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Recent Initiatives in UK Agriculture Surveys
Peter Helm and Julie BartlettDepartment of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
United Kingdom
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Location of Defra
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September, 2004
“One Planet Living”
Avoiding dangerous climate change
Maintaining & enhancing thenatural asset base
High Level Goals
Mission
The Defra Strategy Arrow
Focussing the Department
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• 300,000 agricultural holdings in the UK
• 200,000 holdings in England
• 57,000 have no labour, 17,000 require <1 full time worker
• 9% of holdings account for 41% of employment
• 19% of holdings account for 87% of output
• 25% of holdings account for 85% of farm area
Agriculture in the UK 2007
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• 7% of total greenhouse gas emissions
• 60% of nitrates and 29% of phosphates in rivers
• 66% of nitrous oxide emissions, 90% of ammonia emissions and <1% of carbon dioxide emissions.
Environmental impacts of agriculture
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Survey Sample size (England)
June survey of agriculture and horticulture 65,000
December survey of agriculture 20,000
Farm Business Survey 1,800
Labour survey 65,000
Farm Practices Survey 6,000
Earnings and Hours Survey of ag. workers 850
January Horticulture Surveys 1,600
Crops production 850 & 3,500
Fertiliser Practice survey 1,300
Regular surveys run by Defra
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FCA (Census & Survey)
Business
Eurostat National Statistics
Milk Quota
RADX
Industry
Government Policy
Internet WFA
Mailshots
Academia
Emergencies
OGDs
Farmers
Parliamentary Questions
Radar
Publications
Defra Agencies
FCAG
Customers
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• Pressure to reduce compliance costs
• Widespread feeling that agriculture is over surveyed in relation to
its economic significance and size
• Increasing “availability“ of administrative data
• New data requirements on agri-environmental data
• Competition from private sector organisations running own surveys
• Need to improve response rates to reduce survey sample and costs
Key Drivers for survey changes
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June Survey (main survey) has greatest scope for
improvement. Initiatives implemented are:
• Increased sampling
• Reduction in numbers of questions asked
• Use of administrative data
• Electronic data capture
• Register improvements
Initiatives taken to reduce survey burden
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0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
2006200520042003200220012000199919981997199619951994
Reduced Sampling fraction
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•2 pages
•43 questions
•12,000 forms dispatched
•4 pages
•126 questions
•47,000 forms dispatched
Reduced numbers of questionsSummary form Detailed form
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0
50
100
150
200
250
2006200520042003200220012000
Average number of questions asked on the survey form
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Data potentially available for survey purposes
• Single Farm payment data (field usage data)
• Livestock movement records
• Livestock register data
Use of Administrative data
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• Delivers surveys electronically
• Data sharing prospects to reduce
need for duplicate requests
• Enables farmers to do other business
• Hoping to recover to at least 10%
electronic usage
• Major savings on validation which
can be done on-line
Electronic data captureWhole Farm Approach
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• Our Farm Survey register is the most comprehensive register of farm holdings in England
• Closely linked to the register used by the Rural Payments Agency
• Improved links with the Interdepartmental Business Register used by the Office for National Statistics
Improvements to farm register
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June survey response rate
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Response rate
Response rates
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Non-response survey
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• Main reasons given for non-response to surveys:• No longer in farming • Information requested already provided to other parts of
Defra• Too much paperwork • No benefit to the farmer• Farmers claim they did not receive the survey forms
Non-response survey
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Other initiatives we are considering include:
• reviewing the collection of information at business rather than holding level
• developing better links with industry organisations to encourage their
members to respond on our behalf
• setting up of a farmer’s panel to check questionnaires before issue
• better marketing of survey results highlighting value
• more joining up of surveys
• using minimum thresholds to only target larger farm businesses
Other initiatives to minimise burden/improve response rates
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• Survey topics include:
• Water usage and water quality
• Nutrient management
• Cattle housing and slurry storage
• The use of veterinary services
• Economics of modern farming
FPS 2007
• Currently collecting customer feedback on survey products
• Possible future innovations include:
• Investigating response rates across farm sizes, farm types and regions to detect possible bias
• Make more use of past data for validation
• Improve thresholds to match the topics covered
2008 and beyond
Agri environment data collectionFarm Practices Survey
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Fertiliser Application Rates Kg/Ha/ per year
• Survey has been brought back in-house to:• Aid inter-survey comparisons• Allow better targeting of
surveys• Allows better management of
survey burdens
Grass 1996 2006
Nitrogen 113 72
Phosphate 23 16
Potash 30 21
Crops 1996 2006
Nitrogen 145 147
Phosphate 52 35
Potash 61 49
Agri environment data collectionBritish Survey of Fertiliser Practices
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•Detailed financial and physical data from farms•Agri-environment data collected includes:
•Farm habitats, e.g. low input pasture, field corners,
conservation headlands •Costs of key countryside maintenance i.e. creating and
maintaining woodland, ponds & stone walls •Drivers for such expenditure•Areas of hedge and woodland planting
Agri environment data collectionFarm Business Survey
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•Pressure to reduce survey burdens on farmers whilst
still providing valuable information on agriculture
•New data needs are becoming more important and we
have to adapt more “traditional” surveys to capture this
new information
•Many challenges and exciting times lie ahead
Conclusion
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Any questions?