The Minister for Agriculture, Rural and Maritime Development, Waterways and Environment Hon. Dr. Mahendra Reddy visited the Northern Census Operation Centre to witness first-hand the operating procedures of the Census exercise.
Minister Reddy while addressing enumerators and field supervisors at the Ministry of Agriculture office in Labasa, reiterated the importance of their combined efforts for the timely completion of the Census.
Dr. Reddy further highlighted the importance of accurate data collection and record-keeping to guide the development of the agriculture sector.
Minister Reddy noted a total of 36 districts in the Northern Division in the province of Macuata, Bua and Cakaudrove with the total number of households expected to be counted being 20,574 as per the 2016 Census household survey report.
Dr. Reddy urged enumerators to work collaboratively, in terms of resource sharing for the successful completion of the 2020 Fiji Agriculture Census activity in the North.
Minister Reddy said the exercise would establish a baseline database on the structure of Fiji’s agriculture sector and would improve Fiji’s agriculture and rural statistics system capacity to generate quality agriculture data.
Meanwhile, a total of 79% of the targeted baseline survey area has been completed in the Northern Division while the remaining 21% survey area is expected to be completed in the next 2 days for the Northern division.