For the purpose of obtaining the data referred to in Regulation (EU) 2018/1091, Member States shall use one or more of the following sources or methods, provided that the information allows for the production of statistics that meet the quality requirements laid down in Article 11:

• statistical surveys;
• the administrative data sources specified in paragraph 2 of this Article;
• other sources, methods or innovative approaches

Census and survey 

Amongst other reasons, for the purposes of updating the basic registers of agricultural holdings and the rest of the information required for the stratification of samples, a census of agricultural holdings should be carried out in the Union at least every ten years. The core data collection for the reference year 2020 was carried out as a census. The core data collections for the survey reference years 2023 and 2026 may be carried out as sample surveys. In that case, Member States shall ensure that the weighted survey results are statistically representative of agricultural holdings within each region and are designed to meet the precision requirements set out in Annex V.

Frame definition

Frame

A frame is a list of all the elements in a population. For the purposes of IFS the population is composed of agricultural holdings undertaking economic activities within the economic territory of the European Union either as primary or secondary activity (thresholds apply). The frame corresponds to the list of the holdings in the target population. A sample can then be drawn from the frame. A good sampling frame includes all the units in the target population, excludes all units not in the target population and has accurate information on the unit (e.g. information allowing contacting the unit). Ideally each unit should have a unique identifier.

Frame extension

Because IFS target population is not covering all the agricultural holdings (due to agreed thresholds on area and number of livestock units) there may be countries where an extension of the frame, beyond the one resulting from direct application of the thresholds, is needed. In 2020, data on the core variables had to be provided for those units which were part of the frame extension. According to Regulation (EU) 2018/1091, where the frame does not represent 98 % of the utilised agricultural area and 98 % of the livestock units, Member States shall extend the frame in accordance with article 6 by establishing lower thresholds than those referred to in paragraph 2 of Article 3, or by establishing additional thresholds, or both.

Sample selection

The data collection on the agricultural holdings in the frame extension may be carried out on samples. In that case Member States shall ensure that the weighted results are statistically representative of agricultural holdings within each region and are designed to meet the precision requirements set out in Annex V of Regulation (EU) 2018/1091. The data collection of modules may be carried out on samples of agricultural holdings. In that case Member States shall ensure that the weighted results are statistically representative of agricultural holdings within each region and are designed to meet the precision requirements set out in Annex V of Regulation (EU) 2018/1091.

Administrative sources

Article 4 (1) b of Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 states that Member States can use administrative data from the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) established by Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, the system for the identification and registration of bovine animals established by Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council and the system for the identification and registration of ovine and caprine animals established by Council Regulation (EC) No 21/2004, the vineyard register implemented in accordance with Article 145 of Regulation (EC) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and the organic farming registers set up pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 or Regulation (EU) No 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products or more recent regulation. Member States may also use administrative sources associated with specific rural development measures.

Access to register data

National authorities responsible for fulfilling the requirements of this Regulation shall have the right to access and use, promptly and free of charge, data, including individual data on agricultural holdings and personal data on their holders contained in administrative files compiled on their national territory pursuant to Article 17a of Regulation (EU) 2015/759 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2015 amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009.

The national authorities and the owners of the administrative records shall establish the necessary cooperation mechanisms. Frequently the owner of the register is not the same entity that needs to provide the statistical data. Therefore the co-operation between the statistical authorities and register holders has to be in place from the set-up of the register onwards to make sure that statistical needs are met by the register and that the data are available for statistics.

Quality of register data

Administrative sources have been considered a useful source specially for reducing the burden on respondents. At its best data collection from registers can be a win-win situation: high quality statistics produced at a low cost without asking anything from the respondents (again). At its worst the statistical obligation may not be met at all (no data) or the quality of the delivered data fails to meet most statistical quality criteria. Eurostat is together with the ESS carrying out project ESS Vision 2020 ADMIN (Administrative data sources) that aims to support the EU Member States to reap the benefits (decrease costs and burden, increase of data availability) of using administrative data sources for the production of official statistics, and to promote the quality of the output produced using administrative sources, in particular the comparability of the statistics required for European purposes. When using register data for statistics, keep in mind that

• Statistics need to meet strict pre-defined quality criteria
• For register data the quality criteria may or may not be applied and often the metadata to judge the quality of the registers is not available
• Sometimes the registers are not kept up-to-date if there is no quality assurance and checking mechanism in place
• Quality assessment tools are needed to analyse the quality of register data and to judge if they are fit-for-purpose for statistics

Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS)

IACS is the most important system for the management and control of payments to farmers made by the Member States in application of the Common Agricultural Policy (EC, 2017). It provides for a uniform basis for controls and, among other requirements, it covers the administrative and on-the-spot controls of applications and the IT system which supports the national administration in carrying out their functions. IACS is operated in the Member States by accredited paying agencies and applies to all direct payment schemes as well as certain rural development support measures which are granted based on the number of hectares or animals held by the farmer. Furthermore, it is also used to manage the controls put in place to ensure that the requirements and standards under the cross-compliance provisions are respected In physical terms, IACS consists of a number of computerised and interconnected databases, in particular:

• a system for the identification of all agricultural parcels in Member States called Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS)
• a system for the unique identification of beneficiaries
• a computerised database for animals in Member States where animal-based aid schemes apply
• a system for identification of payment entitlements in Member States applying the Basic Payment Scheme
• IT systems facilitating the smooth running of the IACS's steps, in particular for submitting and receiving aid applications and for enabling the national administration to perform controls and cross-checks of data received from farmer through higher aid application

System for identification of bovine animals

According to European Commission sources , in April 1997 - in response to the BSE crisis - the European Union implemented a system of permanent identification of individual bovine animals enabling reliable traceability from birth to death. The basic objectives for Community rules on the identification of bovine animals are:

