The tests were conducted in the states of Maranhão, Bahia, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro, between December 1 and 12.

The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) concluded, last Friday (12), the first pilot test of the 12th Census of Agriculture, Forestry and Aquaculture.

Pilot Test I corresponds to the first stage of the pre-test of the Census of Agriculture, which will have two other phases: Pilot Test II and the Experimental Census. These initiatives aim to encompass different biomes and diverse agricultural activities, allowing a comprehensive evaluation of the questionnaire, the functionalities of the data collection management system, and the innovations proposed for the census operation.

Enumerators, technical assistants, observers from public bodies, civil society, coordinators and other professionals are part of the teams that are visiting the enumeration areas to carry out tests with various types of communities and rural producers, considering their varied arrangements and modalities of cultivation and production.

Northern and Southern Minas Gerais

In Grão Mogol, in the North of Minas Gerais, the closure of the data collection point installed in the center of the municipality was followed by an evaluation meeting. “The test was very successful. We were able to identify some inconsistencies and points where procedures and the entire workflow can be improved, and this is one of the main objectives of the pilot test. Based on this, we can make adjustments for the coming years, so that when the Census actually begins, we are well aligned,” highlighted Gabriel Bias Fortes, area coordinator in Grão Mogol.

The municipality was chosen for the pre-test because it presents, in the rural area, a diversity of traditional communities, such as geraizeiros, veredeiros and other wild-crop harvesters, which made it possible to apply the questionnaire aimed at this segment of producers – a new feature of the 12th Census of Agriculture.

Alfenas, in the south of the state, was selected due to its productive diversity, ranging from large coffee-growing areas and soybean crops to family farming establishments, also encompassing livestock and aquaculture production in the Furnas lake region.

“It was a very positive test, in which we were able to gather materials and data for analysis, which will allow us to improve the 12th Census. of Agriculture. We have taken several notes about the questionnaire and management systems. We achieved our objective, which was to cover various areas with different production characteristics,” assessed Humberto Sette, technical assistant for the pilot test in Alfenas.

In Maranhão, the pre-test was in Bacabal

After two weeks of testing, Pilot Test I in Maranhão, specifically in the city of Bacabal, was concluded on Friday, December 12th. Throughout the data collection days, the enumerators visited different rural communities in the municipality to map out local production.

The region's main production comes from the wild-crop harvesting and cracking of babassu coconuts, a tree abundant in the local flora. The activity of cracking coconuts is passed down through generations of women, with mothers cracking coconuts alongside their daughters. Babassu cultivation is very strong in the region, including the production of charcoal and oil from burning the husk and kernel, respectively.

In addition to babassu palm cultivation, animal husbandry was identified, including cattle, sheep, and especially chickens. Chicken farming is primarily for personal consumption, while cattle are raised for sale. There is also milk production in the village. Many families were also found working in agriculture to supplement their household income.

Press highlights test in Bahia

In Bahia, the first pilot test took place in the municipalities of Juazeiro and Sobradinho, in the São Francisco Valley region, in the north of the state. This area, one of the main irrigated fruit-growing centers in the country, registered, according to the last edition of the survey in 2017, 82.2% of its establishments belonging to family farming.

This is the case of Etelvir Oliveira's property, a small producer who owns an 8-hectare mango plantation in Mandacaru, Juazeiro. He received the IBGE team in the second week of the test and said he was happy to participate: “I found it very important because it's a survey that needs to be constantly updated. I feel like I'm being seen,” he stated.

The relevance of the Census of Agriculture and the first pilot test also called the attention of the press in Bahia.

At the end of the first week of work, the Bahia Rural program, on TV Bahia, an affiliate of Rede Globo in the state, broadcast a piece about the test, which included a video recorded by the president of the IBGE, Marcio Pochmann.

At the beginning of the following week, the Census of Agriculture test received local news coverage from the team of TV São Francisco, an affiliate of Rede Globo in the Juazeiro region. The press team covered the enumerators in their fieldwork and interviewed producers and IBGE superintendent in Bahia, André Urpia.

In Juazeiro and Sobradinho, the first pilot phase also included the diverse traditional peoples and communities present at the meeting. Indigenous villages, artisanal fishing communities, traditional grazing communities, and caatinga dwellers participated in the test, allowing for the testing of approach and data collection procedures in these locations and the need for methodological adaptations to improve data collection considering the diversity of productive agri-food systems existing in the country.

In Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro, more than 250 questionnaires

In Nova Friburgo, in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, the 258 rural producers who answered the questionnaire of the First Pilot Phase of the 12th Census of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Forestry contributed to making the national survey, scheduled for 2027, more precise and efficient.

According to Alberto Azemiro de Carvalho, Planning and Administrative Management Manager at the IBGE Superintendency in Rio de Janeiro (SES/RJ), who monitored the execution of the pre-test in the municipality, the work was very positive both from the point of view of production and the technical procedure of the team.

Rural producer Juvenildo Maia, 63, who has lived in the countryside for 50 years, helped achieve the objective of the study by receiving the IBGE technicians. The team met the informant on their way to his home in Rio Bonito de Cima, in the Lumiar district of Nova Friburgo. Years ago, he even sold part of what he produced. Currently, his 20,000 square meter property, amidst the preserved Atlantic Forest and bordered by springs, serves only for subsistence. In fact, this is the reality for most producers in this area.

Experience for new civil servants

In the very rugged terrain of Rio Bonito de Cima, IBGE technician Camila Giron de Souza visited each of the properties, paying attention not only to aspects related to the application of the test, which provided daily improvements in data collection, but also to her own growth as a public servant. She, who joined the institution in July of this year through the Unified National Public Competition Exam (CPNU), works at the Rio de Janeiro Central Agency.

Ms. Giron knew that each day of data collection would be different from the other, not only because of the observations noted for the operational improvement of the census process, but also because of the experiences that only data collection with rural producers, whether in their homes or in the middle of the fields, would make possible. “This was a unique and enriching opportunity. I say this because we were able to observe the challenge of working in the field, which is a very different reality from what we are used to seeing. Furthermore, spending all these days here allowed me to go beyond the objective of the pre-test,” concludes the new servant.

Service: IBGE concludes first pilot test of the 12th Census of Agriculture, Forestry and Aquaculture

Website: https://12censoagro.ibge.gov.br/