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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?