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Punjab CRS: Base Line SurveyAgriculture Information System

Building Provincial Capacity for Crop Forecasting and Estimation

A joint FAO, UN, SUPARCO & Crop Reporting Service, Government of Punjab publication

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P a k i s t a n S p a c e a n d U p p e r A t m o s p h e r e R e

s e a r c h C o m m i s s i o n

P a k i s t a n S p a c e a n d U p p e r A t m o s p h e r e R e s e a r c h C o m m i s s i o n

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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO, UN) in collaboration with Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) is implementing a project to enhance provincial capacity for crop forecasting and estimation, using state of the art technologies. In this regard sustainable, fast track methods and tools are being developed using Satellite Remote Sensing (SRS), Geographical Information System (GIS), Global Positioning System (GPS) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Transferring of these developed methodologies to the provinces is a continuous process and is being undertaken through training of appropriately qualified personnel of the Crop Reporting Services. During the current year two training courses namely Land Cover Classification & Mapping and Estimation of Crop area using Area Frame Sampling were carried out. The officials of the Punjab and Sindh Crop Reporting Services participated in these courses. Additionally, a series of training manuals

PREFACE

are being developed and printed to provide guidelines to frontline and senior officers in the Crop Reporting Services. The basic purpose is to improve the techniques and delivering capacity of the Provincial Governments to provide time series information on crops and develop capacity to handle emergency situations during floods, drought or other unprecedented events.

It was also planned to carry out a baseline survey of Crop Reporting Services to document their present capacity, so as to ensure a valid comparison at the end of the project implementation period.

SUPARCO and FAO,UN acknowledge with thanks the cooperation and support extended by the professionals of the Punjab Crop Reporting Service at the level of Director, Statisticians and others in compiling this base line survey.

Funding support of USDA to undertake this base line study is also acknowledged with appreciation.

John S. LathamSenior Land and Water Officer (Geospatial)NRL - UN/FAO

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AF Area Frame

AFV Area Frame Villages

BPS Basic Pay Scale

CRS Crop Reporting Service

FAO Food & Agriculture Organization of UN

GIS Geographic Information System

GPS Global Positioning System

KP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

LCCS Land Cover Classification System

ICT Information and Communication Technology

MINFA Ministry of Food & Agriculture

PBS Pakistan Bureau of Statistics

PC1 Planning Commission 1

PSDP Public Sector Development Program

SRS Satellite Remote Sensing

SUPARCO Pakistan Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission

USDA United States Department of Agriculture

VMS Village Master Sample

ACRONYMS

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ISBN : 978-969-9102-10-3

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1. Introduction 09

2. Cropping Seasons 09

3. Organizational Structure 12

4. Training Programs 14

5. Transport 14

6. Hardware / Software 14

7. Budget and Financial Support 15

8. Methods, Tools and Techniques 15

9. Survey Methodology 18

a) Area Collection Technique 18

b) Crop Yield Estimation Technique 19

c) Time Consumed for Conducting Field Surveys and Crop Yield Estimates 19

d) Size of Plot and Time Consumed for Yield Estimation 20

e) Limitations/Problems in Existing System 20

10. Quality of Pakistan’s Agricultural Statistics 20

11. Database 20

12. Availability of Information to End User 21

13. Creating Knowledge base for Scaling the Methods, Tools and Capacities 21

14. Crop Reporting Schedules and Publications 21

15. Sustainability 21

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Base Line Survey Agriculture Information System

1. Introduction

The cultivated area of Pakistan is 21.3 million ha. The canal command area is 16.7 million ha and the cropped area is 23.7 million ha. Most of this area is located in the Indus basin. The country has developed a reservoir capacity of 18 million acre feet. Over years approximately 2 million acre feet capacity has been lost due to sedimentation.

There are two rainfall systems viz. monsoon and mid-latitude westerly disturbances. Generally monsoons bring rainfall from Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea in summer during the months of July to mid-September. The mid-latitude westerly disturbances bring rain by cyclones from Mediterranean systems during winter months, mainly during December to March. However both of these systems can be operative at the same time in some exceptional years. November is the driest months of the year as both the systems are at the weakest position during this transition phase.

