BWA_2015_AC_v01_EN_M_v01_A_OCS
DDI_BWA_2015_AC_v01_EN_M_v01_A_OCS_FAO
Office of Chief Statistician
Statistics Division
Nesstar Publisher
BWA_2015_AC_v01_EN_M_v01_A_OCS_v01
Agricultural Census 2015
AC 2015
BWA_2015_AC_v01_EN_M_v01_A_OCS
Agricultural Statistics Unit
Department of Agricultural Research, Statistics and Policy Development
Agricultural Statistics Unit
Nesstar Publisher
Statistics Botswana
Agricultural Census [ag/census]
The Botswana Agricultural Census (AC) was the fourth census of Agriculture to be conducted in the country. The first livestock census was carried out in 1971, while three agricultural censuses, covering both crops and livestock were conducted in 1982, 1993 and 2004.
Agriculture & Rural Development
Land (policy, resource management)
Labor
Livestock
Infrastructure
Water
Access to Finance
Agriculture plays an important role in rural development by providing food, income and employment for the majority of the rural dwellers. The sector has potential for growth and creation of employment opportunities particularly for the unskilled and semi-skilled people. However, the sector is not performing optimally due to recurring droughts and endemic animal diseases such as Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). Nevertheless, agriculture still remains a viable option for poverty reduction and employment creation because it is labour intensive. Since 2015 was declared a drought year, the results of the 2015 agricultural census depict contrasting trends between livestock and crop production. Comparison between the 2004 Agriculture Census with the 2015 Agricultural Census figures reveal that livestock production showed a decline, while arable production showed a marked improvement in the production of the three main crops i.e. sorghum, beans/pulses and sunflower.
Botswana
National
Households
The statistical unit was the agricultural holding, defined as economic unit of agricultural production under single management comprising all livestock kept and all land used wholly or partly for own account agricultural production purposes, without regard to title, legal form, or size. The AC 2015 covered holdings in both the household sector (the "traditional sector") and the non-household sector (the "commercial sector".)
Census/enumeration data [cen]
The agricultural year (from October 2014 to February 2015- planting season; from May to August 2015 - harvesting period), for items relating to economic activity carried out by household members; livestock variation, etc.
Face-to-face [f2f]
One of the by-products of the increased availability of computer programs for processing survey data has been the practice of assigning a weight to each sample case when non-epsem designs are used. The sampling weights were calculated for the sampling design used for 2015 Agriculture Census. In a multistage design, the sample selected at each stage represents the respective population. The fundamental assumption is that units selected at each stage are homogeneous to those not selected in respect of characteristics of interest. The weights of the sample are equal to the inverse of the probability of selection. Therefore, the sampling probabilities at first stage of selection of EAs including probabilities of selecting the holders were used to calculate the weights
Agricultural Census 2015, joins other surveys conducted by Statistics Botswana under complex designs. A stratified two stage design was employed in carrying out the census which calls for specialized methods and softwares to take care of the complexity of the design. In this case, WesVar 4.3 statistical software (supported by WESTAT) was used to obtain standard errors, confidence intervals and design effect for selected indicators.
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