General Agricultural Census 2020
Romania, 2021
Identification
ROU_2020_RGA_v01_M_v01_A_ESS
General Agricultural Census 2020
Recensamântul General Agricol 2020
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| Romania | ROU |
Agricultural Census [ag/census]
Romania conducted its first agricultural census in 1941 together with the population and housing census (PHC). Then, censuses were conducted independently and referred as the General Agricultural Census (Recensamântul General Agricol) in 1948, 1970, 2002, 2010, and 2020.
The General Agricultural Census 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 General Agricultural Census 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 activities (crop and animal production).
The questionnaire collected information on:
- General information on the farm
- Land use
- Livestock
- Animal housing
- Nutrient use and manure management
- Organic farming
- People employed in agriculture
- Other income-generating activities
- Rural development
- Agricultural land used, owned by foreign nationals
- Other information regarding activities carried out on the farm
- Distribution of the agricultural land area of the agricultural holding, by county
- Other information
Coverage
The General Agricultural Census 2020 covered the entire country, both rural and urban areas.
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 same thresholds used in the General Agricultural Census 2010 where applied in the 2020 round. These thresholds are:
- 0.15 ha of kitchen garden
- 10 head of poultry
- Any area of utilised agricultural area (UAA) excluding kitchen gardens
- Any livestock units excluding poultry
Producers and sponsors
| Name |
|---|
| Government of Romania (Guvernul României), National Institute of Statistics (Institutul National de Statistică) |
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Ministerul Agriculturii și Dezvoltării Rurale) | Government of Romania (Guvernul României) | Support |
| Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ministerul Afacerilor Interne) | Government of Romania (Guvernul României) | Support |
| Special Telecommunications Service (Serviciul de Telecomunicații Speciale) | Technical support |
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| European Union, Integrated Farm Statistics programme pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 of the European Parliament and of the Council | Funding |
Sampling
The census frame was defined based on information from the agriculture registers, which were organized and filled-in by town-halls of the 3200 administrative territorial units, and from the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) using lists of agricultural holdings that applied for subsidies to the Agency for Payments and Interventions for Agriculture (APIA, Agenţia de Intervenție și Plăți pentru Agricultură).
The General Agricultural Census 2020 was composed of a core module and three thematic modules on labour force and other gainful activities, rural development, and animal housing and manure management. One-off complete enumeration was used for all modules.
Survey instrument
One electronic questionnaire, developed with Survey Solutions software, was used for the General Agricultural Census 2020. The questionnaire covered 20 out of 23 essential items recommended in the WCA 2020.
Data collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 2021-05-10 | 2021-07-31 |
Reference day:
- 31 December 2020, for livestock, animal housing facilities, and organic farming in the animal sector
Reference periods:
- From 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2020, for land use, labour force, other gainful activities, organic farming in the crops sector, irrigation and soil management practices, and others
- Calendar year 2020 for management of animal manure
- Last three years (2018-2020) for rural development support
- Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]
Data collection for the General Agricultural Census 2020 was carried out in person by interviewers using the CAPI method.
Field staff involved in census data collection amounted to 17 500 enumerators, 3700 supervisors, and 41 coordinators. Also, additional staff were employed for a specific period at the National Institute of Statistics (Institutul Naţional de Statistică), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Ministerul Agriculturii și Dezvoltării Rurale), and at their territorial structures.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
The National Institute of Statistics performed statistical activities in accordance with the Generic Statistical Business Process Model, in which the final phase of statistical activities is an overall evaluation using information gathered in each phase or sub-process. A peer review was conducted in 2015. Certification according to ISO 9001:2015 is ongoing.
Quality assurance and assessment procedures include training courses, use of best practices, quality guidelines, benchmarking, designated quality manager, quality unit and/or senior level committee, compliance monitoring, and peer review. In the preparation stage of the General Agricultural Census 2020, a pilot census was carried out to verify its feasibility, to improve organizational and technical aspects, to assess the clarity of the questions included in the questionnaire, and to test the procedures and tools for collecting data from agricultural holdings. A selection of about 4500 agricultural holdings with and without legal status were included from all over the country. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the pilot census was postponed from May to October 2020. Analysis, verification and validation of data during the data collection period led to the minimization of content errors.
Data processing
Once completed by the enumerator without errors, the questionnaire was submitted to the analysis of the supervisor and then to the analysis and approval by the headquarters (three specific roles in the Survey Solutions software). Data processing, including validation, corrections and aggregation, was carried out between May 2021 to September 2022. Software used for data capture, processing, analysis and tabulations were the Survey Solution software, Microsoft Visual FoxPro, RStudio software.
Imputation was carried out using data sources from the Agency for Payments and Interventions for Agriculture, and using deductive, mean and ratio imputation.
DATA PROCESSING NOTES
Direct data capture was ensured by the CAPI method. The electronic data collection questionnaire was developed using the Survey Solutions data collection software which allowed automatic rejections and approvals of questionnaires by implementing consistency checks at the level of the questionnaire, within the chapters and between chapters. In the case of incorrect completion of the data, the application generates an error flag. These types of errors were reported as the enumerator completed the questionnaire with the possibility to make the necessary corrections and complete the questionnaire without errors.
Data Access
The data request procedure and the data request form are available at on the website of the National Institute of Statistics of Romania at "Microdata for scientific purposes" at https://insse.ro/cms/en/content/nis-microdata-scientific-purposes, or at "How to apply for microdata access?" at https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/microdata/farm-statistics.
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Institute of Statistics (Institutul National de Statistică) | Government of Romania (Guvernul României) | [email protected] | https://insse.ro/cms/en |
Metadata production
DDI_ROU_2020_RGA_v01_M_v01_A_ESS_FAO
| Name | Abbreviation | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Institute of Statistics (Institutul National de Statistică) | Government of Romania (Guvernul României) | Metadata producer | |
| Statistics Division | ESS | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Metadata adapted for FAM |