Agricultural Statistics 2.1 Introduction 2.1.1 Agriculture has a vital role in the Indian economy. Over 70 per cent of the rural households depend on agriculture as the principal means of livelihood.
Agricultural exports constitute a fifth of the total exports of the country.
In view of the predominant position of agricultural sector, collection and maintenance of agricultural statistics assume great importance. India has a well established and internationally acknowledged agricultural statistics system. The agricultural statistics system is very comprehensive and provides data on a wide range of topics such as crop area and production, land use, irrigation, land holdings, agricultural prices and market intelligence, livestock, fisheries, forestry etc. It has been subjected to a review several times since independence so as to make it adaptive to the contemporary changes in agricultural practices. It mainly focused on stadardising concepts and definitions, devising uniform forms of returns for collection of data and suggesting the scope of enquiry in respect of areas where the system of land records did not exist.