Page 188 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS 208 Johan S. et al.
analyses of 2010 census data. The aim is to cover 98% of each EU
member state’s utilised agricultural area (UAA) and livestock units
(LSUs), i.e. economically active farms. For countries where farms above
the physical thresholds concerned do not provide the 98% coverage
required, further data are collected from a sample of farms below the
thresholds. This extends the frame to include small farms (farms in the
frame extension, see Figure 1); and
 modules with additional information on certain themes which is to be
linked to the core (see Figure 1), collected at a lower level of precision
and/or frequency from a sample of farms above certain physical
thresholds for each module, excluding small farms.

Figure 1: Linking the IFS core and module data collections and frame extension

a. Drivers of cost and burden reduction in the ESS
Under the IFS, the cost and burden of data collection will be reduced by
comparison with the previous regulations, Regulation (EC) No 1166/2008 on
farm structure surveys (FSS) and Regulation (EU) No 1337/2011 on permanent
crops. This will be done in a number of ways, which are labelled with R codes
in this section. Under the modular approach, the costs and burden of the
agricultural census to be held in 2020 are naturally linked with the sample data
collections in 2023 and 2026 and therefore assessed together with them, as
any additional efforts in the first reference year (2020) will pay off in
subsequent reference years (2023 and 2026).
i. Thresholds and frame extension
The previous regulation on farm structure statistics required all member
states to cover holdings above certain physical thresholds. In a few cases, these
thresholds were too high to achieve sufficient coverage of UAA and LSUs, and
some EU countries collected data from almost all their farms. IFS sets lower
physical thresholds, but if the requirement of achieving 98% UAA and LSU
coverage is fulfilled, EU countries can apply to raise the physical thresholds, so

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