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Recent Initiatives in UK Agriculture Surveys

Learn about the latest initiatives in UK agriculture surveys aimed at reducing burdens on farmers while collecting valuable data on farm practices, environmental impacts, and economic aspects. Discover strategies to improve response rates and survey quality.

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Recent Initiatives in UK Agriculture Surveys

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  1. Recent Initiatives in UK Agriculture Surveys Peter Helm and Julie Bartlett Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs United Kingdom

  2. Location of Defra

  3. The Defra Strategy Arrow Focussing the Department “One Planet Living” Mission Maintaining & enhancing the natural asset base Avoiding dangerous climate change High Level Goals September, 2004

  4. Agriculture in the UK 2007 • 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

  5. Environmental impacts of agriculture • 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.

  6. Regular surveys run by Defra

  7. FCAG Customers

  8. Key Drivers for survey changes • 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

  9. Initiatives taken to reduce survey burden 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

  10. Reduced Sampling fraction

  11. Reduced numbers of questions Detailed form Summary form • 4 pages • 126 questions • 47,000 forms dispatched • 2 pages • 43 questions • 12,000 forms dispatched

  12. Average number of questions asked on the survey form

  13. Use of Administrative data Data potentially available for survey purposes • Single Farm payment data (field usage data) • Livestock movement records • Livestock register data

  14. Electronic data captureWhole Farm Approach • 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

  15. Improvements to farm register • 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

  16. Response rates

  17. Non-response survey

  18. Non-response survey • 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

  19. Other initiatives to minimise burden/improve response rates 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

  20. Agri environment data collectionFarm Practices Survey 2008 and beyond 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 • Survey topics include: • Water usage and water quality • Nutrient management • Cattle housing and slurry storage • The use of veterinary services • Economics of modern farming

  21. Agri environment data collectionBritish Survey of Fertiliser Practices 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

  22. Agri environment data collectionFarm Business Survey • 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

  23. Conclusion • 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

  24. Any questions?

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