"As of August 19, 154,776 out of the 180,057 units, or 86%, of the registered have been covered", the communique reads.
The pilot census, conducted from August 1 to 25 in four constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the Saratov, Penza, Krasnoyarsk and Krasnodar regions, is a preliminary to the national agricultural census scheduled for 2006.
All participants are divided into four groups - private farmers and individual businessmen; private small holdings; assorted non-commercial associations of individuals having to do with agriculture; large, medium and small agricultural enterprises; subsidiary holdings of non-agricultural organizations.
The questions put in the census are the following: number of residents engaged in agricultural activities, land resources, croplands, head of cattle and poultry, sale of products, machinery used in farming, industrial premises.
"Confidentiality of the collected information is given special attention. Many people feared that the census may be fiscal. Actually, all such information is protected by the state and only general information may be spread," the press release reads. The results of the pilot census will be summed up at the national conference of the heads of regional statistics bodies in Saratov in December.
The last All-Russia Agricultural Census was conducted in 1920.
