Assessing the national statistical systems:



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Outline for Preparing Country Report on Metadata of

National Agricultural Statistics

In this document, there are four sections:

- Summary outline for the country report

- Background

- Preparing for the country report

- Annotated outline for the country report

I. SUMMARY OUTLINE FOR THE COUNTRY REPORT

The country report on metadata is expected to consist of three main chapters on (a) national system of agricultural statistics; (b) major domains and selected indicators of agricultural statistics; and (c) major data sources for agricultural statistics.

Tentative title:

METADATA FOR NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS IN XXX

(Here: xxx is to be replaced by the name of the country)

Chapter 1: National System of Agricultural Statistics

1. Legal framework and statistical advisory bodies

2. Structure and organization of major agricultural statistical agencies

3. Outputs and dissemination of agricultural statistics

4. Dialogue with data users and co-operation with international organizations

5. Strategic framework

Chapter 2: Major Domains and Selected Indicators of Agricultural Statistics

1. List of major domains and selected indicators

2. Metadata for each of the major domains

1. Concepts, definitions, and classifications

2. Coverage and availability

3. Data source and collection methodology

4. Data processing, estimation, and revision methodology

5. Other reference information

Chapter 3: Major Data Sources for Agricultural Statistics

1. List of major agricultural censuses, surveys, and registers

2. Metadata for each of the major censuses and surveys

1. Overview

2. Survey and census design

3. Conduct, operations, data quality control

3. Metadata for each of the major administrative registers

II. BACKGROUND

Metadata, on how, when, where, why, and by whom the data are collected, can be useful not only for statisticians who compile, validate, and analyze the data, but also for users who access and use the data. With all different agricultural statistical systems and organizations in various countries around the world, consistent and consolidated information and documentation are required for users to understand the specific functions, responsibilities, output, relationship, and the data quality of the statistical organizations involved in the production of food and agriculture statistics. At the same time, by documenting concepts and definitions, classifications, methodology used in data collection, and description of major quality aspects of the data, it enables effective management of resources for statisticians and statistical organizations. Through highlighting strengths and weaknesses of national systems, more effective cooperation programmes can be designed and implemented and national statistical offices will have an important advocacy tool at disposal.

At the international level, being a provider of the largest agricultural database in the world, FAO through the new FAOSTAT is currently implementing structured and comprehensive metadata (including an FAO Data Quality Framework, the international Agricultural Bulletin Board on Data Collection, Dissemination, and Quality (ABCDQ[1]), and Data Quality Stamp). The development and construction of a metadata repository and its full integration with statistical data will be therefore key components of the new FAOSTAT system. The new metadata system will enhance understanding of any given data item within FAOSTAT – by managing the documentation of related concepts and definitions, its source, the history of its values and the methodology used in its collection.

The current effort is to further develop, consolidate, and facilitate the flow of metadata within and between national statistical offices and FAO. By inviting countries to contribute national statistical metadata in an organized and systematic way, it is expected that this will promote and assist countries in the provision and dissemination to the public of comprehensive, timely, accessible, and reliable food, agriculture and related economic, social, and socio-demographic statistics.

The country report prepared for this metadata exercise can serve many purposes, particularly, it provides: (a) an important input for updating FAOSTAT comprehensive metadata and data quality framework with the corresponding interface at country level within CountrySTAT; (b) materials for compiling succinct country summary profiles as the first presentation of useful and comparable information on countries about the current stage of development of the agricultural statistical system of a particular country, their strengths and weaknesses. This information may help to design and implement more effective capacity building programmes and provide advocacy tools to national statistics offices (c) a reference for assessing data quality, identifying areas of further development, and assisting member nations to plan and coordinate their national and regional statistical capacity building activities.

III. PREPARING FOR THE COUNTRY REPORT

As stated in the invitation letter, each country is invited to prepare a country report of metadata on national agricultural statistics. In order to assist in the preparation of such a country report, the following reference materials are provided:

- The enclosed Statistical Metadata Survey Questionnaire is to be completed in collaboration with all major institutions involved in food and agriculture statistics in the country. It should be noted that the questionnaire has already been sent to all countries participating to the 21st Session of APCAS. Therefore, in order to avoid duplication, the focal point for the preparation of the country report should use the information from this questionnaire if it has been completed for APCAS. If the questionnaire has not been prepared for APCAS, it should be completed to serve as a basis for the country report and submitted together with the county report.

