Agricultural Census 2020
Germany, 2020
Get MicrodataIdentification
DEU_2020_LA_v01_M_v01_A_ESS
Agricultural Census 2020
AC 2020
Landwirtschaftszählung 2020
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| Germany | DEU |
Agricultural Census [ag/census]
Beginning with the first census in 1949, agricultural censuses have been carried out in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1960, 1971 and 1979. The Agricultural Census (LA) 1991 was the first carried out in the unified Germany, followed by the LAs conducted in 1999 and 2010. The LA 2020 was the fourth LA to be conducted in the country.
The Agricultural Census (LA) is a census of all agricultural holdings that takes place every ten years. It is part of an EU-wide programme of agricultural censuses carried out in 2020 under EU Regulation 2018/1091 on integrated farm statistics and conducted under the World Programme for the Census of Agriculture (https://www.fao.org/world-census-agriculture/en/). The LA 2020 aims to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the situation in agriculture, and the main topics covered include structural change in agriculture, livestock, and the development of organic farming.
Census/enumeration data [cen]
Agricultural holdings
Scope
The census scope covered agricultural activities (crop and animal production).
The questionnaire collected information on:
- The agricultural holding: use of administrative data, legal form of the agricultural holding
- Land use and crop production: cultivation on arable land, permanent crops, and permanent grassland
- Other areas and total area under management
- Ownership and leasehold arrangements
- Livestock and Poultry
- Animal Housing
- Manure and Fertilizer Management
- Other Gainful Activities
- Storage Facilities
- Labor Force
- Future Intentions and Succession
Coverage
The AC 2020 covered the entire country.
The statistical unit was the agricultural holding, defined as a single unit, both technically and economically, that has a single management and that undertakes economic activities in agriculture in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 belonging to groups A.01.1, A.01.2, A.01.3, A.01.4, A.01.5 or to the "maintenance of agricultural land in good agricultural and environmental condition" of group A.01.6 within the economic territory of the Union, either as its primary or secondary activity, as it is stated in the Regulation (EU) No. 2018/1091 of the European Parliament and of the Council on integrated agricultural statistics. The intention of the holdings to make a profit was not required. Agricultural holdings that produce olive oil from olives for personal use were included in the scope of the regulation but were not relevant for Germany in the context of the Agricultural Census (LA) 2020. The breeding and keeping of ostriches, emus and rabbits, as well as beekeeping were not relevant for Germany, too.
Germany applied the following threshold:
- 5 ha of UAA
- 0.5 ha of hops or tobacco or of area for fruit-growing; under vines or tree nurseries; or of outdoor vegetable or strawberry cultivation
- 1 ha of permanent outdoor crops
- 0.3 ha of outdoor flower or ornamental plant cultivation
- 0.1 ha of crops under glass or other accessible protective cover or mushrooms
- 10 cattle, 50 pigs, 10 breeding sows, 20 sheep, 20 goats, 1 000 poultry
Producers and sponsors
| Name |
|---|
| Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI, Bundesministerium des Innern), Federal Statistical Office (Destatis, Statistisches Bundesamt) |
Sampling
The Agricultural Census (LA) 2020 was composed of a core module and three thematic modules on labor force and other gainful activities, rural development, and animal housing and manure management. Administrative registers were used to collect data partially for the core module and the animal housing and manure management modules, and completely for the rural development module.
The frame used in the LA 2020 was the Central Farm Register for Agricultural Statistics (zeBRA, Zentrales Betriebsregister Agrarstatistiken). The statistical offices of the Länder maintain and constantly update the frame with previous surveys and administrative data sources.
The LA 2020 used a combination of complete and sample enumeration. The core module was collected using complete enumeration, while data for the supplementary thematic modules referring to labor force and other gainful activities, rural development and livestock buildings and manure management were collected using sample enumeration.
In the LA 2020, the sample was selected using a one-stage (stratified) sample with controlled selection independently in each stratum. The stratification variables were the NUTS-2 regions, size classes of UAA, crops and livestock characteristics, the economic method of the farm (organic/conventional) and the main production areas. The strata plan for the LA 2020 included various full coverage strata, e.g. holdings with large numbers of livestock and organic farming. The total sample size was approximately 78 000 holdings. This sample was used in all thematic modules.
The sampling weights were adjusted for nonresponse.
