At the sitting held on 15 November, the members of the Committee on Science and Technological Development considered the Information on the upcoming 2011 Agricultural Census.

Addressing the Committee members, Dragan Vukmirovic, Director of the Republican Statistical Office, stated that the last agricultural census was carried out in 1960 and the new census would provide structural and detailed data on agricultural households in Serbia. The agricultural census relies on the popular census and is carried out according to UN recommendations. The census would give an overview of the situation on the national, local and level of households and will provide the basis for harmonisation with EU agricultural standards. The agricultural household is the unit of observation, and the census will cover the category of agricultural producer with agriculture as primary activity, as well as those whose primary activity is not agriculture, but do practice it. The census elements comply with global standards and methodology. The problem both the Republican Statistical Office and Republican Geodetic Authority face is lack of funds i.e. the funds defined by the Census Law have not been secured in the 2010 budget, and according to the Office’s information would not be secured in the 2010 budget rebalance either. Even though it received no budgetary funds, the Office has already carried out the test census using EU’s IPA funds last year, and the pre-census test currently underway is also financed by EU funds. The Office is also on the way to secure about 9 million EUR worth of non-refundable EU funds for field work which will reduce the budgetary expenditure by about 10%. That will make Serbia the only country in Europe whose agricultural census funds have been provided by the EU which shows how much the census is important to them. Vukmirovic added that if the 2011 budget does not allocate the necessary funds, the Office will have to cancel the census.

Debating the information, the Committee members remarked that the census results would show what Serbia disposes with in agriculture, and expressed dissatisfaction at the lack of funds for the census, requested more detailed information on the census structure and cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, exchanged opinions on the state of the cadastre in Serbia, etc. The Committee members agreed to invite representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management to the meeting with the representatives of the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Science and Technological Development, so that they could respond to the Committee members’ questions about the funds allocated for the needs of the scientific sector, popular census and agricultural census next year.

The sitting was chaired by Srboljub Zivanovic, Committee Chairman.