IBGE sets out preparations for Brazil’s 2027 agricultural census
Brazil’s national statistics institute has outlined the final preparations for its 2027 Census of Agriculture, Forestry and Aquaculture, including a digital registry intended to help update the database of agricultural establishments and a field test of the census operation.
The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) said the Preliminary Registry of Agricultural Establishments will enable rural producers and partner organisations to register holdings and contribute to updating the census database. The institute has scheduled the registry’s national unveiling for 27 October in Brasília. It is a planned launch: the public announcement describes what the service is intended to do, rather than confirming that it is already operating.
A digital route into census preparation
The planned registry is part of IBGE’s preparations for a nationwide census in 2027. Producers will be able to provide information about agricultural establishments through the digital tool, with cooperatives, associations, unions and accounting offices among the partner organisations identified by the institute. The database is intended to support the preparation of the national data collection.
IBGE says online completion of the census questionnaire is scheduled to begin in March 2027. The agency presents the registry as a basis for that online collection and says the approach is intended to widen rural producers’ participation, reduce operational costs and make responding quicker and more convenient. Those are stated aims; the announcement does not report measured savings or participation results.
The census is designed to cover agricultural establishments across Brazil, including units devoted wholly or partly to agricultural, forestry and aquaculture activity. The official census information describes the operation as a way to measure the structure and dynamics of the country’s agricultural sector. Its results are intended to provide information at municipal level and for other territorial groupings, including officially delimited Indigenous lands and quilombola territories.
Experimental exercise to test systems and fieldwork
Alongside the registry, IBGE has specified the plan for an Experimental Census from 3 November to 4 December 2026. The exercise is intended to test procedures under real operating conditions before they are used in the national survey. The areas being tested include technology systems, field logistics, staff training and data-collection methods.
The planned visits cover Rio Claro in São Paulo state and Barra do Bugres in Mato Grosso, as well as the Umutina and Figueiras Indigenous territories in Mato Grosso. In Maranhão, the selected locations are the Cururupu extractive reserve and the Santa Tereza quilombola territory. IBGE says the locations were selected to represent different realities across Brazil. The exercise is preparatory, not the start of the countrywide census.
The institute also plans familiarisation tests in 24 states. State teams are expected to assess equipment, computer systems, operational workflows and supervision procedures ahead of national collection. The announcement does not provide test results, and none should be inferred before those activities take place.
National collection remains in the future
The 27 October event in Brasília is scheduled as a public press conference and national unveiling of the registry. The Experimental Census follows in November and December, while the online questionnaire phase is planned for March 2027. These dates describe announced steps in a future programme; they do not mean that the registry has already been launched or that the experimental work has been completed.
The staged approach gives the statistics agency an opportunity to prepare its establishment database and test operational processes before the wider census. Whether the digital route improves response rates or reduces costs will depend on how it works in practice. The announcement sets out the intended framework and timetable, while those outcomes remain to be demonstrated.
