Istat -  Italian National Institute of Statistics

ATC - Division for agricultural statistics and surveys

Piazza Marconi 26/c
00144 Rome
Italy

See sub-concepts below.

The data set comprises the annual sales of active substances contained in plant protection products placed on the national market for one calendar year according to the Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 as amended by Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/269 of 16 February 2017 as regards the list of active substances.

National Statistical Programme, approved by Decree of the President of the Republic 

https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2021/02/11/21A00582/sg

Istat

Current National Statistical Programme was approved in 2020

All variables required under EU regulation are covered by national legislation

No divergences. National classification of active substances is transcoded to the EU one.

The data are expressed in kilograms of active substances.

The classification of the active substances in plant protection products is annexed (Annex III) to Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/269 of 16 February 2017 amending Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning statistics on pesticides.

The active substances are classified according to chemical and functional similarity. Aggregation levels in descending order comprise: major groups, categories of products, chemical classes and active substances.

The statistics cover the wholesale and retail trade sector operating in placing plant protection products on the market.

All authorisation holders of plant protection products report the quantity of all active substances that are placed on the market nationally (incl. import and export data).

This data collection comprises pesticide sales data based on the term 'placing on the market' as defined in Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market. The scope of the Regulation covers plant protection products and their active substances as can be seen from the key terms of the act immediately below:

Plant protection products: products consisting of or containing active substances, safeners or synergists, and intended for one of the following uses:

• protecting plants or plant products against all harmful organisms or preventing the action of such organisms, unless the main purpose of these products is considered to be for reasons of hygiene rather than for the protection of plants or plant products;
• influencing the life processes of plants, such as substances influencing their growth, other than as a nutrient;
• preserving plant products, in so far as such substances or products are not subject to special Community provisions on preservatives;
• destroying undesired plants or parts of plants, except algae unless the products are applied on soil or water to protect plants;
• checking or preventing undesired growth of plants, except algae.

Active substances: substances or micro-organisms, including viruses, having general or specific action against harmful organisms or on plants, parts of plants or plant products.

Quantity: implies kilograms of the active substances sold.

Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishes a common framework for the systematic production of Community statistics on the placing on the market and agricultural use of those pesticides which are plant protection products as defined in Article 2 (a)(i). The statistics shall apply to the annual amounts of pesticides active substances placed on the market in accordance with Annex I and the quantity of active substances shall be aggregated according to the list in Annex III (as amended).

Enterprise placing plant protection products on the market; authorisation holder or holder of parallel trade permits.

All enterprises placing plant protection products on the market; authorisation holders and holders of parallel trade permits.

See sub-concepts below.

Italy (excluding Vatican and San Marino).

Livigno and  Campione d'Italia are included

2011-2019

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics, because it is not based on an index number of time series.

See sub-concepts below.

Not applicable

Pesticides sales statistics stem from an ideal census survey covering each enterprise which may sell pesticides for agricultural use in Italy, either under their own brand or foreign brands.

Annually.

Self-administered data collection - via electronic transmission through the upload of excel file on Istat web site (INDATA through Business Portal). A fac-simile of the questionnaire (in Italian) is available at http://siqual.istat.it/SIQual/files/FITO_MOD44_1_2019.pdf?ind=5000024&cod=5237&progr=1&tipo=4

Usually enterprises have about four months to provide the requested information (in the first half of year t+1).

Data are validated to the following action:
Aggregates are checked by comparison with those stemming from the previous surveys. 
This phase of data editing is done comparing data at the level of each active substance and for each region. 
Anomalous data are verified mainly through re-contact of the respondent (by phone or e-mail). 
Coverage and total non responses are carefully checked. 
When imputation of non responses is needed, it is carried out through statistical models based on historical data.

Aggregates are produced by summing individual data. 
Figures supplied by an enterprise are compared with those stemming from the previous survey.
Outliers and partial non responses are checked mainly through re-contact of the respondent (by phone or e-mail).

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics, because the data collection is not based on time series.

