Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — Statistician of the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Mrs. Asia Rasmiyya Aliyeva visited Uzbekistan. The purpose of the visit was to provide immediate technical assistance in preparation for conducting the combined population and agriculture censuses in Uzbekistan.

The combined population and agriculture censuses will be carried out to collect reliable, objective, and comprehensive data on the population structure and various aspects of agricultural activity, using modern statistical methods across all regions and administrative units simultaneously.

In recent years, the Government of Uzbekistan has placed growing emphasis on conducting both the Population Census and the Agricultural Census. The Uzbekistan Government is currently pursuing a combined approach, aiming to carry out the Agricultural Census in parallel with the Population Census. To support this effort, the National Statistics Committee is actively engaged in preparatory activities, including consultations and technical cooperation with FAO.

In response to an official request from the Agency of Statistics under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, FAO is providing technical support to facilitate the effective integration of the Agricultural Census within the framework of the Population Census. As part of this support, a mission by the Regional Statistician from the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia was conducted. The mission aimed to assess existing gaps and challenges in the current agricultural census and deliver targeted technical assistance to ensure methodological quality, coherence between the two censuses, and alignment with international standards.

This FAO statistics mission contributes to supporting Uzbekistan’s food security and socio-economic development by generating reliable, comprehensive data through the combined population and agriculture census. The census will provide essential information on population composition, labor resources, housing conditions, agricultural land use, and livestock and poultry numbers. It will also create a robust database on demographic trends, employment patterns, income sources, and the structure of the agricultural workforce — including seasonal and informal labor — helping to inform evidence-based policy decisions and identify development priorities. By producing high-quality, internationally comparable data across all administrative levels down to the mahalla, the census will not only guide national planning but also enhance Uzbekistan’s investment appeal and standing in global development rankings by strengthening trust in its growth potential.

During the mission led by FAO the Regional Statistician Rasmiyya Aliyeva participated in  a number of important meetings and consultations with national stakeholders.:

The mission began with a meeting with the leadership of the National Statistics Committee and the Ministry of Agriculture, representatives of departments and divisions. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Department for Organization and Implementation of Censuses, Department of Agricultural and Environmental Statistics, Department of Living Standards Statistics and Poverty Assessment, Department of Social Statistics of the National Statistics Committee, as well as representatives of the International Center for Strategic Development and Research in Food and Agriculture (ISCAD) under the Ministry of Agriculture.

During the mission, active consultations were held at the National Statistics Committee. During these meetings, extensive discussions were conducted on agricultural census issues, existing approaches were analyzed based on the requirements of the FAO World Program for the Census of Agriculture (WCA 2020), and improvement paths were identified.

Also,  meetings were held with the representative of the European Union's "ASK Facility" program Mark Van Uytvanck on the farmer survey project, with the Statistical Analysis and Forecasting Department of the Ministry of Agriculture on UN Sustainable Development Goals indicators, and with experts from the international ISCAD center on the proper nutrition survey project supported by FAO.

The mission was successfully concluded with final concluding meeting involving representatives of the National Statistics Committee, Ministry of Agriculture, ISCAD, and FAO. It was agreed that FAO will ensure continued technical support to all phases of census implementation to ensure alignment with global standards to guarantee the quality, reliability, and comparability of census data.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recommends conducting censuses in the agricultural sector in addition to the current reports being submitted. The organization assists member states in national agricultural censuses by developing international census standards, concepts and definitions, and methodologies, along with providing technical assistance.

In international practice, based on FAO recommendations, agricultural censuses are usually conducted once every ten years. Some countries with developed agricultural sectors conduct census activities with a frequency of not less than once every 4-10 years. For example, this activity is conducted in Germany and the Netherlands once every four years, in the USA, Canada, and Korea - every five years, in member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) - once every 10 years.

As a result of this mission, important steps were taken for the joint implementation of population and agriculture census in Uzbekistan based on international standards, and future activity directions were identified.