Agricultural Census 2020
France, 2019 - 2020
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FRA_2020_RA_v01_M_v01_A_ESS
Agricultural Census 2020
RA 2020
Recensement Agricole 2020
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| France | FRA |
Agricultural Census [ag/census]
Agricultural censuses (RAs) were conducted in 1929/1930, 1955, 1970/1971, 1979, 1988, 1999/2000, 2010, and 2020. The first RAs was carried out only in France mainland. In French overseas departments and regions, RAs were conducted starting from 1970.
The Census of Agriculture (RA) 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 objective of the RA 2020 is to collect useful information for the purposes of monitoring, evaluating, and revising the common agricultural policy.
Census/enumeration data [cen]
Agricultural holdings
Scope
The census scope covered agricultural (crop and livestock production) activities.
The questionnaire collected information on:
- General Characteristics of the Holding
- Crop Production
- Animal Production
- Fertilization and Manure Management
- Other Gainful Activities
- Marketing of Agricultural Products
- Workforce
- Other Information on the Holding
Coverage
The geographical scope covers all of France in Europe and the overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, and Mayotte.
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. Regarding activities of class A.01.49, only the activities "Raising and breeding of semi-domesticated or other live animals" (except for raising of insects) and "Bee-keeping and production of honey and beeswax" were included.
The following thresholds for agricultural holdings were applied in the RA 2020 for the metropole:
- 1 ha of UAA
- 0.2 ha of specialized crops (tobacco, hops, aromatic or medicinal plants, seeds, fresh vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants, permanent crops, nurseries), cabbage for sauerkraut, or asparagus
- 0.05 ha of potatoes or fresh vegetables
- 0.15 ha of strawberries
- 0.05 ha of flowers and ornamental plants, vineyards for champagne, or nurseries
- 0.1 ha of vineyards
- 0.01 ha of crops under glass or high accessible cover
- 1 breeding male
- 4 births of Equidae animals
- 1 cow
- 2 cattle over two years old
- 1 breeding sow
- 1 fattening activity (for bovine animals or pigs or sheep or goats or rabbits)
- 6 breeding female sheep or goats
- 10 breeding female rabbits
- 100 laying poultry
- 1000 eggs of incubation capacity
- 50 beehives
- 1 other animal production not elsewhere classified
- 500 broiler poultry
- 50 fat poultry
- 10 000 eggs
- 2 tons of endives
- 1 ton of mushrooms
The threshold for the overseas departments and regions was:
- 1 ha of utilized agricultural area
- 1 ha of arable land
- 0.3 ha of potatoes and all roots and tubers
- 0.3 ha of sugar cane
- 0.3 ha of fruit crops (including bananas and pineapples)
- 0.3 ha of creole/Mayotte gardens
- 0.3 ha of perfume, aromatic, and medicinal plants (PPAM), ornamental crops and nurseries
- 0.1 ha of market gardening
- 0.01 ha of greenhouses or high shelters
- 2 cattle over 2 years old
- 6 sheep or goats
- 1 sow
- 10 does
- 200 chickens
- 100 laying hens
- 30 beehives
- 4 equine births
- presence of a fattening facility (young cattle, lambs, young goat)
- 1 ton of mushrooms or 1 ton of endives
The animal housing and manure management module covered the subset of the population of agricultural holdings defined before with at least one cattle, pig, sheep, goat, or poultry. It could happen that there was no animal present on the holding at the reference date but there was a breeding activity at certain moments of the year. In those cases, these holdings were surveyed on manure management.
Producers and sponsors
| Name |
|---|
| Ministry of Agriculture and Food (Ministère de l'Agriculture et de l'Alimentation), Department of Statistics and Foresight Analysis (Service de la statistique et de la prospective, SSP) |
Sampling
The RA 2020 comprised a core module and three thematic modules on labor force and other gainful activities, rural development, and animal housing and manure management. Some census data for the core module and all census data related to the thematic module rural development were collected directly from administrative registers.
The Survey Database for Agricultural Statistics was the list frame used in the RA 2020. The register is continually updated and was built with the maximum of available administrative data sources: the Sirene register (business register); the common agricultural policy subsidies register; the customs administration vineyard (CVI) register; the bovine identification national database (BDNI), and other animal species databases; the Mutuelle Sociale Agricole; fiscal information; and other datasets for poorly covered activities with above administrative formalities, such as market gardening, horticulture, organic farming, horse farming and beekeeping.
The RA 2020 used a combination of complete and sample enumeration. The core and the rural development modules were collected using complete enumeration, while data for the supplementary thematic modules referred to labor force and other gainful activities, and animal housing and manure management were collected using sample enumeration. In the French overseas departments and regions and Corsica, a complete enumeration of the four modules was carried out.
