PAU organized 3-day North Zone Regional Training on “Data Validation” for assistant statisticians and field supervisors of cost of cultivation scheme

Ludhiana, November 1, 2019: The Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), organized a three-day North Zone Regional Training on “Data Validation” for Assistant Statisticians and Field Supervisors of the Cost of Cultivation Scheme. Officials from Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India, imparted training on online data entry and validation for Assistant Statisticians and Field Supervisors of Cost of Cultivation (COC) Scheme of four Northern States comprising Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab. Agricultural Sub Inspectors, Data Collection Assistants and Computing Assistants of COC Scheme of Punjab also participated in the training. The chief guest Dr NS Bains, Director of Research, PAU, while inaugurating the training, highlighted the importance of cost of cultivation data for the welfare of the farmers and policy makers regarding formulating different agricultural policies aimed at increasing the farm productivity and incomes. Dr RS Sidhu, Registrar, PAU, elaborated the richness of the socio-economic information collected under “Comprehensive Scheme for Studying the Cost of Cultivation of Principal Crops” since 1971-72. He stressed upon the need for the coverage of more crops under this scheme and for extensive analysis of this data which may be very important from the policy point of view. Dr Shammi Kapoor, Dean, College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, outlined the role of subsidiary occupations in sustaining farmers' livelihood. For promotion of these, economic viability of these need to be studied through in-depth cost studies, he added. Ms Nidhi Satija, Deputy Director, DES, briefly outlined the objectives, functions and the importance of data collection under the Cost of Cultivation Scheme which is used to declare Minimum Support Prices of Crops. Dr Kamal Vatta, Head, Department of Economics and Sociology and Honorary Director of Cost of Cultivation Scheme, welcomed all the dignitaries and the participants. Dr GS Romana later proposed a vote of thanks. During technical sessions, the team of officials of DES discussed technical issues related to data collection, reporting and online entry of data. Validation techniques to improve the data quality were discussed in detail. During training, the officials of DES also conducted a field visit and interacted with the selected farmers on farm relating issues.