Punjab has a cultivated area of 12.40 million ha. It has four distinct ecological regions. The northern Punjab is a Potohar plateau and is a rainfed agricultural zone. The South-South East Punjab is Cholistan desert. It is mainly a rangeland, generally for small ruminants. Thull in the mid west of the province is a semi-desert area that supports chickpea crop in winter on the residual moisture of monsoon. In summer, the area is markedly evident as barren in the satellite imagery. Most of the remaining area is generally irrigated and is further categorized into three sub-regions viz. the north east of the province is a basmati growing area and the south is a cotton belt . The central Punjab grows a combination of multiple crops. The main crops grown in the province include wheat, cotton, rice, sugarcane, maize, oilseeds, pulses, fruits, vegetables, spices, fodders and a large range of other crops.

2. Cropping Seasons

There are two main crop growing seasons in Pakistan. The winter crops (Rabi meaning spring) are sown during October-December and are harvested during March-April. The sowing season of summer crops (Kharif meaning autumn) is generally longer. It starts in February for sugarcane, March-June for cotton, June-July for rice and July-August for maize crop. The harvesting of these crops starts in September and continues up to December with exception of sugarcane that can proceed up to March or even beyond. The planting of orchards and other trees is carried out in spring (February-March) or during monsoon (July-August).

Building Provincial Capacity for Crop Forecasting and Estimation

Spring Maize at Sahiwal

Preparation for sowing

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Crop Calendar

Crop Province Region Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Wheat Punjab Potohar

Irrigated Fallow

Irrigated after Kharif

Sindh Lower

Upper

KP Plains

Hilly Area

Balochistan Plains

Cotton Punjab Southern & Central

Sindh Mirpur Khas

Hyderabad, Badin

Upper

KP D I Khan

Balochistan Lasbela, Nasirabad

Sugarcane Punjab Spring

Sindh Autumn

Spring

KP Spring

Rice Punjab Basmati

Irri

Sindh Kotri

Sukkur

Guddu

KP Plain Areas

Hilly Areas

Balochistan

Potato Punjab Autumn

Spring

KP Autumn

Spring

Balochistan Summer

Onion Punjab All

Sindh Lower

Upper

KP Plains

Hilly Areas

Balochistan Uplands

Plains

Maize Punjab Autumn

Spring

KP Plain

Hilly

Cultivation Harvesting Cultivation & Harvesting

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Season Crops 5 year (2005-06 To 2009-10) Average Area (000 ha)

Punjab Sindh KPK Balochistan Pakistan

Kharif Cotton 2394.6 602.2 0.5 34.2 3031.5

Sugarcane 687.6 240.9 100.8 0.6 1029.9

Maize 521.4 2.9 489.7 5.5 1019.5

Sorghum 177.4 52.9 6.5 31 267.8

Mung Beans 185.4 11.4 8.9 9.3 215

Mash Beans 25.0 1 1.5 2.9 30.4

Other Kharif Pulses 2.4 3.2 1.4 2.1 9.1

All Fruits 395.8 148.3 47.1 250.9 842.1

Vegetables (excl Potato) 136.4 35.9 39.2 38.1 249.6

Rabi Wheat 6613.6 1005.8 750.2 381.2 8750.8

Gram 947.1 43.4 40.8 35.7 1067

Rapeseed, Canola & Mustard 129 52 17.8 33.8 232.6

Potato 125.5 0.3 9.2 2.6 137.6

Onion 35 52.6 12.1 37.8 137.5

Lentil 18.1 5.8 4.7 3 31.6

Spring Maize 521.4 2.9 489.7 5.5 1019.5

Fodders 1971.6 303.2 104.2 39.1 2418.1

Rabi vegetables 136.4 35.9 39.2 38.1 249.6

Citrus 186.5 4.5 4.3 1.3 196.6

The wheat, cotton, rice, sugarcane and maize occupy the main cropped land and are categorized as major crops. The remaining crops are categorized as minor crops, because these are grown on smaller areas. The typical area share of various groups of crops is as follows:

The production maps of various crops are as follows:

PUNJAB WHEAT PRODUCTION PUNJAB COTTON PRODUCTION

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PUNJAB SUGARCANE PRODUCTION

PUNJAB RICE PRODUCTION 3. Organizational Structure

The Crop Reporting Services in Pakistan are provincial entities and work under the Secretary of Agriculture directly. In case of Punjab details are as follows:

a) Manpower

The Director is a province level position. The Statisticians operate in various regions of the province. The Assistant Directors are posted at District level. The Statistical Officers work at Tehsil level. The Statistical Assistant and Crop Reporters work in the Area Frame villages. The total manpower of CRS Punjab is 1611 persons. The total strength of the professional staff is 1418 and the rest are the supporting secretariat, administration and finance personnel. The basic qualification of the professionals is a Master's degree in Statistics, Economics or Mathematics.

