NMI posts higher agricultural sales in ’07—census

Total sales from sweet potatoes, bananas, cabbage, betel nuts, milk, poultry and eggs, fish, livestock, ornamental plants and all other agricultural products reached $2.409 million in 2007, a 5-percent increase from the $2.287 million sold in 2002, according to the 2007 Census of Agriculture of the CNMI.

The 37-page census, released last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is the leading source of statistics about the CNMI’s agricultural production and the only source of consistent, comparable data at the island level.

Highlighting the report are crop production data, crop and livestock sales, and expense data for calendar year 2007.

“Census statistics are used to measure agricultural production and to identify trends in an ever changing agricultural sector,” Cynthia Z.F. Clark, administrator of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, said in the census.

The single heaviest volume of agricultural product to be sold was sweet potato at 352,340 pounds in 2007, a 104 percent increase from only 172,000 pounds five years earlier.

Over 221,595 pounds of taro were also sold, marking a 38 percent increase from only 159,914 pounds during the previous agricultural census.

At the time of the latest census, there were 1,483 hogs and pigs, 1,395 cattle and calves, 6,381 chicken hens at least four months old, and 196,510 chicken eggs, among other livestock, poultry and their products inventoried.

Of the $2.409 million in total sales from agricultural products in 2007, $638,498 was from root crops. This marked a 58 percent increase from only $404,734 sold five years earlier.

Sale from vegetables and melons stood at $631,470, which was a drop from $821,293 sold in 2002.

Fruits and nuts posted a sales increase of 17 percent, from $343,021 to $401,664.

The rest were from nursery crops including ornamental plants ($178,311), livestock ($279,485), poultry and eggs ($214,360), and fish and other aquaculture products ($65,725).

But the gains in sales of over $122,000 in 2007 were readily offset by increases in farm production expenses.

For example, farms spent $174,561 in machine hire and custom work in 2007 compared to only $62,723 in 2002, a 78 percent increase. Hired farm labor spending reached almost $1 million in 2007, from only $660,891 five years earlier.

From 214 farms surveyed in 2002, the number went up to 256 in 2007. The number of operators is the same as the number of farms.

Of the 256 farms surveyed in the latest census, 128 were located on Saipan, 97 on Rota, and 31 on Tinian.

Surveyed were places from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, in 2007.

Over 72 percent or 184 of the 256 total farm operators in 2007 were Chamorros, followed by Chinese (27), Filipinos (15), Whites (6), Japanese (1), and others (23).

The term “operator” refers to a person who operates a farm, either by doing the work himself or by directly supervising the work. He may be the owner, a member of the owner’s household, a hired manager, a tenant, renter, or sharecropper.

Land in farms reached 4,013 acres in 2007, a 70 percent increase from 2,353 acres five years earlier. The census defines land in farms as the amounts of land reported as owned and reported as rented from others that were added together, minus the amount of land reported as rented to others.

The average size of farm also increased by 43 percent — from 11 acres to 15.7 acres.

Also posting an increase was the size of land irrigated – from only 309 acres in 2002 to 341 acres in 2007.

Cropland harvested stood at 538 acres during the latest census, a slight increase from 529 acres five years earlier. All land from which any crop was harvested is referred to as cropland harvested

The number of farm workers grew by 11 percent during the five-year period, from only 608 to 676.

The 2007 census is the sixth census of agriculture of the CNMI. The first was taken in 1970 in conjunction with the decennial census, a practice that continued in 1980 and 1990.

The 1997 census was the first agriculture census taken in the CNMI that was not done as part of the population census, and the 2007 Agriculture Census in the CNMI continues the program on the same five-year cycle used for the main U.S. agriculture census.

One of the most important uses of the census data is to justify claims of farmers who may suffer damages and losses due to natural disasters, such as typhoons.

Private industry uses census statistics to provide a more effective production and distribution system for the agricultural community.

A copy of the latest agriculture census can be downloaded from the CNMI Department of Commerce website, www.commerce.gov.mp.

The statistics in the report were collected by personal enumeration from farm operators during January of 2008.