What does the agricultural structure survey describe?
The agricultural structure survey provides data on production patterns and capacities of agricultural holdings and on the economic and social situation of the farm proprietors and/or operators. The standard programme of the agricultural structure survey comprises land use and livestock population variables. This includes information on agricultural holdings with ecological cultivation. The general part of the supplementary programme serves to compile data on labour, the determination of profits and turnover taxation and on the socio-economic situation of all holdings. The representative part of the supplementary programme deals for instance with ownership and tenancy structures, persons occupied by working hour categories and bonuses paid for environmental achievements.
The data of the agricultural structure survey are used for instance as a basis for compiling the Economic Accounts for Agriculture and for assessing measures of agricultural policy, in particular at EU level.
How is the agricultural structure survey conducted?
The agricultural structure survey is a decentralised statistics. It is co-ordinated and prepared in terms of technology and methodology at the Federal Statistical Office, while the statistical offices of the Länder are responsible for collecting the data and for processing them to compile Länder results. The legal basis is the Law on Agricultural Statistics (Agrarstatistikgesetz – AgrStatG) as published on 8 August 2002 (Bundesgesetzblatt (Federal Law Gazette) – BGBl.p. 3118) and the Ordinance on the Suspension and Inclusion of Variables Pursuant to the Law on Agricultural Statistics (Erste Agrarstatistikverordnung (First Ordinance on Agricultural Statistics) – 1. AgrStatV) of 20 November 2002 (BGBl.p. 4415), in conjunction with the Law on Statistics for Federal Purposes (Bundesstatistikgesetz (Federal Statistics Law) - BStatG) of 22 January 1987 (BGBl.p. 462, 565), last amended by Article 16 of the Law of 21 August 2002 (BGBl. 3322). Pursuant to Section 93 (1) AgrStatG in conjunction with the BStatG, respondents are obliged to provide information on all variables covered by the agricultural structure survey.
At two-year intervals, selected agricultural holdings (sample holdings) have been covered from 1999 on a representative basis. Every forth year as of 1999, – and also for the 2003 Agricultural Structure Survey – in addition to the sample holdings all other agricultural holdings have been included in the survey and questioned about all variables of the basic programme and parts of the supplementary programme. Further selected sets of variables of the supplementary programme are covered on a representative basis at a maximum of 100,000 sample holdings.
In May of each survey year, the proprietors and/or operators of agricultural holdings with:
an agriculturally used area of at least two hectares or
a minimum of either
eight cattle or pigs or
twenty sheep or
two hundred laying hens or pullets or roosters for slaughter and fryers, broilers, and other roosters or geese, ducks and turkeys or
either thirty ares of tillered vine or fruit acreage or hop or tobacco or tree nurseries or vegetable cultivation in the open or flower and ornamental plant growing or cultivation of medicinal and spice plants or seeds for commercial horticulture or
three ares of commercial glasshouse cultivation of either vegetables or flowers and ornamental plants
are questioned.
If an agricultural holding meets the minimum requirements for the relevant variables, i.e. size of the agriculturally used area, livestock population or specific cultivation, the holding is included in the survey.
The respondents may either fill in the survey documents on their own or contact a survey canvasser if they wish to do so. Survey canvassers, who work on a voluntary basis, mostly have a professional background in agriculture or administration and have been trained for the task by the statistical offices of the Länder. To reduce the burden on the respondents, the statistical offices of the Länder may use operating data from the Integrated Administration and Control System (InVeKoS) for statistical purposes in keeping with Council Regulation (EEC) number 3508/92.
When are the results of the agricultural structure survey released?
Current results of agricultural structure surveys are published through a press release. First preliminary results of the agricultural structure surveys are published in January of the following year in the Federal Government’s Agri-food Policy Report; final results are available in the third quarter of the year following the reference year.
Results of agricultural statistics, including the agricultural structure survey, are published regularly in Subject-Matter Series 3 "Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries", which is available in electronic form at the Publication Service of the Federal Statistical Office:
Series 2: Betriebs-, Arbeits- und Einkommensverhältnisse (Operating and working conditions, income situation); Series 3: Landwirtschaftliche Bodennutzung und pflanzliche Erzeugung (Agricultural land use and vegetable production); Series 4: Viehbestand und tierische Erzeugung (Livestock population and animal production); Series 5: Allgemeine Flächennutzung (General land use).
The Federal Statistical Office provides aggregated results of the agricultural structure surveys at federal and at Land level. In addition, the statistical offices of the Länder publish results with a detailed regional breakdown for the respective federal Land.
How accurate are the results of the agricultural structure survey?
Pursuant to the amended version of the Law on Agricultural Statistics, which came into force in mid-1998, changes in the survey procedure became effective as of 1999, affecting the comparability of results with those of former surveys: The basic programme covering production statistics and the supplementary programme including structural variables are conducted at the same time in the form of an "integrated survey" at a uniform sample of responding units. The scope of the survey was standardised for production and structural statistics and the lower threshold of coverage for the agriculturally used area establishing an obligation to provide information was increased from one to two hectares. Simultaneously, minimum livestock population and the minimum area under production were defined more precisely, which also oblige respondents to provide data. Agricultural structure surveys have been conducted at two years’ intervals, starting in 1999, alternating between a general survey covering all holdings and a representative survey including a maximum of 100,000 sample holdings. This has to be considered in an interpretation of released data from different survey years, but also of different survey variables.