• the localisation and tracing of animals for veterinary purposes, which is of crucial importance for the control of infectious diseases

• the traceability of beef for public health reason

• the management and supervision of livestock premiums as part of the common organisation of the market in beef and veal

The system for the identification and registration of individual bovine animals includes the following elements:

• double identifiers
  • one electronic identifier such as a ruminal bolus or an electronic ear tag
  • one visible identifier such as a conventional ear tag, tattoo or mark on the pastern
• maintaining a register on each holding (farm, market, etc.)
• a movement document for each movement of groups of animals (bovine-passports)

• a central register or computerised database of all holdings and movements of batches of animals at national level (with a future voluntary interoperability of bovine database

To enhance food safety and better safeguard animal health in the EU as from 18 July 2019 the bovine animals will be allowed to be identified using two means of the identifications: conventional ear tag and an electronic identifier. Member State and operators may choose the electronic identifier amongst e.g. an electronic ear tag, a ruminal bolus or an injectable transponder.

System for identification of ovine and caprine animals

According to European Commission sources , the Union rules on the identification of ovine and caprine animals (sheep and goats) are based on the principle of individual traceability and includes the following elements:

• double identifiers
• one electronic identifier: a ruminal bolus or an electronic ear tag, and
• one visible identifier: a conventional ear tag, tattoo or mark on the pastern
• maintaining a register on each holding (farm, market, etc.)
• a movement document for each movement of groups of animals
• a central register or computerised database of all holdings and movements of batches of animals at national level.

Member States with populations of less than 600.000 sheep and goats or less than 160.000 goats can make electronic tagging voluntary for animals not entering intra-EU trade. However, this does not exempt them from individual traceability and applying two conventional ear tags.

Other animal registers

Animal registers exist also for equine animals and for pigs. Some countries, like Austria, Slovenia, Italy or Portugal have also beekeeping registers.

Vineyard register

The vineyard register is currently under Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 (article 145) and Commission Regulation (EC) No 436/2009. The Regulation stipulates that the Member State shall ensure that the register is updated regularly and that at least every 5 years it is made sure that the register corresponds to the 'actual situation'. In the exercise for the collection of structural vineyard data in 2017, it was identified that in all countries the vineyard register is kept by an institution other than the one responsible for delivering agricultural statistics (NSI or MoA). Therefore inter-institutional co-operation at all levels was necessary to use the registers:

• Eurostat with DG AGRI
• DG AGRI and Eurostat with register holder at national level
• National statistical authorities with register holders at national level
• National and/or regional co-operation in cases where the register was regionalised

Organic farming register

Several countries do not have specific national legal acts for collection of organic farming statistics, however both Article 36 of Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 and Article 93 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 889/2008 define that statistical data on organic farming is to be provided to Eurostat. The responsible entities for collecting organic farm data at national level differ from country to country: in many countries it is the Ministry of Agriculture (as supervisor of the Control Bodies) who is responsible, but in other countries it can be the Ministry of Rural Affairs or the Ministry for Nutrition and Food, other Ministries or Agencies. The organic farming register can provide aggregated data and micro-data covering all organic certified operators. Most data on organic farming is public, except personal data or the unique identifier of the farm and tax ID number. Linking the holdings in the registers of the control bodies with the statistical farm register allows comparison to structural data and provision data which is harmonized across domains.

Enterprise group register

The enterprise group register also includes entities with NACE A01 activity. It contains information on multinational enterprise groups and their constituent units, but does not cover domestic resident only entities. The enterprise group register is a statistical register (not an administrative business register), and according to Regulation (EC) No 177/2008 its use is limited to statistical purposes (as it covers statistical confidential microdata).

Other sources

Member States which decide to use the sources, methods or innovative approaches referred to in Article 4 (1) (c) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 (other sources, methods or innovative approaches) shall inform the Commission (Eurostat) during the year preceding the survey reference year and shall provide details concerning the quality of the data obtained from that source, method or innovative approach and the data collection methods to be used. The transfer of such information is done via the ADM data collection also described in the present manual (see 3.9 - ADM, 6.1.2 and Annex I). Member states can also include the information from 2.3.2 in ADM.

Geographical data

INSPIRE grid

INSPIRE Statistical Units grid for European usage as defined in the INSPIRE Directive, its implementing regulations and technical guidelines.  The mandatory coordinate reference system is ETRS89-LAEA (Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area) with grid resolution 1 Km.

NUTS3 regions

A shapefile with GISCO NUTS3 regions at the scale of 1:100.000 can be made available on demand to those countries having a grant agreement for carrying out IFS 2023. They would need to sign an agreement with the Commission and will have to destroy the data after expiry of the grant agreement. Note that in order to determine areas NSI's should use their National spatial data provider's information (i.e. that of the national mapping and cadaster agency members).

Areas facing natural constraints

Support for farming in areas facing natural constraints aims at compensating farmers for disadvantages due to adverse natural or specific conditions. Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 provides grounds to delineate such areas as defined in Article 32 using bio-physical criteria spelt in Annex III of the same regulation. The Joint Research Centre has issued guidelines that intend to support Member States on the delineation of those areas. Further information can be found on the website on the designation of areas facing natural and other specific constraints (ANCs)of the Joint Research Centre (see also the Updated Guidelines for Applying Common Criteria to Identify Agricultural Areas with Natural Constraints). For 2021 the situation of the mapping as indicated in Figure 4 – Delimitation and mapping of the areas facing natural and other specific constraints. For the updated situation please consult the the European Commission website on agriculture and rural development (more detailed information on CAP context indicators).

.Figure 4 – Delimitation and mapping of the areas facing natural and other specific constraints (2021)

 Source: https://agridata.ec.europa.eu/extensions/IndicatorsEnvironmental/LessFavouredAreas.html