Teagasc: National Farm Survey An Overview Agricultural Statistics Liaison Group (ASLG) Date: Wednesday October 12th, 2011 Time: 1.30pm Venue: Department of Agriculture, Kildare Street, Dublin

Overview  The Background & Objectives  The Team  The Process  The Data & The Outputs  The Future

NFS – Background & Objectives  Established due to the requirement under REGULATION No 79/65/EEC OF THE COUNCIL of 15 June 1965  Long running – First started in 1972  Has run consecutively for 39 years  Provide Statutory Irish Data to EU Commission (FADN)  Determine Output, Costs, Incomes By Farm System(6), Size(7) & Regions  Provide Database of Micro Data on Irish Agriculture for Research, Policy analysis & Stakeholders  Measure Variation in Technical and Financial performance for Farm Management/Advisory Purposes

The Team  Rural Economic Development Program (REDP)  Agricultural Economics & Farm Surveys Department  Operate the National Farm Survey  Dr. Thia Hennessy – Head of National Farm Survey  16 Data Collectors  4 Internal Staff  1 Admin  1 Researcher  2 Technical Staff  Process 1,200 Farm Accounts Annually  Carry out 1 Additional Survey each year

The Process  Farms are visited 2-3 times per year  An accounts book is completed  Complete additional surveys  Submitted for validation and processing by internal staff  Farm Management Reports are generated  Populations from CSO  Produce the NFS Final Report  Year end evaluate/optimise the sample  Request replacement farms from the CSO  Farmers participation is voluntary  Undertake not to publish individual farmers data – guarantee of confidentiality  Increased collaboration with DAFF  AIM systems / SFP Applications Data / Payments Data  Finalise FADN data

The Data & The Outputs  National Farm Survey Report, Estimates & Final Results  Database of Micro Data on Irish Farms  EU - FADN  REPS Report  Standard Gross Output Data  Organic Data-DAFF  Input data on costs for CSO  Investment/ Machinery Hire / Quota Leased / Regional Tables  Data for Teagasc Advisory - Management Data  Data for Teagasc Research - Outlook Conference

Family Farm Income (FFI)  Principal measure of income used by the NFS  calculated by deducting all farm costs from gross output  family labour is not included as a cost  return to family labour, management and investment €17,771 €12,190 €16,939

FADN  The Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) is an instrument for evaluating the income of agricultural holdings and the impacts of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).  Ireland has a statutory obligation to provide data on Irish farm output, costs and incomes to FADN  Consists on an Annual Survey completed by each member state  Only source of harmonised micro-economic data  Representative 3 dimensions, Region, Size and type of farming  Most important source of information on European farms  Currently sample is comprised of 80,000 holdings  Represent 6.4 million farms in EU-25  Represents 90% total UAA  Represents 90% of total Agricultural Production

Data Requirements  Require approximately 1000 variables per farm  Physical & Structural Data  Crop Area, Animal numbers, labour force  Economic & Financial Data  Production, Stocks, Sales & Purchases, Costs, Assets, Liabilities, Quotas, Subsidies etc..  The FADN Farm Return is more limited in its coverage of farming activities than our own National survey

The Future  NFS Re-Structuring Plan  Reduction in Data Collectors from 16 to 11  Increase in the minimum threshold for inclusion in the sample  Increase from €4K SO to €8K SO  Reduction in the sample numbers of farms included  Sample Coverage  Collaboration with other Data holders e.g. Co-operatives etc  Agriculture still important to economy  Allows monitoring of sector  Provides basis for evaluating policy