Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu has called for careful on-the-spot enquiries in the country's second national agriculture census that kicks off on Jan. 1, 2007.

 

Visiting Xin'anzhuang Village, Yufa Town in suburban Beijing, Hui urged all the census takers to be thorough in gathering materials so as to provide reliable information.

 

"Site enquiries are a most important and arduous task, directly concerning the success or failure of the census," said Hui.

 

He also called for farmers to answer census takers accurately, saying the census would lay the foundation for the country's efforts to deal with agricultural issues and protect farmers' interests.

 

The nationwide census will last from January to April 2007, covering 200 million rural households and employing seven million census takers.

 

Information will be collected mainly through site enquiries about farm production, employment, migration, environmental conditions, land use, fixed-asset investment and quality of life in rural areas.

 

China's first agricultural census was conducted in 1996.

 

Since then, the government has adopted a series of policies to protect farmers' interests, including abolishing agricultural taxes, providing subsidies and setting minimum prices for grain and maximum prices for fertilizers.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 1, 2007)