Description for figure 1: The Current Agriculture Statistics Program

CURRENT AGRICULTURE STATISTICS PROGRAM DATA FLOWS

The current agriculture statistics program is a highly integrated system of survey and administrative data. The program makes extensive use of administrative data both at the record and aggregate levels to produce estimates.

The following diagram depicts the components of the agriculture statistics program and how they are integrated with one another to produce the Division’s outputs.

STRUCTURE OF THE DIVISION

The Agriculture Division is composed of the following sections:

• Census of Agriculture (CEAG), including the Farm Register
• Crops Section
• Livestock and Food Section
• Whole Farm Data Project
• Farm Income and Prices Section
• Remote Sensing and Geospatial Analysis Section
• Research and Rural Unit

THE CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE (CEAG)

The CEAG collects data on commodities, land use, land management, capital values, receipts, expenses and socio-economic data for which it is able to produce small area estimates

Data from the CEAG flow into the commodity programs, while data from the commodity and farm income and prices programs are used to validate CEAG data. Survey frame updates flow from the survey programs into the Farm Register and, subsequently, into the CEAG, and vice versa. The CEAG provides a new complete list of farms, which is incorporated into the Farm Register.

Data are used by federal and provincial government and agencies, municipalities and regions, industry, academia and other sections within Agriculture Division for benchmarking and forecasting.

FARM REGISTER

The Farm Register produces and maintains a list of farms in Canada.

Data are compiled though information collected from the CEAG, external lists and farm tax filer information from the Whole Farm Data Section.

The Farm Register provides the frame for Agriculture Division surveys.

(The Farm Register will be migrated to the Business Register in 2012.)

CROPS SECTION

The crops program is divided into three units:

1. Crop Reporting
2. Grain Marketing
3. Horticulture

The Crop Reporting Unit conducts six seasonal surveys of farms growing field crops.

Stocks, yields and production data from the aforementioned surveys flow into three different programs within the division:

1. Grain Marketing Unit: to become part of the supply-disposition calculations
2. Farm Income and Prices Section: to become part of the farm cash receipts and net farm income calculations
3. Remote Sensing and Geospatial Analysis Unit for calibrating yield models based on satellite data (require area seeded and historical yield data to distinguish crop types and to forecast yields)

The Grain Marketing Unit surveys commercial operations and the Canadian Grain Commission, commodity exchanges, including ICE Futures (Intercontinental Exchange) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group, plus imports and exports from the International Trade Division (ITD) of Statistics Canada.

The supply-disposition balance sheets for grains and oilseeds are calculated to provide users with information on the usage of each crop type. These supply-disposition analyses ensure the quality of the survey data as well as the individual components of the balance sheet.

In addition, the data from the miller’s survey (along with data from AC Nielson) feed into the per capita availability (consumption) of food data, calculated by the Livestock and Food Section.

The Horticulture Unit collects a wide variety of data on greenhouses, sod, nurseries, fruits, vegetables, honey, maple and mushrooms. Data are collected via surveys if they are not available from the provinces or administrative sources such as associations and producer groups.

The production, stocks, price data and supply–disposition from the Horticulture Unit flow into:

• Farm Income and Prices Section: to become part of the farm cash receipts and net farm income calculations; and
• Livestock and Food Section: to become part of the apparent per capita availability (consumption) of food calculations.

In addition, data from CEAG flow into the crops data program and data from the crops data program are also used to validate CEAG data.

Data from the Crops Section flow into programs within the Agriculture Division including the Agriculture Economic Statistics program.

LIVESTOCK AND FOOD SECTION

The livestock program provides estimates for:

• Red meats sector:  cattle, hogs and sheep
• Dairy sector: milk and milk products
• Poultry sector: poultry meat and eggs
• Other livestock: aquaculture, wildlife pelts, fox and mink
• Food statistics

Livestock and Food Section collect information on production, price, value, supply-disposition, financial and employment data, stocks, import, exports, inventories, slaughter and marketings for cattle, pigs, dairy, sheep, poultry, aquaculture and food.

Dairy, poultry and eggs are supply-managed commodities and consequently the data collected on these sectors is from administrative sources.

Data produced by the Livestock and Food Section are used by federal and provincial governments and agencies, the Agriculture Economic Statistics program and various other sections within Agriculture Division.

WHOLE FARM DATA PROJECT

The Whole Farm Data Project has three components:

1. Agricultural Taxation Data Program
2. Farm Financial Survey
3. Fertilizer Shipments Survey

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is the sponsor and main client of the data produced by this section. Data from the Whole Farm Data Project flow into other datasets in Statistics Canada, namely:

• System of National Accounts and the Agriculture Economic Statistics series produced by the Farm Income and Prices Section.

FARM INCOME AND PRICES SECTION

The Farm Income and Prices Section is composed of the following units:

• Farm Cash Receipts Unit
• Farm Expenses Unit
• Farm Prices Unit

This section produces the Agriculture Economic Statistics series, which includes farm cash receipts, net income, prices, farm product price index, expenses and value of farm capital.

The production data from both the Crops and Livestock Sections combined with prices from both survey and administrative sources generate farm cash receipts. The expenses data are largely derived from administrative sources.

In addition, data come from the Farm Financial Survey and taxation data, banks, credit unions, federal and provincial agencies, and other administrative sources.

The main clients of this program are the System of National Accounts, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, provincial departments of agriculture and finance, as well as industry.

REMOTE SENSING AND GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS

The main components of the program are

• the Crop Conditions Assessment Program
• ad hoc requests.

The Crop Conditions Assessment Program uses earth observation, GIS and the Internet to create and produce data and mappings.

The Remote Sensing and Geospatial Analysis Section works on a fully cost-recovery basis.

SYSTEM OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS is responsible for producing monthly, quarterly and annual gross domestic product data, balance sheets, financial flows, value of land, input-output and public sector data for the agriculture industry. The data required to perform these calculations are produced by each section in the Agriculture Division and fed through the Agriculture Economic Statistics series.