b) Capacity in Satellite based Crop Monitoring

The three professionals that have been employed on the said project, each has a degree in Agriculture, Remote Sensing and GIS. SUPARCO arranged a number of trainings for the incumbents of CRS Punjab. The numbers of persons trained from CRS Punjab were as follows:

Designation BPS Sanctioned Posts

Filled

Director 19 1 1

Statistician18 + special pay

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Assistant Director 18 45 45

Statistical Officer 17 156 156

Statistical Assistant 11 166 166

Crop Reporters 11 1038 1038

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S # Name of Training

Organization Place # of persons trained

1. Crop area & yield estimation by remote sensing

SPOT Image, Toulouse, France

Islamabad 9

2. Application of Remote Sensing to crop estimations

University of Liege

Arlon, Belgium

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3. Satellite based crop Monitoring

SUPARCO Islamabad 49

4. Ground Truthing Surveys

SUPARCO Field Schools

200

S # Item as per PC-1 Quantity

1. Computer Branded 05

2. Computer Note Books 02

3. Printer A4 size 01

4. Printer A3 size 01

5. GPS Receivers 03

c) Equipment and Funding

The details of equipment and funding provided to CRS Punjab by SUPARCO are as follows:

The cost of above equipment is Rs. 1.203 million. A transfer grant of Rs. 2.315 million was also provided for purchase of laboratory furniture and operational use.

Secretary Agriculture

Director Agriculture

Division HQ Statistician

BPS-18 -Division Level

Assistant Director BPS-18-District Level

Assistant Director (STAT) BPS-18

Field Staff

Statistician BPS-18

Admin Officer BPS-17

Statistical Officer BPS-17 Tehsil level

Statistical Officer BPS-17

Secretarial Staff

Statistical Assistant

BPS-11Statistical Assistant

BPS-11

Crop Reporters BPS-11

Computer Operator

BPS-14

Auxiliary Staff

d) Organogram

Field Staff Headquarter Staff

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Discipline Software Requirement Availability Deficit

Statistical SPSS 2 1 1

SAS 1 - 1

Excel Stat 1 - 1

Econometric EVIEWS 2 1 1

GIS Arc GIS 9.x 1 - 1

RS ERDAS Imagine 9.x

1 - 1

Crop simulation

Agro met Shell

1 - 1

Crop wat 1 - 1

4. Training programs

The training programs are confined to one day refresher course at the beginning of Rabi and Kharif seasons. The formal / mandatory trainings are missing. The trainings available are of a casual nature. These trainings were mainly imparted by federal government either by the former Ministry of Food and Agriculture or Federal Bureau of Statistics. Some trainings were also arranged by the provincial Bureau of Statistics.

5. Transport

The mobility of the field staff is an integral component of a successful field program. The emphasis has been to provide transport facility at all tiers. A revolving fund was established by the former Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture at the province level to provide motorcycles to the village and tehsil based staff on the basis of payment in instalments without interest. This program is progressing well under a phased manner. Hopefully the entire staff at tehsil / village will benefit from this facility. However, the district, region and province level staff needs jeeps which are not sufficient in number. Funding support is needed to meet this shortfall. Their details are as follows:

Equipment Requirement Availability Deficit

Desktop Computers

110 45 65

Laptops 50 2 48

Printers 50 39 11

Plotters 3 - 3

Storage server 5 1 4

Work stations 20 - 20

GPS receivers 50 3 47

GPS Cameras 50 - 50

Spectroradiometer 2 - 2

Mini harvester (s) 40 - 40

Weighing Balance 50 35 15

Moisture tester 50 - 50

S # Category Area covered Requirement Availability Deficit Remarks

1 Motorcycle AF Village 1560 789 771 Being arranged through revolving fund on hire and purchase basis

District 36 36

2 Jeeps Division 9 4 5 7 are five years old and others are twenty five years old

Province HQR 5 3 2

6. Equipment / Software

The available hardware / software and requirements are as follows:

Hardware

CRS Staff at work

Software

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7. Budget and Financial Support

The total annual allocation of budget for the year 2011-12 was Rs. 399 million. The salary component makes Rs.362 million (90.7 %), rent of office building Rs. 7 million (1.8 %) and operational funds make Rs. 28 million (7.5%). Some grants were provided by the former Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and SUPARCO in terms of provision of equipment, training, transport and study tours.

