On 1 June-31 July 2023, the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) will carry out the 2023 Agricultural Census (ST2023) throughout Indonesia. ST2023 is the seventh Agricultural Census conducted by BPS, since it started in 1963. The Agricultural Census is conducted every ten years in the year ending in 3 as mandated by Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 16 of 1997 concerning Statistics. The implementation of ST2023 also refers to the world food agency or FAO program.
The implementation of ST2023 was announced by the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo on 15 May 2023 at the State Palace, Jakarta. President Jokowi stated that agriculture is a strategic sector and involves the livelihood of many people. So the President emphasized the need for accurate ST2023 data to produce policy accuracy. Support for the implementation of ST2023 was also conveyed by President Jokowi, "I support the implementation of ST2023 so that this census really produces accurate, up-to-date and reliable data," he stressed. The President invited all parties to jointly make ST2023 successful. BPS also received support from various parties, ranging from ministries/agencies, local governments, universities, mass media, and many more.
The Main Secretary of BPS, Atqo Mardiyanto, during the ST2023 Standby Apple on 30 May 2023, said that the implementation of ST2023 was expected to be able to provide a comprehensive picture of the condition of agriculture in Indonesia down to the smallest areas. Atqo further said that the ST2023 data was also used as a sample frame for an agricultural survey and as a benchmark for current agricultural statistics. "And most importantly, the ST2023 data is expected to be a reference in formulating strategic policies for the agricultural sector, thereby increasing the quality of the formulated policy designs," said Atqo.
ST2023 aims to provide agricultural structure data, especially for the smallest administrative units; provide data against which current agricultural statistics can be measured; and providing a sample frame for agricultural surveys. ST2023 will cover seven sub-sectors, namely food crops, horticulture, plantations, livestock, fisheries, forestry and agricultural services. In ST2023, data on agricultural business actors throughout Indonesia will be recorded, both individual agricultural business units, other agricultural business units (groups), and agricultural companies with legal entities. As many as 190 thousand officers throughout Indonesia were deployed by BPS to record agricultural business actors.
Various innovations were made in ST2023, one of which was in terms of data collection methods. ST2023 uses multimode data collection, namely the Paper Assisted Personal Interviewing (PAPI), Computed Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI), and Computer Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) methods. ST2023 is designed to obtain international standard results using guidelines from FAO. Thus, it is hoped that ST2023 can produce better data accuracy than the previous census. What's different is that ST2023 is able to capture strategic national agricultural issues, such as urban farming, millennial farmers, agricultural modernization, and also farmer income as a proxy for farmer welfare.
The active participation of all agricultural business actors is expected for the success of ST2023. Welcome the census officers to your home on 1 June-31 July 2023. Let's record Indonesian Agriculture together for Food Sovereignty and Farmer Welfare.
