This is the result of two months of data collection activities of the Census of Agriculture and of the Population Count, which cover about 5,7 million agricultural establishments and 28 million households in Brazil.

IBGE releases the first evaluation of Censuses 2007 and shows that 40 million persons and 1,7 million agricultural  establishments all over the country have been visited. This is the result of two months of data collection activities of the Census of Agriculture and of the Population Count, which cover about 5,7 million agricultural establishments and 28 million households in Brazil. The Population Count is being conducted in 5,414 municipalities with up to 170 thousand inhabitants and in 21 other ones located in states in which only one or two municipalities exceed the limit-population. The Census of Agriculture covers all the agricultural establishments in the country.

All over Brazil, a total 1,7 agricultural establishments - out of the 5,7 million expected - have already been visited.  In the Population Count, 11,5 million out of 28 million households have been surveyed so far. The Census of Agriculture shows that, among the five Major Regions, the one which most advanced in accordance with the number of establishments was the Northeast, with 34%. In second place is the Southeast Region, with 31%, followed by the South Region, with 30% and the Central West, with 21% of its subsectors investigated. Finally, in the Northeast, 15% of the establishments have been surveyed.

IBGE has finished the data survey in municipalities which still depend on supervision to be declared officially concluded. There are six in São Paulo, and their figures for number of sectors from which data have been collected and visited units are, respectively: Borá, considered the lowest municipality in Brazil in terms of number of inhabitants, 5 and 404; Ubarana, 6 and 2,157; Pracinha, 8 and 715; Iaras, 10 and 1,541; Americana, in which there only the Agricultural Census is taking place, 2 and 230; Guarujá, 2 and 30. In the Northwest area of the state of Rio de Janeiro are: Aperibé, with 15 sectors and 5,497 units visited and São José de Ubá, with 12 and 2,993. In Goiás are located the municipalities of Anhanguera, with 3 sectors surveyed and 514 units visited; Bonópolis, with 8 sectors and 1,367 units. Finally, in the Northwest of Paraná is Paranaponema, with data from 4 sectors surveyed and 1,021 units visited.

The Population Count is important because it provides data for the distribution of the Municipalities Participation Fund (FPM), which is done based on the population estimates and prospects which IBGE has released annually since 1989. The Census of Agriculture has collected information from about 5,7 million agricultural establishments in the Brazilian municipalities. The survey will show the changes which have occurred in the sector since the last Census, in 1996, and will bring updated data about economic, social and environmental aspects of agricultural activity. It will be possible to have better knowledge of the results reached by governmental policies, of the effective occupation of areas in the agricultural frontier, of the combination of agricultural and ecological practices and of the current use of land in environmentally-fragile areas, of gains in productivity, and of the recent rise of certain crops (such as soybeans).

For the fist time, the data collection is completely computerized, due to the use of PDA’s (handheld computers) with GPS functions (Global Positioning System). They show the exact location of census takers in the collecting areas (census sectors) and help obtain precise geographic coordinates of establishments and households in the rural area, thus guaranteeing better supervision of the work.

The georeferencing of the survey areas contributes to the data collecting process, and also allows the generation of new products with a higher degree of precision.

IBGE improves transmission of data during collection  

IBGE has faced and solved problems which occurred in the beginning of the data collection process. The difficulties in the transmission of data and the subsequent overload of the PDA’s, as a consequence of the low-quality data transmission by telephone in some areas were solved through alternative procedures, such as copies in CD and sending of files by other means. Besides, the resignation and the limited number of census takers has forced IBGE to promote new entrance tests in nine states (Rondônia, Pará, Espírito Santo, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Mato Grosso and Goiás). In order to facilitate the work of census takers in buildings and high-class condominiums, to which access is more difficult, IBGE has sent letters to the dwellers and explained the importance of the operation on the radio and on TV. 

Censuses often require complex logistics arrangements in order to take census workers to their destination. In Amazonas, which is biggest Brazilian state and which occupies more than 18% of the territory of the country, the challenge of covering great distances almost always demand the use of boats. There are sectors in which the census takers spend up to six days traveling in small-sized watercrafts, for example, as in the municipality of Atalaia do Norte, located 1,350 Km away from Manaus. Rain in the area is also another factor which can make it difficult for the census taker to access the sector which will be investigated. And IBGE relies on support from the Army, the Navy and the Air Force to facilitate the transportation of its census takers.

IBGE is currently working to finish the data collection of Censuses 2007 until the 31^st of July, 2007. The results of the Census of Agriculture will be made available in parts: from October 2007 to September 2008 the institute will release information at a geographical level to Brazil, its Federative Units and municipalities, such as: the number of agricultural establishments and overall area; establishments of owners and area of private lands; establishments with a declaration of crop areas and the respective area; establishments with a declaration of pasture land and its respective area;  overall number of bovines, hogs and pigs, poultry, buffaloes, goats and sheep; overall number of tractors; overall number of employed persons (producer’s relatives and employees); establishments with a declaration and harvested area with the following items: bananas, coffee, cocoa, oranges, cotton, rice, sugarcane, corn, beans, cassava, soybeans and wheat; establishments with a declaration and production of the following animal items: cow’s milk, buffalo’s milk, goat’s milk, hen’s eggs and wool.

Preliminary results of the Population Count, with data about the population in the municipalities will be released on August 31, 2007. The final results of the Count will be available in December 2007.  

Among the states in the Southeast Region, São Paulo is the leader in terms of visited units  

Of the 48,462 thousand sectors from which data will be collected by the Censuses in the Southeast Region, 7,099 (14.65%) have already reached the end of the process. In practical terms, the survey is in progress in 7,143 rural sectors (52.75%) and 11,771 urban sectors (33.71%).

Among the four states in the Region, the leader in terms of visited units is São Paulo, with 2,342,220 units, followed by Minas Gerais (1,680,949), Rio de Janeiro (746,525) and Espírito Santo (258,329). The state with the biggest number of census sectors to calculate is São Paulo (6,743). Minas Gerais has the biggest number of census takers in the Region (8,412).

In the state of Rio de Janeiro, the percentage of conclusion of data collection is 33.2%, that is, 2,102 sectors. Of the 324 sectors in Cabo Frio, 94 have had their data collected (29%). In Itaperuna the number is 89 out of 169 municipalities, 52%; in Nilópolis, 83 among 265 sectors (31%). Maricá had 81 of its 232 subsectors surveyed (34%). IBGE census takers in the state have adopted special logistics to reach some areas, for example, a boat has been used to move around Itaguaí, a municipality with about 300 islands in its territory. Another example of the census coverage in Rio is the work performed by indian tribes in Parati, since some of them, located in the Ilha Grande (Great Island) Bay,  can only be visited by boat, as well.

In Espírito Santo, the collection rhythm has been damaged by the coffee collection period. The state is the biggest country producer of conillon coffee, the harvest of which is halfway done, and of Arabic coffee, the harvest of which will last up to the end of the year. This directly affects the census takers, since many of them are rural workers who spend their days harvesting coffee.

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^{1 Rio Branco (AC), Arapiraca (AL), Maceió (AL), Manaus (AM), Macapá (AP), São Luís (MA), Campo Grande (MS), Dourados (MS), Cuiabá (MT), Várzea Grande (MT), Campina Grande (PB), João Pessoa (PB), Teresina (PI), Mossoró (RN), Natal (RN), Porto Velho (RO), Boa Vista (RR), Aracaju (SE), Nossa Senhora do Socorro (SE), and Palmas (TO).}