8. Methods, Tools and Techniques

There has been a wide variation in techniques applied. The system improved as the shortcomings were removed. The description is given as under:

a) Opinion surveys

Initially the area was taken from the Revenue Department and the crop yield was collected through opinion surveys. This system was followed up to mid 1950. Thereafter, work was undertaken to carry out crop cut experiments for estimation of crop yields. Since, there was no experience regarding sample designing technique at province level therefore sampling was not done.

b) Village Master Sample-Wheat Frame

It was realized that the statistics collected by opinion survey lack credibility as samples were not based on the principle of probability. The

former Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Pakistan Bureau of Statistics joined hands to develop a statistically based sample designing system called area frame. For this purpose, the land revenue records of 1973-74 were acquired from the Land Revenue Department during 1978. Punjab has 25922 villages, including mouzas, sized mostly between 1500 and 2500 acres. A cluster of 5-6 villages makes one union council. A mouza has area almost equal to a union council.

The data from revenue department were stratified. The unit of operation of area comprised of the administrative boundaries of a district. The basis of stratification was the size of the village. Villages were stratified into small, medium, and large sized villages. These villages were predominantly wheat growing clusters as it is a major crop of the province occupying the largest area. A suitable number of villages around 20 to 40 in each district were selected as an area frame sample based on random/ equal probability. In all 1010 villages were selected on probability proportion basis. This sample was called Wheat Frame.

Once the system was on ground, it was handed over by the Federal Bureau of Statistics to the Punjab CRS for implementation with appropriately designed Raising Factors. This system was subsequently applied to cover other crops. The system overall is called Village Master Sample.

The same was applied to cover cotton (550 villages), sugarcane (450 villages) and rice (550 villages). One Crop Reporter is stationed in each area frame village. These Crop Reporters carry out seasonal field surveys of crop area sown. The crop yield was estimated from three randomization samples, each replicated twice. These estimates were used to work out crop area and yield at district level. The area for initial crop production forecast was taken from the Crop Reporting Service. However, for final estimate, the crop area was acquired from Revenue Department and yield was taken from CRS. The Federal Bureau of Statistics does not have any

Discussions with CRS Officials

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responsibility in execution of the Crop reporting Program.

c) Multiple Cropping Area Frame System

The system was reviewed by the Federal Bureau of Statistics during the year 2004 using the land records between the year 2001-2004.The basis of stratification was improved. This time crops included were wheat, cotton, rice, sugarcane and maize. The other procedures were generally the same. The numbers of villages, in the multiple crop area frames, are wheat 1240 villages, cotton 750 villages, rice 700 villages, sugarcane 550 villages and maize 200 villages.

d) Small Crop Area Frame

A small crops area frame was designed in cooperation with former Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture during late 1990s. In area frame the villages and crops covered are mango 50 villages, citrus 46, potato 44, gram 136, moong 118, lentil 38 and mash 38 villages.

Technique Type Season Crops covered

Objective Rabi Wheat ,gram, potato, lentil, onion, oilseeds, maize spring, citrus

Kharif Cotton, rice, sugarcane, maize autumn, sesamum, guarseed, moong , mash, groundnut, mango

Subjective Rabi Barley, matter pulses, tobacco, garlic, chillies, tomato, turnip, banana, guava, dates, grapes, rabi fodders, rabi condiments and other rabi fruits, vegetables and pulses

Kharif Bajra, jowar, turmeric, oilseeds, other Kharif pulses, lady finger, kharif fodders, other kharif fruits and vegetables

Satellite Image Rajanpur, Punjab

e) Integrated Overall System

The overall system as it stands currently is combination of objective and subjective techniques. The system overall is as follows:

f) Application of Remote Sensing & GIS

The CRS Department has been working with SUPARCO since 2005. Sixty one of its personnel have been trained in satellite based crop area and yield estimation. Two hundred Crop Reporters are participating in the GPS based ground truthing surveys for all the cropping season over the last six years.

