Dr. Jerry Crews, an agricultural economist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, says the census is the most comprehensive source of data on American agriculture.

"The data is used in a number of ways by a wide variety of groups," says Crews. "Government agencies use the information to plan policies and programs. Universities use the data in teaching, research and extension efforts. Businesses and industries use the information to guide them in all aspects of agribusiness from product development and marketing to locating processing and manufacturing plants."

Alabama farmers can expect to receive their census forms in the mail in late December.

Crews urges all farmers to complete the census forms.

"Some farmers are concerned about giving out details of their operations," he says. "It's important they understand that individual information is kept confidential. The National Agricultural Statistics Service, who conducts the census, uses the information only for statistical purposes and publishes data only in tabulated totals."

Specifically, federal laws and regulation prohibit the use of a farmer's individual report for taxation, investigation or regulation.

The Census of Agriculture, conducted every five years, is the only source of uniform agricultural data from the county to the national levels.

Census questions will cover a variety of topics including land use and ownership; irrigated land, crop acreages and quantities harvested, livestock and poultry, value of products sold, payments from federal programs, and number of employees.

The Census of Agriculture defines a farm as a place that produced and sold $1,000 or more of agricultural products in 2002.

Farmers who are interested can visit the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Web site, www.nass.usda.gov/census/, and review the census forms that will be used in Alabama.

Also available at the NASS Web site is the completed 1997 Census of Agriculture.

The last census in 1997 counted more than 1.9 million farms in the United States. More than 900,000 farms had sales of $10,000 or more, while about the same number had sales of less than $10,000.

In 1997, more than 41,000 Alabama farmers participated in the census. More than 15,000 of those farms had sales of less than $2,500. About 80 percent of all Alabama farms had sales of less than $25,000.

The first agriculture census was conducted in 1840. The 2002 census will be the nation’s 26^th.