- The current Outline for Preparing Country Report on Metadata of National Agricultural Statistics is to serve as guidance for preparing an analytical country report using information from the above questionnaire and other sources. While the “Summary Outline for the Country Report” in the first section of this document provides the overall framework of the main chapters and their structures, the “Annotated Outline for the Country Report” in the next section gives detailed descriptions on the expected contents in each of the chapters. A country report of metadata on national agricultural statistics should be prepared in accordance with the guidelines provided in this Outline.

Each invited country is requested to submit the duly filled in survey questionnaire and the first draft of the Country Report by 25 August 2006, along with any update on the full mailing address, telephone and facsimile numbers as well as e-mail address of the prospective participant. Comments and suggestions from the Review Committee of the Workshop organizers will be provided within a week for the country to revise and finalize the Report. The deadline for submission of the second draft Country Reports will be 15 September. The final version of the Report is expected to be received by 30 September 2006.

IV. ANNOTATED OUTLINE FOR THE COUNTRY REPORT

The purpose of this annotated framework is to ensure that country reports on metadata prepared by countries will cover the three main areas identified above in a systematical and consistent way so that the related information on each country is sufficient, comprehensive yet not encyclopedic, and comparable at the international level.

Tentative title:

METADATA FOR NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS IN XXX

(Here: xxx is to be replaced by the name of the country)

Chapter 1: National System of Agricultural Statistics

This chapter is intended to describe the national agricultural statistical system in a country, it should cover the major national statistical agencies involved in the agricultural data collection, compilation, and dissemination; legal framework/background; operational procedures and process of data production; dissemination policy of agricultural statistics; as well as co-operation with other government departments, universities, and research institutes, and international and regional organizations. The descriptions of the agricultural statistical system in the country provides context for the presentations of the operation of agricultural data collection and the production of major national statistical outputs in the next two chapters.

Reference for this Chapter: Statistical Metadata Survey Questionnaire: Part 1. “The Organization of the Food and Agricultural Statistical System” and Annex 1: “Institutions Involved in the Production of Agricultural Statistics.”

1. Legal frame and statistical advisory bodies

- Statistical laws: year of its establishment, list of its major contents.

- Any provision of the independence of the statistical system?

- Any provision of confidentiality to encourage participation in surveys by individuals, firms, and others?

- What is the legal basis for conducting agricultural censuses and surveys?

- Types, roles, and the composition of their members of statistical advisory bodies.

2. Structure and organization of the major agricultural statistical agencies

- Information of national contacts: e.g. names, addresses, emails, telephone numbers.

- Description of the division of responsibility between different statistical agencies involved in agricultural data collection activities and of their respective competencies and administrative relationships.

- Organizational structures of the concerned government agencies and level of centralization, including organization charts, numbers of regional organizations.

- Human resources (number of staff members, nature and type of employment: permanent vs. temporary).

- Budgets and agricultural statistical programmes (situation of budgets from the government, programmes with international, regional, and bilateral funding).

3. Outputs and dissemination of agricultural statistics

- Contact information of the focal point of dissemination (including telephone, fax number and e-mail) of the responsible agencies.

- List of titles of major publications / statistical reports; indicate total number of major publications / statistical reports.

- For each of major publications / statistical reports, describe the medium, formats, periodicity, and frequency of publications.

- Release calendar, pricing policy, and free services.

- Internet addresses of websites of national agricultural statistical database.

- Is there a ministerial commentary or similar announcement on the occasion of the release of the data?

- What are the provisions to give advance notice of changes in methodology?

4. Dialogue with data users and co-operation with international organizations

[See the enclosed questionnaire.]

5. Strategic framework

- The near future statistical action plans of the NSO and OAS.

- The challenges ahead - issues and concerns.

- Any need for international co-operation and technical assistance.

Chapter 2: Major Domains and Selected Indicators of Agricultural Statistics

The focus of this chapter is on the major domains of agricultural statistics, such as production, trade, consumption, prices, fertilizer, land use, labor and employment as listed in the following. If relevant, after completing the major domains, one may also explore to other domains, for example, of aquaculture, forestry, irrigation, and land degradation among others. The selected indicators shown under each domain below are given as examples.

Reference for this Chapter: Statistical Metadata Survey Questionnaire: Part 2. “The Output of the Food and Agricultural Statistical System.”