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g) Villages in the Area Frame

The district wise detail of villages in the area frame is as follows:

S # Name of the District Total Villages

Cultivated area (000hec)

Area Frame Villages

Deficit Remarks

1 Attock 455 319.29 23 21 6.58

2 Rawalpindi 1134 231.31 24 8 3.46

3 Islamabad 201 48.27 7 2 4.14

4 Jehlum 595 137.33 15 9 6.55

5 Chakwal 460 318.72 24 23 7.22

6 Sargodha 850 480.43 60 45 9.37

7 Khushab 319 468.60 31 29 6.19

8 Mianwali 256 355.59 27 27 7.59

9 Bhakkar 557 736.40 41 37 5.02

10 Faisalabad 843 469.64 44 30 6.39

11 T.T. Singh 544 262.26 38 25 9.53

12 Jhang 702 480.29 34 33 6.87

13 Chiniot 379 191.17 15 12 6.28

14 Gujarat 1086 253.40 25 13 5.13

15 M.B.din 432 221.68 35 28 12.63

16 Sialkot 1578 252.42 36 14 5.55

17 Narowal 1316 176.62 25 8 4.53

18 Gujranwala 836 294.74 36 20 6.79

19 Hafizabad 422 196.97 26 17 8.63

20 Sheikhupura 618 313.28 20 12 3.83

21 Nankana Sahib 470 184.13 25 14 7.60

22 Lahore 360 113.01 23 13 11.5

23 Kasur 642 306.33 39 25 8.16

24 Okara 933 341.70 48 29 8.49

25 Sahiwal 531 261.08 45 29 11.11

26 Pakpattan 579 247.06 33 21 8.50

27 Multan 533 307.46 49 41 13.34

28 Lodhran 436 242.10 31 23 9.50

29 Khanewal 679 364.13 45 34 9.34

30 Vehari 778 393.15 41 30 7.63

31 Muzaffargarh 977 437.34 47 37 8.46

32 layah 724 474.13 31 18 3.80

33 D.G. Khan 821 404.59 28 24 5.93

34 Rajan Pur 534 456.94 28 25 5.47

35 Bahawalpur 860 399.96 43 37 9.25

36 Bahawalnagar 1114 606.59 41 30 4.95

37 R.Y. Khan 1368 618.19 57 29 4.69

Total 25922 12366.32 1240 872 7.05

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9. Survey Methodology

One AF village is assigned to each Crop Reporter with supervisory system at tehsil and district /division /province level. The survey is carried out twice on average in each cropping season to cover for early and late sown crops.

a) Area Frame Collection Technique

CRS carry out field surveys of the area frame villages. To this end, Crop Reporters are posted, at least by definition, one in each area frame village. These Crop Reporters move from field to field, mostly on foot and record the details of all land cover features, including crops, settlements, roads, heaps of straw/cotton sticks and others etc.

Preparing of Gridwari Plan

By procedure, they are required to record all features with land cover area more than one Marla (160th of an acre or 25.29 m2). The non-crop features within the boundary of a field are subtracted from the crop area. For orchards with mixed cropping, the area of crop is usually worked out after deducting radius of the plants.

Field surveys (girdawari) for each crop are carried out twice during each cropping season. Initially it is done around completion of sowing of a crop. The first girdawari is designed to make an early assessment of area sown under crops. A second girdawari is carried out at an advanced stage of crop growth. The idea is to revise the initial area estimate to a better precision and exclude some of the areas, which sometimes, farmers plough down for crop failures, owing to multiple factors. The objective of this girdawari is also to make a subjective assessment of crop production, by assessing positive and negative factors of crop growth. Additional girdawari, if needed, is undertaken on specific requirements. For cotton, first girdawari is carried out in June to make an early assess of area sown and secondly in August/September when the crop reaches profuse vegetation/flowering stage.

The area frame data are supplied by village Crop Reporters to the district administration of CRS. At district level, the data of all area frame villages are gathered and used to make area

Field verification survey - Area Frame

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estimate of the whole district. The area frames represent about 5% of the total cultivated area in Punjab. The sample size in other provinces is slightly lower than in Punjab.

b) Crop Yield Estimation Technique

For yield estimation, a standard and well defined procedure is followed using random tables. Three samples of 15 ft x 20 ft in duplicate are selected in each area frame village at harvest and in-situ crop cutting is carried out. The yield is worked out for the entire village, based on these samples. The village data is cumulated at district level and used to emulate yield for the whole district. The final estimate of production is worked out by using yield from the CRS and area data from Revenue Department. The revenue staffs, called patwari visits each field in the village.

