China's second national agriculture census kicked off Monday, with more than seven million census takers beginning to visit rural families for registration.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said nationwide registration for over 200 million rural families in more than 30,000 townships will take about one month.

The nationwide census will last from January to April 2007.

Information will be collected mainly through site enquiries about farm production, employment, migration, environmental conditions, land use, fixed-asset investment and life quality in rural areas.

China's first agricultural census was conducted in 1996.

Since then, the government has adopted a series of policies to protect farmers' interests, including abolishing agricultural taxes, providing subsidies and setting minimum prices for grain and maximum prices for fertilizers.

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2007)