1. List of major domains and selected indicators

This section is to list the major domains and selected indicators of agricultural statistics currently compiled and disseminated in the country. The following serve as an example.

- Production

o Volume of crop production

o Value of crop production

o Volume of livestock and poultry production

o Value of livestock and poultry production

o Volume of fishery production, municipal, commercial and aquaculture

o Value of fishery production, municipal, commercial and aquaculture

o Volume of fish production by major species

o Value of fish production by major species

o Number of animals slaughtered/dressed

o Rice and corn inventory

o Livestock and poultry inventory by type of animal

o Gross national product

o Gross domestic product

o Gross value added in agriculture

- Trade

o Total value of exports and imports

o Volume of agricultural exports and imports

o Value of agricultural exports and imports

- Food consumption

o Food balance sheet (quantity, calories, proteins, fats, etc.)

- Prices

o Average monthly prices of selected agricultural products

o Producer price index by commodity group

o Consumer price index by commodity group

- Agricultural machinery

- Fertilizer

o Production

o Imports and exports

o Sales

- Pesticides, insecticides, herbicides

- Land use

o Total farm area

o Irrigated area

o Area planted/harvested of crops

- Labor and employment

o Rural population

o Labor force in agriculture

o Active population in agriculture

o Total employment

o Employment in agriculture

o Nominal and real wage rates by sectors

- Others

o Rural infrastructure

o Rural employment

o Rural income

o Agricultural credit

o Agri-environmental indicators

2. Metadata for each of the major domains

For each of the above major domains, please describe as follows.

1. Concepts, definitions, and classifications

- Concepts and definitions, units of measurement used in the presentation of data.

- Description and assessment of the coherence and conformity of the national data with the international standards, concepts, definitions, classifications and other methodological standards (e.g. FAO or UN definitions) adopted (national / international standard classifications, names, and versions).

- Information on exceptions and departures from FAO or UN guidelines.

2. Coverage and availability

- Coverage/scope: geographic coverage of the data in the major domains and the specific scope of the data presented, e.g., by commodity group, industry, or population group, etc.

- Does the data collection system produce data below the national level, i.e. sub-national data (states, provinces, etc.)? Is all the country covered or, for some reasons, was part of the country not covered?

- Periodicity of the data collection: how often are the surveys and censuses conducted to collect the needed data? State the frequency of conducting the statistical activity or the reporting activity that produces the data.

- Reference period: specify the period of time covered or presented by the statistical tables for the major domains.

- Length of time-series and other historical data available; comparability over time. Any breaks in the time series and/or missing data should be declared.

3. Data source and collection methodology

- Sources of information for each major domain: titles of the census, survey or administrative records.

- Data collection methodology: sample survey, complete enumeration or a combination of both, ways of the data collected and techniques used.

o Does the survey cover all crops or only major crops? If it is the latter, please list the crops covered. Explain how minor crops are estimated.

o If mixed cropping (more than one temporary crop grown simultaneously on the same land) or associated cropping (temporary and permanent crops grown simultaneously) are practiced, please indicate how area under individual crops is reported. If total area is split among crops, explain the method of ascribing area to each crop and how you arrive at “yield”.

o Describe the type of survey conducted to estimate annual livestock numbers, i.e. total census, sample survey, other surveys including administrative records.

- Primary data inputs used for the derived indicators.

4. Data processing, estimation, and revision methodology

- Descriptions of data processing and compilation methodology.

- Methodological approaches used to generate missing data.

o If there is a minimum limit on the scale of business, explain the method of estimation for those not covered by the survey (e.g. the method of estimating livestock number below this limit).

o Describe the method of estimating nomadic livestock numbers, if this phenomenon exists in your country.

o Describe the methods of arriving at number of slaughterings, meat production, offals and carcass weight and specify if this covers all slaughterings including those outside slaughterhouses. If yes, please describe the method of estimation of the latter.

o Describe the method of estimation of number of milking animals, milk production and milk yield. Do data on milking animals relate to those exclusively kept for milk? Do you exclude milk sucked by young animals? Do you make allowance to include milk produced on non-commercial establishment? If yes, please describe the method of estimation.

o Describe the method of estimation of number of laying hens and egg production and how this is supplemented by data on the traditional sector.

o Describe briefly how the production of wool, honey, silk is estimated in your country.

- Error detection and quality evaluation techniques.

- Practices in the revision and updating of statistical data.

- Practices in seasonal adjustments.

