Census of Agriculture 2021
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 2021
Identification
GBR_2021_CA_v01_M_v01_A_ESS
Census of Agriculture 2021
CA 2021
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland | GBR |
Agricultural Census [ag/census]
A Census of Agriculture (CA) has been conducted in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) since 1866. A full census was carried out every year until 1995, then the annual analysis was reduced to a sample survey, although it captured around 80 percent of the farming population. A full Census is now only carried out once every ten years, 2021 being the most recent. The UK has participated in the ten-yearly rounds of the WCA Programme since 1930, with a selected year.
The Census of Agriculture (CA) in the UK contains data from: Census of Agriculture, Horticulture and Labour for England which has existed in various forms for over 150 years, and is now run every 10 years, alongside an annual sample survey; Scottish Agricultural Census: June 2021 which is run annually; for Wales the Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture: June 2021 which is run annually; the Agricultural Census in Northern Ireland conducted in June of each year.
The purpose of the CA is to collect the data needed to understand industry priorities, make the right decisions on investment and design policies which meet the needs of farmers. Furthermore, the CA allows the monitoring of changes over the longer term, such as environmental changes, and the identifications of trends and issues. The CA 2021 is designed to capture detailed information on land use, crop areas, livestock numbers and the labor force on farms.
Census/enumeration data [cen]
Agricultural holdings
Scope
The census scope covered agricultural activities (crop and livestock production).
The questionnaire for the agricultural census in England collected information on:
- Land area
- Grassland, woodland and non-agricultural land
- Arable crops and fallow land
- Horticulture
- Livestock
- People working on the holding
The questionnaire for the agricultural census in Scotland collected information on:
- Area of location
- Seasonal rents
- Land use
- Woodland and Protected Crops
- Pigs
- Sheep
- Poultry
- Miscellaneous livestock
- Labour
- All other labour
- Non-regular, contract labour and migrant workers
The questionnaire for the agricultural census in Wales collected information on:
- Area of holding
- Arable crops
- Horticultural activity
- Grassland and other land
- Principal Farmers
- Other people working on the holding
- Sheep, rams and lambs
- Cattle
- Pigs
- Poultry
- Other livestock
The questionnaire for the agricultural census in Northern Ireland collected information on:
- Crop areas in Northern Ireland
- Cattle and calves
- Sheep
- Pigs
- Farmers and other workers
- Land use (crop and grass area farmed)
Coverage
The CA 2021 covered the entire United Kingdom.
The statistical unit was the agricultural holding, defined as a single unit, both technically and economically, which has a single management, and which produces agricultural products.
In England, the census covered commercial agricultural holdings with significant activity levels applying the following thresholds:
- 5 ha of UAA
- 1 ha of permanent crops/orchards
- 0.5 ha of vegetables, melons and strawberries grown in the open
- 0.1 ha of glasshouse for flowers, vegetables or fruit
- 10 head of cattle
- 50 head of pigs
- 10 breeding sows
- 20 head of sheep or goats
- 1 000 head of poultry
- 1 ha of hardy nursery stock
- all mushroom holdings
In Scotland no minimum thresholds were applied.
In Wales, the census covered holdings meeting the following thresholds:
- 1.4 ha of wheat
- 1.6 ha of barley
- 1.2 ha of oats
- 0.3 ha of potatoes
- 29.3 head of sheep
- 1 head of dairy breeding cow
- 3.1 of beef breeding cow
- 3.1 head of breeding sows pig
- 63.2 head of pig (other than breeding sows)
- 271.3 laying hens
- 563.4 table chicken (broilers)
In Northern Ireland, the census covered holdings meeting the following thresholds:
- More than 1 ha of agricultural land
- Any cattle
- More than 5 head of sheep
- 10 head of pig
- More than 250 head of poultry
- Growing horticultural crops
Producers and sponsors
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) | UK Government |
| Rural and Environmental Science, and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) | Scottish Government |
| Knowledge and Analytical Services | Welsh Government |
| Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland (DAERA) | Northern Ireland Executive |
Sampling
The CA 2021 employed complete enumeration of agricultural holdings above the predefined thresholds in England.