Survey instrument
One electronic questionnaire (CAWI/CATI) was used in the LA 2020. The questionnaire covered 20 out of 23 essential items recommended in the WCA 2020.
Data collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 2020-02 | 2020-04 |
Reference day: 1 March 2020, for livestock and animal housing facilities
Reference periods:
- year 2020, for legal form, location, land use and crops, organic farming and types of land tenure, holding manager
- the last 12 months, for manure management, participation of holding's manager in vocational training courses, renewable energy
- from March 2019 to February 2020, for labor force
- calendar year 2019, for irrigation, animal grazing and incomes
- from 2019 to 2020, for crop rotation
- from 2018 to 2020, for rural development support
- the last two years, for areas leased for the first time and with changes in the lease price
- the fiscal year 2019/2020, for determination of profits and taxes
- Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi], Computer Assisted Web Interview [cawi]
The implementation of the Agricultural Census (LA) 2020 in Germany was decentralized. Technical and methodological organization and coordination was carried out by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) in consultation with the statistical offices of the federal states (Länder), which were responsible for the data collection and processing at the Länder (state) level, whereas the FSO was responsible for the processing of federal results and their submission to Eurostat. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture was involved in the major aspects of the LA 2020. The staff involved in the LA 2020 amounted to approximately 200 people.
In the LA 2020, data was collected through the CAWI method using CATI for follow-up. In justified individual cases, the responsible Länder statistical office allowed the use of paper questionnaires. A letter with the access data and brief instructions for the online or paper questionnaire was sent by the statistical offices of the Länder to respondents. The characteristics concerning land use, location, manure management, land leasing, cattle population, animal housing, and rural development support were obtained from administrative data sources to reduce the response burden. Collecting data on the module on manure management was complex and a lot of telephone support was needed.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis, Statistisches Bundesamt) applied a variety of systematic quality assurance measures that ensured the production of high-quality statistical information based on a methodologically sound and efficient production processes. With its Statistical Quality Offensive, the Destatis introduced a comprehensive quality management system based on Total Quality Management (TQM). The conceptual framework was the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) Excellence Model, which provides the basic structure for this assessment and review of the capability and service delivery and fulfilment (performance) of the organization in general. The chosen quality assurance and assessment procedures that were carried out included peer reviews, quality reports, and a quality manual. The AGRA 2010 processing programme was the main instrument for making edits of completeness and plausibility. Estimation of the relative standard error was used as a measure of the sampling error. Census results estimated from sample enumeration were shown with a quality label which indicates the sampling error class. The accuracy required by Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 of a relative standard error of less than five percent for relevant crops and livestock characteristics of agricultural holdings was compiled at NUTS2 level for the sample part of the census. To reduce non-sampling errors, the zeBRA register is continuously updated by the statistical offices of the Länder, the agricultural census was arranged as an exercise with an obligation to provide information, and statistical offices of the Länder set up helplines to assist respondents. Estimates were compared with those of previous surveys, censuses and administrative data.
Data processing
The statistical offices of the Länder checked the completeness of the incoming questionnaires with the help of entry control systems and transferred the data from the online questionnaires, paper questionnaires and the administrative data sources into the processing and plausibility check programme AGRA 2010. This program provided more than 800 plausibility checks at the holding level data and flagged erroneous and suspicious data, which were corrected manually or automatically, or supplemented by telephone inquiries with the respondents. Missing data was imputed using cold deck procedures with sources like previous census or administrative registers or hot-deck methods using similar holdings as data sources. Anonymization and tabulation were made using the AGRATAB Management Tool (AMT) and the GHman (Geheimhaltungsmanagementtool), a specific software. For any further workflow step, specific software or SAS software were used.
DATA PROCESSING NOTES
Direct data capture was ensured by the CAWI method. The development of the online questionnaire included the creation of plausibility checks stored in it so that the first possible errors were recognized and corrected by the respondent when filling out the questionnaire.
Data Access
The data request procedure and the data request form are available at "How to apply for microdata access?" at https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/microdata/farm-statistics.
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Statistical Office (Destatis, Statistisches Bundesamt) | Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI, Bundesministerium des Innern) | [email protected] |
Metadata production
DDI_DEU_2020_LA_v01_M_v01_A_ESS_FAO
| Name | Abbreviation | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt) | Destatis | Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI, Bundesministerium des Innern) | Metadata producer |
| Statistics Division | ESS | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Metadata adapted for FAM |