Since the 90s Istat adopted a systematic approach to ensure quality in both statistical information and service to the community. For this purpose, the Italian National Institute of Statistics has defined a quality policy providing itself with appropriate tools as well as management changes to carry it out.

Istat quality policy is aimed at the improvement of statistical outputs and processes through the development of appropriate methodologies and tools as well as an appropriate scientific and technical support, provided to the personnel directly involved in the production and dissemination of statistical information.

Istat quality policy is coherent with the European framework developed by Eurostat, taking up its main principles and definitions stated in the European Statistics Code of Practice and useful to ensure and strengthen the accountability and governance of the European Statistical System and of the National Statistical Systems.

For details: https://www.istat.it/en/organisation-and-activity/institutional-activities/quality-commitment

Surveys on sales have been conducted in Istat for several years and the content is very detailed in terms of information on pesticides and in terms of geographical detail.

The survey is included in the National Statistical Programme. It is a census based survey conducted every year.

Main data users: 

- Ministry of Agriculture,

- Ministry of Health,

- The Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, ISPRA (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale).

For example, ISPRA uses the data to produce the national report on the presence of pesticides in water that provides information on on the risks due ti the presence of these substances in water.

Istat is constantly interested in understanding who the users of the statistics it produces are, what the information needs are, whether they match production and if the statistics produced satisfy users. To this aim, together with the analysis of user requests received through the Web Contact Center service, tools for direct consultation were developed, such as the annual online survey of customer satisfaction and indirect tools such as analysis of accesses and of users' browsing paths on the web site.

We do not measure user satisfaction for this survey.

The data collection covers all active substances of plant protection products placed on the national market and the information of all authorisation holders.

100%

See sub-concepts below.

Quite satisfactory

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics, because the data collection is not based on samples, but covers the whole statistical population of authorisation holders and plant protection products placed on the national market.

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics, because the data collection is not based on samples, but covers the whole statistical population of authorisation holders and plant protection products placed on the national market.

See sub-categories below.

Over coverage rate for 2019 edition = 0,00%

Calculated according to the formula reported in ESS GUIDELINES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ESS QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (QPI) (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/64157/4373903/02-ESS-Quality-and-performance-Indicators-2014.pdf/5c996003-b770-4a7c-9c2f-bf733e6b1f31) with α=1 (The estimated proportion of cases of unknown eligibility that are actually eligible).

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics as the data stem from one source.

Not applicable

The quality actions to control unit nonresponse are:

Survey presentation letter signed by Istat President
Collecting identification codes of nonrespondent units
Telephone follow-ups
Collecting nonresponse causes during data collection
Ad hoc analysis to evaluate effects of unit nonresponse
Special care in writing clear instructions to fill-in questionnaires
Follow-ups by e-mail
Written description of survey objectives
Establishing a toll free line or telephone number for further explanations
Guarantees on statistical confidentiality

Unit nonresponse rate for 2019 edition = 28.38%

Calculated according to the formula reported in ESS GUIDELINES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ESS QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (QPI) (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/64157/4373903/02-ESS-Quality-and-performance-Indicators-2014.pdf/5c996003-b770-4a7c-9c2f-bf733e6b1f31) with α=1 (The estimated proportion of cases of unknown eligibility that are actually eligible)

The unit nonresponse rate is slightly increased with respect of 2018 edition because of the failure of follow-up strategy due to COVID-19 emergency. In addition, enterprises from the business registers were added to the list to verify their inclusion in the surveyed population, but they were found to be out of the eligible population.

For the variable "quantity of pesticides by code of active substance" it is 0. This is the only variable considered.

The phase of editing data is done comparing at level of each active substances; imputation of errors and missing value (unit non response or item non response) are carried out with methodological statistical model based on historical data.

The imputation rate is:

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics, because the data collection is not based on estimations.

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics, because the reported data on plant protection products covers the whole year.

Istat revision policy can be found at the following link: https://www.istat.it/en/economic-trends/revisions

Data on pesticide sales are not subject to planned revisions. Final data are published. Published data are corrected only in case errors are identified after publication.