The system is designed to cover 100 % villages of province and collect the information on area sown under various crops during Kharif and Rabi seasons. However, in actual practice, most of the patwaris usually go to one or more common places in a given village and record, by inquiries, the crops grown by field identity (unique field numbers of Revenue Department).

This revenue record is checked jointly by the senior revenue officers CRS and Revenue Department up to district level, picking up random samples. In final assessment, the area estimation is adopted from Revenue Department. Therefore, by procedural definition,

the published data, represent area from Revenue Department, yield from CRS and production is an output of both.

The purpose of area estimation by CRS is to provide information at early stage, about a crop, as data from Revenue Department are usually available at a belated stage, around the end of a crop season.

c) Time taken for Conducting Field Surveys

Time taken in crop area estimates are as follows:

SEASON Survey

Dates of conducting Acreage Survey

Date of Issuance of Estimate

Kharif Crops

1st 1- 15th Aug Cotton:

31st Aug

Rice:

1st Sep (IRRI)

2nd 15 - 30 Sep Cotton:

15th Nov

Rice:

1st Dec

Rabi Crops

1st 1 - 15 Jan Wheat:

1st Feb

2nd 14 - 28 Feb Wheat:

1st Apr

Special Survey

Sugarcane 15 - 25 May 1st June

Potato 20 - 20 Dec 1st Jan

Rice Nursery Survey

15 - 22 Jun --

Potato harvested at Pind Dadan Khan Training of CRS Officials

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d) Size of Plot and Time Consumed for Yield Estimation

The size of plot harvested varies according to various crops. The crop specific plot sizes and time consumed in harvest / other operations are described in the next table:

e) Limitations/Problems in Existing System

The limitations involved in conducting the field programs include inadequate transport, lack of operational budget for crop cuts, lack of threshing and moisture estimation equipment.

10. Quality of Pakistan’s Agricultural Statistics

The statistical standards used for quality control of the data are as follows:

S # Crop Plot SizeTime (days) for harvest of one field with 2 plots

No of field /village

Time (days) per village

Length (feet) Width (feet)

1 Wheat 20 15 1/ 2 3 3.0

2 Cotton 20 15 5 pickings each after 15 days / plot

3 8.0

3 Rice 20 15 1/ 2 3 1.5

4 Sugarcane 20 15 1/ 2 3 1.5

5 Maize 20 15 1/ 2 3 1.5

6 Sunflower 16 12 1/ 2 3 1.5

7 Gram 16 12 1 day for harvesting and one day for threshing

3 2.0

8 Chillies 16 12 3 pickings ,1 hours per picking

3 1.5

9 Onion 16 12 4 hours per field 3 1.5

10 Potato 16 12 4 hours per field 3 1.5

11 Mango 2 lines, and two random plants per line 6 hrs per field 3 2.0

12 Citrus 2 lines, and two random plants per line 6 hrs per field 3 2.0

S #Measure of Confidence

ParameterAcceptable level

1 Coefficient of Variance

Area (+/- ) 2.5 %

2 Yield (+/- ) 1.0 %

3 Production (+/- ) 3.5 %

11. Database

CRS is maintaining a data base covering the following parameters.

› Crop: area, yield and production

› Agricultural machinery

› Land use statistics

› Farm gate prices of agriculture commodities

› Farm inputs: fertilizers, seeds

› Agro-meteorology: rainfall, temperature, humidity

› Production cost of cotton, wheat, rice, sugarcane, maize, sunflower, gram and potato

A new land cover map is being developed by SUPARCO and CRS. It is based on the application of the FAO/ISO International Land Cover Classification System (LCCS). The land cover map is expected to improve stratification, sample collection and efficiency.

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Rabi Crops Kharif Crops

Estimate 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12

Final 29-08-09 06-09-10 29-09-11 23-04-09 08-04-10 30-03-11 02-04-12

12. Availability of Information to End User

CRS provides information to Federal Government/ Federal Bureau of Statistics, Provinces, Punjab Bureau of Statistics, Universities, Agriculture Researchers, Agriculture Extension Food Department and others. The data is also released on web page of the Punjab Government. The data is also provided on demand to the private sector including sugar mills, rice traders/industry/cotton ginning/textiles, flour mills, fruit & seed processing companies and allied disciplines.

