. Director, State Agricultural Statistics Authority (SASA) – Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat - Members
14. Adviser (ASI), Directorate of Economics & Statistics, M/o Agriculture - Member Secretary