England: The frame for the CA 2021 was the population of agricultural holdings in the registers maintained by DEFRA which met the minimum thresholds criteria. Active holdings that were claiming Basic Payments, active on DEFRA registers or active on any of the livestock administrative systems were included in the CA frame. The registers are continually updated, and the frame is redrawn each year for annual agricultural surveys to ensure accuracy. Investigations were carried out in advance of the CA 2021 to ensure and confirm that the frames used by each UK country still met or exceeded at least 98 percent coverage of agricultural activity.
Scotland: Complete enumeration was carried out for holdings in the Single Application Form (SAF) database composed of holdings that claimed under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), and for other large businesses not eligible for support payments. From the remaining holdings that did not complete a SAF in 2021, 13 500 (including holdings that submitted a SAF for the first time in 2021) were selected. Holdings are categorized by the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environmental Science Analytical Services division (RESAS) either as “Main” or “Min” holdings. To select holdings that did not complete the SAF in 2021, complete enumeration was used for “Main” holdings whereas sample enumeration was used for “Min” holdings. These smaller holdings are only surveyed once every four years to reduce the response burden.
Wales: The questionnaire for the June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture is sent to a sample of about 11 000 farms each year, though in some years a larger sample is required. This is done when more detailed information is required on certain subjects (for example, animal housing), and a specified level of coverage needs to be achieved. Specifically, sample enumeration was carried out using a stratified design with strata based on the economic size of the holding, measured by the European Size Unit (ESU) , and 7 strata where defined:
- New holdings, registered in the previous 12 months, for which a sampling rate of 100 percent was applied
- Zero (ESU), for which a sampling rate of 0 percent was applied
- Very small, with ESU between 0 and 8, for which a sampling rate of 33 percent was applied
- Small, with ESU between 8 (included) and 40, for which a sampling rate of 40 percent was applied
- Medium, with ESU between 40 (included) and 100, for which a sampling rate of 60 percent was applied
- Large, with ESU between 100 (included) and 200, for which a sampling rate of 100 percent was applied
- Very large, with ESU equal or greater than 200, for which a sampling rate of 100 percent was applied
Of a total of approximately 25 000 holdings, 10 900 were selected.
Northern Ireland: The census was conducted as a complete enumeration of the holdings meeting the threshold.
Survey instrument
In England: a single questionnaire was used for data collection in England. The questionnaire covered 14 out of 23 essential items recommended in the WCA 2020, with sections covering land ownership, use, crop areas, livestock populations and labor.
The governments of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are each responsible for the content and design of their own CA questionnaire. Whilst design will differ slightly, care was taken to ensure UK totals could be compiled for all the essential items collected.
Data collection
| Start | End | Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-06 | 2021-10 | Data collection in England and Wales |
| 2021-06-01 | 2021-09 | Data collection in Scotland |
| 2021-06-01 | 2021-06-30 | Data collection in Northern Ireland |
Reference day: 1 June 2021, for land tenure, land use, crops and fallow land, horticulture, livestock, and agricultural labor.
Reference period: From 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021, for farm structure, practices and irrigation.
- Mail Questionnaire [mail]
- Computer Assisted Web Interview [cawi]
The CAWI and paper questionnaire through the mail-out/mail-back methods were used for data collection.
In England: In England a team of 24 people worked on the CA 2021. This number included: 14 dedicated helpdesk staff and one helpdesk manager; two technical staff who provided the online survey system; one team leader and six analysts. Contractors were used for printing and dispatching paper questionnaires, scanning and keying paper return and an online survey provider.
To reduce the response burden, census data were collected directly from administrative registers.
In Scotland: Land data were extracted from the Single Application Form (SAF) database for around 22 700 holdings that are claiming under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS). All cattle data (including data on cattle breeds) were collected from the Cattle Tracing Scheme administrative source.
In Wales: The numbers of cattle have been sourced from the Cattle Tracing System since 2007.
In Northern Ireland: Cattle information was retrieved from the Cattle Tracing System (CTS) in Great Britain and from the “Animal and Public Health Information System (APHIS)” now termed Northern Ireland Food Animal Information System (NIFAIS).
QUALITY ASSURANCE
Specific quality assurance mentioned were:
In England, statistics produced by DEFRA meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality, and public value, and it is responsible to maintain compliance with these standards. The continued designation of these statistics as National Statistics was confirmed in 2014 following a full assessment by the UK Statistics Authority against the Code of Practice for Statistics. Since the last review of these statistics in 2014, DEFRA have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics, and have made improvements including:
- Reviewed and amended the validation checks carried out on response data including validation against new administrative data sources to better assure the quality of the statistics.
