EU integrated farm statistics

KEY POINTS

The regulation:

• establishes a simplified and modernised system for collecting European agricultural statistics at farm level. This allows for the integration of structural information with other information such as production methods, rural development measures and agro-environmental aspects;
• is designed to ensure the continuation of a series of European farm structure surveys, enabling a consistent time series to be maintained while fulfilling new and emerging needs for data at farm level;
• provides a series of definitions including common land agricultural unit¹, livestock unit², utilised agricultural area³ and kitchen gardens⁴.

Coverage and data sources

The data required by the regulation must cover:

• 98% of the total utilised agricultural area (excluding kitchen gardens); and
• 98% of the livestock units of each EU country.

So long as they meet the quality requirements laid down in the regulation, EU countries can use one or more of the following sources or methods to produce statistics:

• statistical surveys;
• administrative sources such as data from:
  • the integrated administration and control system (Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013);
  • the system for the identification and registration of bovine animals (Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000);
  • the system for the identification of sheep and goats (Regulation (EC) No 21/2004);
  • the vineyard register (Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013); and
  • the organic farm registers (Regulation (EC) No 834/2007);
• other sources, methods or innovative approaches (EU countries must give advance notice to Eurostat of their intention to use these and provide details of how they will be used).

EU countries must collect and provide the core structural data⁵ for the reference years 2020, 2023 and 2026, as listed in Annex III of the regulation. The core data collection for the reference year 2020 is to be carried out as a census.

EU countries may, where this 2020 census overlaps with the 10-year population census, bring the farm data collection forward by a year to avoid the burden of conducting two major data collections at the same time.

The core data collections for the reference years 2023 and 2026 may be carried out using samples. Where this happens, EU countries must ensure that the weighted results are statistically representative of agricultural holdings within each region and are designed to meet the precision requirements set out in Annex V.

EU budgetary contribution

The EU will contribute €40 million in grants to the national statistical institutes to help implement the programme of data collection for the reference year 2020. The amount for the period after 2020 will be fixed by the European Parliament and the Council on a proposal from the Commission.

Delegation of powers

The regulation grants the European Commission the power to adopt delegated acts to take into account emerging data needs arising from developments in agriculture, revised legislation and changing policy priorities. In this regard, it receives guidance from experts designated by each of the EU countries.