- Description of major changes in methodology.

5. Other reference information

- Treatment of confidentiality when applicable.

- Information on the uses of the statistics, examples of the type of analyses that the data can be used for, e.g. structural census data versus data on the performance of the agricultural sector.

- Links and references to additional methodological material, such as publications, pdf-documents etc.

- References to other relevant material, such as instructions and manuals for staff, training etc.

Chapter 3: Major Data Sources for Agricultural Statistics

The third main area (chapter) is to explain the operation of data collection for agricultural statistics within a country. Three major data sources as well as data collecting ways to be documented are agricultural censuses, surveys, and administrative records, with an emphasis on those more regularly and frequently conducted censuses and surveys. By following a unified format and method for the documentation given below, it is hoped that the results will be much easier and better exchanged and understood.

Reference for this Chapter: Statistical Metadata Survey Questionnaire: Annex 2. “Main National Food and Agricultural Surveys and Censuses” and Annex 3. “Main Administrative Sources for Food and Agricultural Data.”

1. List of major agricultural censuses, surveys, and registers

To list the major censuses, surveys, and administrative registers currently and/or frequently conducted and practiced in the country, the following serve as an example:

- Censuses:

o Agriculture census

o Aquaculture census

o Population census

- Surveys:

o Crop, crop area, crop yield, crop forecast

o Cost

o Livestock

o Fishery

o Forestry

o Land-use

o Structure surveys

o Household income and expenditure

- Administrative registers:

o Central population registers

o Statistical farm registers

o Other market information, such as trade statistics

2. Metadata for each of the major censuses and surveys

For each of the above censuses and surveys, please describe as follows.

1. Overview

- A brief history, scope and objectives, purposes, contents, and subjects.

- Number and names of censuses and surveys, year of the last and next censuses.

- Description of the coordination of the agricultural and population censuses in a country.

2. Survey and census design

- Description of the statistical population and statistical units of the surveys and censuses.

o For sample surveys, please describe the total population (sampling frame), the frequency of its updating, the enumeration units (e.g. agricultural holdings, agricultural households, etc.), selection procedure (e.g. random, probability proportional to size, etc.), the date of enumeration, and other characteristics of the survey.

o Is there a minimum limit to the size of the sampling unit or is there a minimum scale of business covered? Please explain.

- Main data items and variables, their definitions and concepts defined, and classifications used for operational purposes (e.g. livestock numbers are collected by age, purpose, sex, etc.)

- Geographical, sectoral, and subject scope and coverage of the data.

- Time reference year (calendar year or agricultural year), time reference dates or periods of data collection on individual census/survey items.

3. Conduct, operations, data quality control

- Description of the organization, management and logistics of the censuses and surveys.

- Assessment of the success of the census/survey operations, in each of its phases.

- Description of quality control and improvement procedures established for the census/survey operations.

- Assessment of the key accuracy and reliability issues and different kinds of errors associated with the data: e.g. related to coverage, sampling, non-response, response, data processing, estimation or imputation etc.

- Estimates of sampling error for key census/survey items; response rates; evaluations of non-response error; estimates of the coefficient of variation (CV) for the key census/survey items.

- Description of any unexpected events affecting data quality (e.g. floods, high non-response).

- Description of specific exclusions, exceptions or limitations.

3. Metadata for each of the major administrative registers

This section is to briefly describe how, where, and of what type of administrative records are used for production of agricultural statistics.

- Types of administrative records used by the statistical system, e.g.

o Land ownership register for getting frame for census/surveys

o Subsidy payment register for planning agriculture survey

o Land revenue for crop enumeration

o Information on regulated market transactions for price information

- How are administrative records used – for preparation of frames or for preparation of Statistics, or for cross checking the survey data?

- Type of administrative regulation that makes it obligatory to provide administrative information.

- Provision/procedures that make the administrative statistics unbiased.

- What type of statistics is published and accepted as reliable, on the basis of administrative records?

- Whether National Statistics Office plays any role in the process of use of administrative records for data production?

- What are the data quality assurance procedures applied before calling the administrative information as “statistics”?

* * *

[Prepared on 7 August 2006]

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[1] The Agricultural Bulletin Board on Data Collection, Dissemination and Quality of Statistics (ABCDQ) was established within FAO in 2000 to help foster FAOSTAT data quality. It guides users seeking information on the sources and methods of data collection and dissemination.

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