Not applicable

According to the Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009, the data is published by Eurostat 15 months after the end of the reference year and the national quality report 20 months after the end of the reference year.

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics as the data and national quality reports are only published once in a final result.

Timeliness for data 2019 transmitted to Eurostat: 363 days

Timeliness for data 2019 release at national level: 386 days 

According to the Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009, data must be transmitted until 30 December of the year t+1, and national quality reports until 31 March of the year t+2.

0 days of delay

Not applicable

Data are collected on a country level (NUTS 0). They are not comparable on a regional level. The geographical comparability between countries is evaluated by Eurostat.

Not applicable, because there are no mirror flows in pesticide sales statistics.

Pesticides statistics are available since 2011. In addition on Istat's website data are available according to a different classification since 2003.

Length of comparable time series: 9.

Comparable statistics stemming from other data sources or statistical domains are not available or they are not exhaustive. Coherence is checked mainly over time.

Not applicable for pesticide sales statistics, because the data collection is annual.

Not applicable, because it is not related to national accounts.

Internal coherence is assured by means of controls during the processing phases

No news release

No publications

I.Stat (http://dati.istat.it/Index.aspx?lang=en) is the corporate statistical datawarehouse currently implemented at the Italian National Institute of Statistics.
In order to browse data, follow the path Agriculture: Production means: Plant protection products: Active substatnces contained. Available years: 2003-2019.

Within the I.Stat corporate statistical datawarehouse, during 2019 there were 4,189 consultations of the "Plant protection products" dataset. 2020 data are not yet available.

Bodies belonging to the Italian Statistical System can apply for microdata access, according to the Guidelines for the access for scientific purposes to the elementary data of the National Statistical System’ (see section 11.1).

Not available

Information on the survey are available on Istat web site
https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/199721  (in Italian)

The Istat Information system on quality of statistical production processes SIQual (http://siqual.istat.it) contains information on the execution on Istat statistical production processes and on activities developed to guarantee quality of the produced statistical information. For details: Survey on plant protection products provided for agricultural use (http://siqual.istat.it/SIQual/visualizza.do?id=5000024&refresh=true&language=EN)
In addition, national quality report in Italian is available at https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/216611

All the applicable metadata are provided so the rate is 100%

National quality report in Italian (https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/216611) has about 500 consultations per year.

Approximately 50,000 euros

Several national legal acts guarantee the confidentiality of data requested for statistical purposes. In Italy, according to art. 9, paragraph 1 of the Legislative Decree n. 322 of 1989, statistical data cannot be disseminated but in aggregated form, in order to make it impossible to make any reference to identifiable individuals. They can only be used for statistical purposes.

Official statistics must also safeguard the rights, basic freedoms, and dignity of respondents, in particular with regard to the right to confidentiality and personal identity. Istat assures the protection of personal data according to the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC) and italian Data Protection Code (Legislative Decree no. 196/2003) and Code of conduct and professional practice applying to the processing of personal data for statistical and scientific research purposes within the framework of the national statistical system.

In order to make statistical secrecy and protection of personal data effective, Istat is currently taking appropriate organisational, logistical, methodological and statistical measures in accordance with internationally established standards.

Moreover, Legislative Decree n. 322 of 1989, art. 6 and 6 bis provides that the exchange of personal data within the National Statistical System (Sistan) is possible if it is necessary to fulfil requirements provided by the National Statistical Programme or to allow the pursuit of institutional purposes.

Finally, in implementation of art. 5-ter of the legislative decree 14 March 2013, no. 33, the new "Guidelines for the access for scientific purposes to the elementary data of the National Statistical System" establish the conditions under which the bodies and offices of the National Statistical System can allow researchers to access their own elementary data for scientific purposes.

During the phase of data treatment, the confidentality is assured by different storage of two different datasets: one contains the microdata with identification code of enterprise, and second dataset contains the identification code and the address of enterprise.
Threshold rule applied to data transmitted to Eurostat: active substances distributed by less then 3 enterprises are flagged as confidential.

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