NATURE, SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF STATISTICS

Introduction and Meanings:
Statistics is as old as human civilization and has the old history of development. The word statistics is derived from the Latin word “status” or the Italian word “statista” or the German word “Statistik” each of which means a political state. In ancient times the governments used to collect the information regarding the population and property of wealth of the country- the former enabling the government to have an idea of the manpower of the country (to safeguard itself against external aggression, (if any) and the latter providing it a basis for introducing new taxes and levies.
Statistics has been defined differently by different authors from time to time. In ancient times statistics was confined only to the affairs of the state but now it embraces almost every sphere of human activity.
·         Statistics is classification of facts representing the conditions of the people in a state-especially those facts which can be stated in numbers or in any other tabular or classified arrangement. This definition confines statistics only to the data pertaining to the state is inadequate as the domain of statistics is much wider (Webster).
·         Statistics is numerical statements of the facts in any department of enquiry placed in relation to each other (Bowley).
Types of Statistics:
·         Descriptive Statistics – It deals with the description and summarization of data and information in such a way so as to make it more usable 
·           Inductive Statistics – It draws inferences about the population from the information contained in the sample which is only a part of the population and thus we pass from the particular to the general.
Application of Statistics
In early days statistics was mainly concerned with reduction of large amounts of observed data to the point where general trends become apparent. At the same time, emphasis in many sciences turned from the study of individuals to the study of the behavior of aggregates of individuals. Statistical methods were found suitable for such studies, aggregate data fitting consistently with the concept of a population.
·         Statistical Science has wide applications in Dairy production, processing and management. In dairy production, the productive and reproductive performance of various breeds/species of animals is carried out through various statistical measures. For example, age at first calving, body weight, lactation length, dry period, inter-calving period etc. are closely monitored for best production performance of female animals.
·         In the field of Animal Nutrition, many experiments have been devised to discover the significance of various vitamins, proteins, diets in the different phases of animal production. Similarly, production parameters like daily/monthly lactation yield, fat, SNF, protein and other minerals as well as microbiological parameters in milk are closely monitored for getting best quality and safe milk for human consumption.
·         In dairy processing, various value added dairy products are developed for which proportions of ingredients are required so as to get least cost product mix which fulfills certain minimum requirements.
·         Agricultural engineering, which combines the practices of engineering and agriculture has also benefited greatly from the use of statistical methods.
·          In dairy management cost of calf rearing maintenance of animals is required to be worked out. Similarly cost of milk production for various categories of animals is also required to be computed across different seasons/regions etc. taking into consideration various fixed and variable costs that enter into cost. There is also requirement for computing cost of processing of milk into various dairy products.
·         Similarly there is also requirement to monitor milk production, utilization and marketed surplus across various categories of producers and consumers and also assess the demand and supply of milk and milk products. All these aspects require employment of various statistical techniques to achieve the desired objectives.
Distrust of Statistics
Some of the reason for the existence of such divergent views regarding the nature and function of Statistics are as follows:
·         Figures are innocent, easily believable and more convincing. The facts supported by figures are psychologically more appealing.
·         Figures put forward for arguments may be inaccurate or incomplete and thus might lead to wrong inferences.
·         Figures, though accurate, might be moulded and manipulated by selfish persons to conceal the truth and present a distorted picture of facts to the public to meet their selfish motives.

It may be pointed out that Statistics neither proves anything nor disproves anything. It is only a tool which when rightly used may prove extremely useful and if misused, might be disastrous.
Limitations of Statistics
·         It does not deal with individual measurements.
·         It deals with quantitative characteristics and cannot be used for qualitative data.
·         Statistical results are true only on an average.
·         It is only one of the methods of studying a problem.



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