In the RA 2020, the sample was selected using a one-stage stratified random sample of size 55 334 for both supplementary thematic modules. The stratification variables were NUTS2, NUTS3, standard output, and farm type. In total, there were 1986 strata (without full coverage strata) with a minimum of 50 units in each stratum. The INSEE tool Palourde developed in R was used to optimize the allocation of the overall stratified simple random sample according to the multiple objectives of the published data. A minimum of six units was selected in each stratum and the minimum sampling rate per stratum was 1/50. The resulting sample for France, excluding geographic exhaustiveness, included 55 334 units to meet local constraints. The allocations per stratum were calculated to optimize the RSE on the standard output variable with the constraint of the total allocation of 70 000 surveys. The full coverage strata were determined for: units with standard output above EUR 500 000 (or EUR 250 000 for poultry type farm); units with ten permanent salaried people; units in some regions; units in the Farm Sustainability Data Network sample; and all establishments which are part of the same business registered on SIRENE, namely all farms that have the same SIREN identifier.
Survey instrument
Two questionnaires were used in the RA 2020: one for the core module for mainland France excluding Corsica, and a complete questionnaire comprising the core module and the thematic modules on labor force and other gainful activities, and animal housing and manure management for a sample of holdings in mainland France, Corsica, and the overseas departments and regions. For farms in which the holder is not the farmer, the questionnaires covered 17 out of 23 essential items recommended in the WCA 2020.
Data collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 2019-11-01 | 2020-10-31 |
Reference day:
- 1 November 2020, for livestock and for all other variables
- 15 May 2020, for crops reported by holdings in the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) 2020
Reference periods:
- from 1 November 2019 to 31 October 2020, for crop, irrigation and soil management practices, manure management, labor force, and animal housing
- from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2020, for rural development measures
- Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi], Computer Assisted Web Interview [cawi], Computer Assisted Telephone Interview [cati]
The RA 2020 involved 1 000 enumerators hired to collect data in person and by telephone, of which 200 were for overseas departments and regions; 100 staff in regional departments, of which 20 were for the overseas departments and regions; and approximately 30 in the central administration.
In the RA 2020, data was collected using CAPI, CATI and CAWI methods. The core module was collected through CAWI; CATI was used for those who were unwilling or unable to respond online. For thematic modules and overseas departments and regions, the CAPI method was used for data collection. Also, to reduce the response burden, the following administrative registers were used for data collection: IACS, bovine register, and rural development measures.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
The Ministry for Agriculture and Food has a quality management system, and quality assurance and assessment procedures include designated quality manager, quality unit and/or senior level committee. There is a quality committee of the Statistical and Foresight Department of the Ministry for Agriculture and Food. Improvements in quality procedures are reflected within the quality committee. A report was published in August 2020 about quality of statistical data published by the Statistical and Foresight Department and is available at https://agriculture.gouv.fr/audit-qualistats. Several actions were carried out to minimize non-sampling errors in the RA 2020: maintenance of ineligible units in the records with assignment of zero weights to minimize over-coverage errors; update of contact information, information collected from administrative data or direct information from respondents in thematic surveys, and update of information for units with no phone numbers and email addresses to minimize contact errors; pre-testing questionnaire, pre-filled questions, explanatory notes or handbooks for enumerators or respondents, and training of enumerators to minimize measurements errors; follow-up interviews, reminders, legal actions, imputation, and weighting to minimize non-response errors. Sampling errors were calculated using the function CALVA of the INSEE R package.
Data processing
Interviewers, supervisors, and staff from local and central departments validated data through data format checks, completeness checks, range checks, relational checks, comparisons with previous rounds of data collection, and comparisons with other domains in agricultural statistics. Validation checks were included within data collection tools. For data collected through sample enumeration, sampling weights were adjusted for non-response and calibrated. For unit non-response, imputation was carried out for variables of the core module. Imputations methods included deductive, mean, and random hot deck imputation. All corrections were done using R.
DATA PROCESSING NOTES
Direct data capture was ensured by the CAWI, CAPI and CATI methods.
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 | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Statistics and Foresight Analysis (Service de la statistique et de la prospective, SSP) | Ministry of Agriculture and Food (Ministère de l'Agriculture et de l'Alimentation) | [email protected] | http://agreste.agriculture.gouv.fr/ |
Metadata production
DDI_FRA_2020_RA_v01_M_v01_A_ESS_FAO
| Name | Abbreviation | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Statistics and Foresight Analysis (SSP, Service de la statistique et de la prospective) | SSP | Ministry of Agriculture and Food (MAF, Ministère de l'Agriculture et de l'Alimentation) | Metadata producer |
| Statistics Division | ESS | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Metadata adapted for FAM |