The first national sample survey of agriculture was conducted in
1339 by the General Department of Public Statistics of the time. After
implementation of several sample surveys, the results of which were released in
1350 and 1351, the SCI took the first
census of agricultural activities in rural areas in 1352. In
this census, the required data were collected through visiting all rural areas.
Data on agricultural activities in urban areas and nomadic households with
no residential place in rural areas of the country was not included in this
survey. On the basis of the statistical framework resulted from the
above survey, the SCI conducted the Survey of Agricultural Activities
in Rural Areas in 1353, 1354, 1356 to 1359, 1361 and 1366, and released the
results.
By carrying out the project
of preparing rural identity cards, Jahad-e-Sazandegi gathered similar
information as the results of the 1352 Survey of Agricultural Activities in
Rural Areas.
The SCI conducted the
first General Census of Agriculture in 1367 in urban and rural areas by
visiting settled and unsettled households to collect data on all agricultural
holdings of real persons as well as data on holdings belonged to legal entities
by identifying all places used by them for agricultural activities. Using the
frame of this Census, the SCI took the
first Agricultural Sample Survey in 1371.Through the Survey, which covered only
farming activities of agricultural holdings, data on production, value of
products, production cost of principal crops, etc. for the year 1370 were
collected.
The second general census
of agriculture was taken in 1372 by the
SCI. In the census, some cities or urban districts, the number of the holder
households of which were not significant in the 1367 Census, were excluded.
According to calculations, this portion of the population accounted for 1.7% of
the holder households, 2.5% of lands under crops, 3.2% of the area of orchards
and nurseries, and 1.3% of the number of livestock in 1367.
Using the frames of 1372
General Census of Agriculture and 1373 General Census of Industries and Mines,
as well as locally provided information, the SCI designed the first survey of
ornamental plants, and flowers in 1375 and implemented it in 1376. In 1380 the
SCI took the survey of holdings producing flowers and ornamental plants as
sample survey using the frame of the 1376 survey.
The 1367 General Census
of Agriculture provided the list of modern cattle farms and prepared the ground
for the implementation of the first Survey of Modern Cattle Farms by the SCI in
1369. The same survey was conducted in 1372, as a census, and in 1374, as a
sample. The results have been disseminated.
For the first time, in
1364 and 1365, the SCI took a chicken farming survey. Due to growth in variety
of chicken farming activities in recent years, the SCI has taken separate
surveys to collect data on different activities – including a census on raising
layer chicken and pullet, a census on raising breeder chicken, a census on
incubation, and a sample survey on raising broiler chicken.
The value-added table of agricultural activities used to be
made according to the Central Bank publications untill 1375. In 1381, the SCI
compiled and released the national accounts for 1370 to 1380 at current and
fixed prices, from which the value-added data presented in this chapter have
been extracted.
In addition to different
publications of the SCI, reports and publications of the following
organizations have also been used for the preparation of the information included
in this chapter:
Ministry of
Jihad-e-Agriculture,
Ministry of
Energy, Agricultural Support Services Company, Fisheries of Iran
(SHILAT), Forests and Ranges
Organization, Central Organization of Rural Cooperatives, Ministry
of Cooperatvies and Management and Planning Organization.
Besides information
on various fields
as
farming and horticulture, livestock and poultry, forestry,
fisheries and related cooperatives, this chapter includes two tables on
value-added of agricultural activities and government payments for development
of agriculture and natural resources.
Definitions
and concepts:
Agricultural holding: one or more agricultural activities
operated by one or more persons form an agricultural production unit, and is
called an agricultural holding. In the 1372 General Census of Agriculture,
holdings engaged in at least one activity matching one of the following
definitions were counted:
Farming:
at
least 400 square
metres of arable land whether under cultivation or left fallow.
Horticulture:
at least 200 square metres of gardens
and nurseries,
Raising
of livestock: at
least one large livestock (cows, calves, buffaloes and camels) or two small
livestock (sheep and goats),
Raising
of poultry: at least
5 hens, roosters, chickens or other types of poultry,
Other
activities: raising of honeybees, silkworms and fish on any scale.
Data has been collected
on all the activities of the holdings
engaged in at least one item of the above list, whether under or above the
measures mentioned.
Arable
land: land
allocated to farming, either under cultivation or left fallow.
Irrigated
arable land: a land the crops growing on which are irrigated. The crop
cultivated on such a land is conventionally known as irrigated crop.
Rainfed
arable land: lands under crop that are not irrigated but left to be watered
through precipitation.
Area
under cultivation: area allocated to crop production in the year of the survey
implementation that has been cultivated
in the same year or the year before.
Fallow:
the part of
arable land, irrigated or rainfed, which is included in crop alternation, but
has not been cultivated in the given agricultural year and from which no crop
would be harvested.
Annual crops: mostly herbaceous plants whose stems
are destroyed by harvesting and whose subterranean organs (as root, bulb, etc.)
remain, in some cases, in the earth, like: wheat, sugar beet, vegetables and
saffron.
Perennial
crops: are
plants with wooden stems or
trunks, all or some parts of which will
remain in the earth to crop the next year. Different types of fruit
trees like citrous and peach trees, vines and tea plants as well as fruitless
trees like poplar are considered as perennial crops.