13. Creating Knowledge base for Scaling the Methods, Tools and Capacities

The following measures need to be undertaken to create build capacity and create knowledge base:

a. Regular in-service training programs

b. Satellite image handling and processing training with regard to crop area estimation

c. Development of image classification and crop yield modelling simulation techniques/ regression modelling Procedures

d. Improvement in report writing skills

e. Data base development

f. Spatial data base handling/ management

In addition, frequent consultative, workshops and seminars should be arranged.

14. Crop Reporting Schedules and Publications

The schedule for release of final crop estimation is as follows:

The date of dispatch of final crop statistics to MINFA/FBS were as follows:

15. Sustainability

The Punjab province has a program of satellite-based crop reporting at an inception stage. It would require capacity building of the staff, budgetary support and commitment from Provincial Government to takeoff continuous support of SUPARCO would also be required during the few years to ensure that appropriately trained manpower and satellite data is available to the provincial government.

The support of the USDA funded, FAO implemented project, is a critical support mechanism designed to strengthen capacity in the province.

Season Reporting Date for final estimate

Rabi Crops 1st of August

Kharif Crops 1st of February

Sugarcane 1st of April

Canola Inflorescence

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Fact Sheet: Crop Reporting Services, Punjab, Lahore

Area: million ha-2009-10 Crop Reporting Services and Methodologies

Geographical 20.630

The Crop Reporting Service in Punjab was established in Agriculture Department during 1978 to work directly under Secretary Agriculture, independent of Agriculture Extension Department.

The Director is a province level position. The Statisticians operate in various regions /divisions of the province. The province has 36 districts and Assistant Directors are posted in each District. The Statistical Officers / Statistical Assistants work at Tehsil level. The Crop Reporters work in the Area Frame Villages. Total manpower is 1611. The total strength of the professional staff is 1417 and the rest are the supporting secretariat, administration and finance personnel. The basic qualification of the professionals is the Master’s degree in Statistics or Economics.

The description of various methodologies adopted for reporting is as follows:

a) Opinion surveys

Since inception, the area in Pakistan has been taken from the Revenue Department and the information on yield was collected through opinion surveys. This continued up to early 1980s.

b) Village Master Sample-Wheat Frame

It was realized that the statistics collected by opinion survey lack credibility as samples were not based on the principle of randomization/probability. An area frame was designed based on land revenue records of 1973-74 and 1010 villages were selected as a sample. The area was estimated from the seasonal surveys (girdawari) and production was estimated from the crop cuts. The numbers of villages in the area frame for other crops included rice 550 villages, cotton 550 villages, and sugarcane villages 450 villages.

c) Multiple Cropping Area Frame System

It is based on the land revenue records of 2001-04.The villages sampled in the frame are wheat 1240 villages, cotton 750 villages, rice 700 villages, sugarcane 550 villages and maize 200 villages. This system is in vogue presently.

d) Small Crop Area Frame

A small crop area frame was designed in cooperation with Ministry of Food and Agriculture during late 1990s. In area frame the villages and crops covered are mango 50 villages, citrus 46 villages, potato 44 villages, gram 136 villages, moong 118 villages, lentil 38 villages and mash 38 villages.

e) Application of Remote Sensing & GIS

The CRS Department has been working with SUPARCO for the past several years and 61 of its personnel have been trained in satellite based crop area and yield estimation at various forums including the University of Liege, Arlon, Belgium. Two hundred Crop Reporters were also trained at field schools by SUPARCO are participating in the GPS based ground truthing surveys during each cropping season for last six years.

Forest 0.490

Cultivated 12.490

Cropped 16.960

Canal Command Area

8.400

Culturable waste 1.560

Wheat 6.910

Rice 1.930

Maize 0.500

Bajra (Millet) 0.390

Jowar(Sorghum) 0.180

Barley 0.030

Sugarcane 0.610

Cotton 2.440

Gram 0.970

Rapeseed and Mustard including Canola

0.110

Potato 0.130

Fodder 1.910

Chilies 0.005

Garlic 0.003

Onion 0.036

All pulses 1.172

Mango 0.112

Banana 0.001

Guava

Girdawari Map

0.048