Preparations are being made for China's second national agriculture census scheduled to get underway on January 1, 2007. The census, reckoned to the biggest ever undertaken in the world, is expected to employ approximately seven million workers.

"All relevant departments have been faithfully doing their duties and given great support to the census," a spokesperson for the State Council office in charge of the exercise told Xinhua Wednesday.

For example, he said, the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission had been very supportive in the allocation of funds and procurement of equipment. The State Council has also issued a decree on the census which took effect in August.

The training of millions of non-professional investigators is already underway.?

Contents of the census will include details of households and businesses engaged in agriculture, the environmental situation in the countryside, the use of agricultural land, fixed asset investment in agriculture, employment in rural areas and the quality of life for farmers.

It's estimated that some 30,000 townships, 600,000 villages and more than 200 million rural households will be covered in the census. China's first national agriculture census was conducted in 1996. Since then great development and changes have taken place in the countryside, a census spokesperson said.

Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, head of the cabinet office in charge of the initiative, said the census would lay the foundation for China's bid to deal with agriculture issues and build the socialist new countryside.

(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2006)