Page 182 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 1

STS423 Ylva A.R. et al.
use of the tool. Therefore, ahead of the upcoming survey in 2019,
efforts will be made to raise awareness about this statistical reporting
tool among farmers and within the agricultural advisory service.

3.3 Increased survey coordination
A goal and a successful outcome of the overall project was increased
coordination of surveys. Three separate groups of surveys, with different
funding and different government agencies responsible for the statistics,
are now coordinated throughout the data collection process. This leads to
significantly decreased costs of administration and interviewing, enhanced
possibilities to cross -check data, and a reduced response burden, both
absolute and perceived. The number of contacts with the respondent can
be minimised, and information obtained from a selected farm may be
used in all ongoing surveys within the web system. In addition, the
advantage of the new web system is that that new surveys can easily be
added, which facilitates future coordination of more surveys. The merger
of the surveys Use of fertilisers and animal manure and Cultivation
measures in agriculture, together with the prolonged survey intermittence
from two to three years, also made it possible to increase the sample size
which, in turn, allowed for a greater level of detail in the statistical output.

4. Discussion and Conclusion
The investigation into the use of alternative data sources showed that
several variables could be obtained from a combination of different
administrative registers, an LPIS, and from farm management software.
Systematic reviews of stakeholders’ data needs and existing data sources
should be made on a regular basis to avoid unnecessary direct data collection
from agricultural enterprises and households.
There is strength in combining expertise and knowledge from different
types of staff when working in large projects focused on developing new tools,
such as a web system for collecting agri-environmental data.
For farms with many crops and many applications of fertiliser and/or
pesticides, a tool for data import from farm management software reduces the
response burden. Direct data transmission will probably have a great potential
for the production of agricultural statistics, as the agricultural sector, and
therefore also the relevant information, is becoming more and more
digitalised.
The coordination of surveys, largely assisted by the web system for
agricultural statistics, has led to a more efficient data collection process, with
reduced response burden and lowered costs in the long term. This, in turn, has
made it possible to increase the level of detail in the statistical output, one of
the most prioritised stakeholder needs.

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