2010 Round of Censuses of
Agriculture
Roundtable meeting
Samoa, March 2009
Jean Watt
Statistics New Zealand
Map
New Zealand’s primary sector
• Primary industries directly contribute 7.1 % to GDP in 2008
• Primary products make up about two-thirds total exports
• Main export commodities
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Milk powder, butter and cheese
Meat and edible offal
Logs, wood and wood articles
Mechanical machinery and equipment
Fish, crustaceans and molluscs
Fruit
Agricultural production
• Livestock
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38.5 million sheep
5.3 million dairy cattle
4.4 million beef cattle
1.4 million farmed deer
– 370,000 pigs
– Source: 2007 Agricultural Production Census
Agricultural production
• Grain crops
• Wheat, barley, maize, oats ……
• Fruit
• Apples, peaches, avocados, kiwifruit, grapes….
• Vegetables
• Potatoes, onions, squash, peas, leafy greens…
• Exotic forestry
• Flowers and nursery crops
Agriculture in New Zealand
• Important sector of the economy
• Carried out on a commercial
basis by farming and forestry
businesses
• Highly mechanised – 7% of the
labour force directly employed in
agriculture, horticulture and
forestry
Official Statistics System (OSS)
• Wide range of statistics produced
• Produced by many government
agencies
• Statistics New Zealand
• Producer of statistics
• Lead role in improving and co-ordinating the
OSS
Agricultural Production Statistics
• Long history of agricultural statistics
• Agricultural census/survey most years
• Current program
– Began with 2002 Census
– Joint collection with Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
(MAF)
The Agricultural Programme
Current agricultural statistics programme:
• 2002 Census
• Yearly (2003-2006) sample surveys
• 2007 Census
• Yearly (2008-2011) sample surveys
• 2012 Census
2007 Agricultural Production Census
• Content
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Farm details
Land area and land use
Livestock
Grain crops
Horticulture (fruit, vegetables, flowers and nursery crops)
Farm practices (including fertiliser applied, irrigation and
cultivation)
2007 Agricultural Production Census
• Questionnaire posted to each farm (July
2007)
• Data capture - scanning
• Data validation, checks and analysis
• Provisional release – February 2008
• Final release – May 2008
Population frame
• Quality frame – quality statistics
• Key attributes –
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Coverage
Content
Maintenance
Updating
• Other uses • Production of output statistics
• Design of future surveys and statistics
Population frame
• Business Frame
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Tax based frame
GST registrations
No bottom cut-off point for agriculture
Compulsory registration at $40,000
» Partial and unquantifiable coverage of
small/hobby farms
• Content includes – legal and trading names,
address, location, industry, ownership details,
business type, size, lifecycle information
• Standard classifications eg ANZSIC
Population - continued
• BF updated via:
– Tax system – monthly updates
– Feedback from Statistics NZ surveys,
including agricultural census and surveys
– Other sources eg media reports
Population - continued
– Agricultural census and survey feedback
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Name (legal, trading) and address (postal, location)
Industry (ANZSIC)
Frame cleansing (ceases, transfers etc)
Identification of sharemilkers and leases
Ownership structures
– Automated and manual updating
– Balancing complexity, resources and priorities
– An up-to-date frame is needed for the design
of future sample surveys
Data integration and linking
• Linking of information at unit record
level across datasets
• Benefits include:
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New types of data
Better use of existing data
No direct surveying of respondents
New types of research leading to improved
understanding and knowledge
Data integration and linking
• Statistics Act
• Data use and confidentiality
• Business and economic data
• Linking at the business (firm) level
• Business Frame
– Provides the key
– Used for all business and economic surveys
– Longitudinal dimension – enabling changes over time
to be studied
Data integration and linking
• Some examples:
• 2007 Agricultural Census - forestry data
– NEFD survey data for 40 large forestry units
– Linked Employer Employee Data (LEED)
– Wages and jobs data linked to Business Frame
– Longitudinal Business Database (LBD)
– Prototype database
– Business related data from a range of survey and
administrative sources
Agricultural statistics opportunities
• Linking to financial information
• Businesses file a tax return each year
• Key financial items (sales, purchases, profit,
loss etc)
• Already used to produce financial statistics
• Challenges:
– Complex ownership structures (linking agricultural
production activity to the associated tax unit)
– Financial information may include non-farm activity
Agricultural statistics opportunities
• Linking to Energy Survey
• Primary sector currently being surveyed
• Type and quantity of energy used (petrol,
electricity etc)
• Population sourced from Business Frame
• Better understanding of fuel use in the
agricultural sector
Agricultural statistics opportunities
• Linking to a land based frame
– Potential to integrate agricultural
production and economic statistics to land
based data
– Low match rate from earlier studies
– Potential new database developments