Sri Lanka to conduct nationwide agriculture census digitally

Enumerators equipped with around 16,000 tablet computers will be deployed across Sri Lanka to record the country’s agricultural activity as the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) moves away from paper forms to a fully digital survey, DCS Director General K.M.D.S.D. Karunaratne said on Wednesday.

Data will be collected at Grama Niladhari Division level, the country’s smallest administrative unit, and will cover crops, livestock, irrigation sources, the impact of disasters, farm infrastructure and processing centres.

The survey will cover commercial farms, smallholders and large estates, as well as landowners, home gardeners and those engaged in smart agriculture.

The resulting database is expected to support future planning and policymaking in the agricultural sector. Asked whether ministries and other state institutions would have access to the findings, Karunaratne said the information would be shared with the relevant authorities.

She urged households and farmers to cooperate with enumerators and provide accurate and up-to-date information, stressing that the quality of the data would influence future economic and agricultural policy decisions.