Agriculture Census 2004

Due to the fact that sufficient resources for the full-scope census could not be allocated in the state budget of 2004, the field work of the census was conducted in two stages. The first stage, from 25 September to 4 October 2004, has covered the rural area, while the second stage, from 14 to 23 April 2005 has covered the district centers and small towns of Georgia. The second stage was indispensable because small towns of Georgia by their lifestyle are very close to the rural area and, as the census has shown, more than two thirds of their households are engaged in agriculture.

For ensuring the consistence of the data of the two-stage census, at the second stage the reference period was set not to 12 months before the enumeration but to the corresponding period of the first stage (from 25 September 2003 to 25 September 2004), and the reference moment was set not to the enumeration day but to 1 October 2004. Respectively, during the second stage only the holdings existing at 1 October 2004 were enumerated.

Field work of the census consisted of two steps: preliminary tour and enumeration. During the preliminary tour, the enumerators visited all dwellings within the territory of their enumeration areas, as well as offices of agricultural enterprises and other type holdings. They revealed all existing holdings. It was quite possible that several holding would be revealed in a household, e.g., a family holding, a joint holding and an individual agricultural enterprise. For avoiding double enumeration of joint holders, enumerators were given a special form where, in case of revealing a joint holding, they recorded identification data of all joint holders. On the basis of that form different questionnaires referring to the same joint holding were identified and only one of them took part in data processing. At the second stage of field works, for every holding revealed during the preliminary tour a questionnaire was completed. The questionnaire is attached in the Annex and it will give the reader a complete idea about the type of information collected during the census.

During the census the enumerators visited every household living in the rural area and small towns. Each household which carried out any kind of agricultural activity (i.e. owned or rented land or livestock for agricultural production) irrespective to its scale was considered a holder of a family holding and a questionnaire was completed for it. Moreover even for the households with no agricultural production the questionnaire was partly completed. Thus the advantage of the agricultural census was taken for carrying out a micro-census of population in the rural area and small towns.