- Enhanced trustworthiness by removing pre-release access.
Additional actions were carried out to assure quality in the CA 2021. Some census data were collected from high quality administrative registers that ensured coverage of the entire population and good data quality. Holding-level data was compared with external sources and information from previous surveys.
No information available for Scotland.
In Wales, the Code of Practice for Statistics requires the release of data at a level of aggregation that is sufficient to ensure that the results are adequately robust and so 'fit for purpose'. Since the results are derived from a sample survey they are subject to various sources of uncertainty. The key sources of uncertainty are:
- missing data
- register of farms
- geographical location of farms
For more information on the treatment of these cases, refer to the Wales - June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture Quality Report in the downloads tab.
In Northern Ireland, telephone support was provided for farmers who could not complete the questionnaire online, and a focused telephone follow-up of non-responding farms was carried out.
Data processing
In England, data were subject to rigorous validation checks which identify inconsistencies within the data or large year-on-year changes. These were then verified or corrected through conversations with the farmer. Data collected online was validated with the farmer at point of entry. Any records that had not been cleaned by the results production stage were excluded from the analysis and estimated for instead. Population totals were estimated for each question on the survey to account for the non-sampled and non-responding holdings using the ratio raising technique, in which the trend between the sample data and base data (previous year’s data) was calculated for each stratum (based on farm size). The calculated ratio was then applied to the previous year’s population data to give England level estimates.
In Scotland, data underwent several validation processes as follows:
- checking for any obvious errors on the paper census forms upon receipt
- auto-checking and identifying any internal inconsistencies once loaded onto the initial database
- auto-checking for any sudden changes in comparison with previous annual returns and other holdings
- assessing farm-level trends between years and any trends or switches in item areas or quantities that look unreasonable
Estimates were produced within strata (using farm type and 'economic' size) using ratio estimation. Estimates were restricted to a maximum of 2.5 percent absolute change on the previous year for each holding, to avoid artificial distortion in the overall statistics.
In Wales, questionnaires were returned to the Welsh Government where they were checked for basic errors and corrected where necessary. They were then sent for data capture, and this data was loaded for further validation checks. Data failing any of the validation rules was checked and corrected, if possible. Data with outstanding validation errors was excluded from the estimation process. Imputation was carried out in holdings that were not sampled or did not respond.
In Northern Ireland, questionnaires were processed, and the data was cleaned of logical inaccuracies. Farmers indicating that they are no longer farming were noted as inactive at this stage. For non-response holdings, data was estimated and imputed by analyzing the size and type of holdings missing and those who responded.
DATA PROCESSING NOTES
Returned paper questionnaires were scanned using optical recognition software and manual keying where necessary.
There are individual reports for each of the countries:
- The 2021 Agricultural Census for England
- The 2021 June Agricultural Census for Scotland
- June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture Results for Wales
- The Agricultural Census of Northern Ireland
Data from the four censuses/surveys is amalgamated into the Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2021; an annual report which contains statistics about agriculture in the United Kingdom on structure of farming from the census; as well as a wide range of data from other data collections outside of the census.
Data Access
For additional information on data access and use, please contact:
The Farm Surveys Team, Agri-Food Chain Directorate of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) .
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: https://www.gov.uk/environment/food-and-farming-industry
The Rural and Environmental Science, and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) of the Government of Scotland.
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/environment-agriculture-and-food-strategic-research-main-research-providers/
The Agricultural and Rural Affairs Statistics of the Government of Wales.
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: https://www.gov.wales
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs for Northern Ireland.
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Farm Surveys Team, Agri-Food Chain Directorate | Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) | [email protected] |
| Rural and Environmental Science, and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) | Scottish Government | [email protected] |
| Agricultural and Rural Affairs Statistics | Welsh Government | [email protected] |
| Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) | Northern Ireland Executive | [email protected] |
Metadata production
DDI_GBR_2021_CA_v01_M_v01_A_ESS_FAO
| Name | Abbreviation | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | DEFRA | UK Government | Metadata Producer |
| Rural and Environmental Science, and Analytical Services Division | RESAS | Scottish Government | Metadata Producer |
| Agricultural and Rural Affairs Statistics | Welsh Government | Metadata Producer | |
| Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs | DAERA | Northern Ireland Executive | Metadata Producer |
| Statistics Division | ESS | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | Metadata adapted for FAM |