More than 90 percent of information gathering in China's second agricultural census has been completed, said Xie Fuzhan, director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday.

Since January 1 more than 7 million census workers have gone to more than 200 million rural homes in more than 30,000 townships to collect information, say the NBS.

In the world's largest national agricultural census, the information is collected mainly through on-the-spot inquiries about farm production, employment, migration, environment, land use, fixed-asset investment and the living standards in rural areas.

The census, held between January and April 2007, aims to lay the foundations for improving the country's rural policies.

Xie said the government had sent 17 supervision teams to 22 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities to ensure census workers follow procedures and don't fabricate figures.

More than 40 cases of false information collection have been uncovered since the census started, according to official statistics. China's first agricultural census was conducted in 1996.

(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2007)