Ornamental
plant: any
kind of trees, shrubs and bushes or other types of plants the main products of
which are used for decoration. The main
product might be the complete plant or a part of it such as flower, branch,
leaf, etc.
Compensation of wage/ salary
earners: see
Chapter 7 “Definitions and concepts”.
Wage and salary: see Chapter 7 ”Definitions
and concepts“.
Other payments (money, goods,
etc.): see
Chapter 7 “Definitions and concepts”.
Modern irrgation and drainage
network: comprises
installations for draining
and supplying water to arable lands
with an area not more than 200
hectares. The network, equipped with systems for water control, distribution
and measurment, procures water in normal hydrologic conditions with at least
80% guarautee.
Dam: see Chapter 8 ”Water
and Electricity“.
Production: in this chapter, production refers to
the quantity of the products obtained through the production process during a
definite period of time in the agricultural production unit (agricultural
holding, livestock and poultry farms) which is ready for sale and consumption.
In the statistical surveys of the SCI, the share of agricultural crops produced
free of charge, or the compensation of which is paid in kind or is
consumed by the
same agricultural production
unit, is included with the production.
For agricultural crops,
production refers to the common form of the crop after harvesting: weight of
paddy for rice production, weight of
dried seed for beans, weight of dried forage in case of alfalfa,
sainfoin and clover, weight of nuts peeled but in the shell in case of walnut,
almond, and pistachio, and number of trees for fruitless trees as poplar.
Modern
cattle farm: an agricultural production
unit where cattle are raised according to modern procedures and
methods with respect to the characteristics of the place, rearing, feeding, and
health.
Production of
one-day-old chickens: through
the processes of this
activity, depending on the case,
fertile eggs of layer and broiler chickens turn into one-day-old chickens of
ancestor and breeder hens, roosters, layer and broiler breeds.
Breeder
chickens: fertile eggs of this
breed are
used to produce chickens. Breeder chickens of broiler and layer
breeds are reared to produce chickens of the same breed.
Layer
chicken: these
chickens, called pullet when three months old, are reared to produce edible
eggs.
Broiler chicken: hen or rooster reared for its meat.
Shell-less
eggs: eggs
lacking the outer hard shell.
Workers
of modern cattle and chicken farms: include all people working inside or outside of the establishment, full-time or part-time, with or without wage
and salary (owners, active partners and family workers usually lie in the last
group).
Investment
(value of changes in capital properties):
changes in the value of capital properties (value
of purchase or obtaining of capital properties plus cost of major
repairs minus sale or transfer value of these properties) during a definite
period of time.
Capital
properties: all machinery, equipment and tools usually used in manufacturing
activities or for rendering services
with an economic life of more
than one year. Machinery and power
equipment, durable tools and
implements, office equipment, vehicles and buildings, are examples of such
properties.
Ranges:
a land, be it
a mountain, mountainside, or a plain, covered with herbaceous forage crops in
grazing season and already grazed, is commonly known as range. Fallows, even
though covered with
herbaceous forage crops,
are not included in this category.
Log:
a portion of
the trunk of a falled tree, almost
cylindrical, used to
produce types of
wood or veneer.
Sawn
wood: articles
of wood in specific sizes (length, width and height).
Pole:
wood from
the trunk of a tree the chest-
high diametre of which is between 8 and 30 centimetres.
Pitprop:
rounded piece
of wood, almost two metres long, with a median diametre of 6 to 20 centimetres
and used in mines.
Timber:
round wood
1.5 to 2.0 metres in lenght and 20-40 centimetres in diametre that cannot be
turned into sawn wood.
Pulpwood:
wastes of
articles of wood
in
different sizes and
lengths.
Delineation: exact estimation of
the area and
admitted limits of each husbandry
in a range.
Water
troughs: shallow
wells supplying livestock drinking water only.
Shallow
wells: wells
dug in mountainsides to supply livestock drinking water. Water of these wells
rises to the surface without pumping like artesian wells or springs.
Mulching: to create vegetation (mulching) over
the soil to prevent it from moving, losing temperature or dying out.
Windbreak:
artificial
obstacles against the wind to prevent dune movement.
Preservation:
selection and
declaration of the areas of regions with high erosion or sensitive to erosion.
Basin: see Chapter 1 “Land and Climate”, ”Definitions
and concepts“.
Watershed
areas: lands
lying in the river basin
leading running water
resulted from preticipation to the lake.
Watershed
management: activities performed for the reclamation and restoration of
watershed areas.
Cooperative unions: companies composed of at least 7
natural persons as members who
finance either whole
or 51 percent of the capital
and are registered
according to regulations of
cooperative sector's Act. Some cooperatives, however, were established by less
than 7 members before determining the minimum number of members of the
cooperatives in the mentioned Act.
Output: see Chapter 21, “Definitions and
concepts”.
Intermediate consumption: see Chapter 21 “Definitions and
concepts”.
Value added: see Chapter 21, “Definitions and
concepts”.
Current prices and constant
prices: see
Chapter 21, “Definitions and concepts”.