Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry 

Directorate Agriculture and Land Relations

Agrostatistics Department 

55, Blvd. Hristo Botev, Sofia 1040, Bulgaria 

In 2005 and 2007 farm structure sample surveys based on list of holdings from Agricultural Census 2003 were conducted. Stratified sample of 40 000 holdings was designed. Methodology and definitions of the characteristics used were similar to those of the census, thus ensuring comparability with the results of the other EU Member States.

In the second half of 2010 the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (MAFF) carried out the farm structure survey (FSS) and the survey on agricultural production methods (SAPM) on the entire country’s territory in accordance with the Law on Agricultural Census 2010 in Bulgaria. This was the first census carried out in Bulgaria being a member of the European Union (EU) and the second one, in compliance with the legislation of the EU. The census was conducted using a methodology consistent with the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 1166/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on farm structure surveys and the survey on agricultural production methods and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 and Regulation (EC) No 1200/2009 of 30 November 2009 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1166/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on farm structure surveys and the survey on agricultural production methods, as regards to livestock unit coefficients and definitions of the characteristics. This ensured comparability of the results on the structure of agricultural holdings in Bulgaria and agricultural production methods with those of the EU Member States (MS).

The FSS surveys are the main source of information on the status and trends in agriculture. It has to provide a current economic, social and environmental overview of the agrarian sector needed for the decision making in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The census data was taken as a basis for sampling of the FSS sample surveys and of the annual production surveys, to define the field of observation of the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) and to start the creation a statistical farm register.

IACS - Integrated Administration and Control System

IAE - Institute of Agricultural Economics

MAFF - Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry

VetIS - Integrated information system for animal identification

The Law of Agricultural Census in 2010 defines the agricultural holding. The definition did not change since 2003 for the reason of comparison of the results. Agricultural activities are the same as in Annex I of the Regulation No 1166/2008.

Cultivation of at least:

a) 0.5 ha (5 dca) of agricultural area used (A_3_1);

b) 0.3 ha (3 dca) of arable land (B_1_1+B_1_2+…+B_1_11+B_1_12);

c) 0.5 ha (5 dca) of natural meadows (B_3);

d) 0.1 ha (1 dca) of orchard (pure culture) (part of B_4_1);

e) 0.1 ha (1 dca) of vineyard; (B_4_4);

f) 0.1 ha (1 dca net) of specialised crops (vegetables (B_1_7), hops (B_1_6_2), tobacco (B_1_6_1), spices, medical and essential oil crops (B_1_6_12), flowers, ornamental plants (B_1_8), berries (part of B_4_1), mushrooms (B_6_1), nurseries (B_4_5) etc.);

g) 0.05 ha (0.5 dca) of greenhouses (B_1_7_2+B_1_8_2)

Keeping of at least:

a) 1 cow (C_2_5+C_2_6);

b) 1 buffalo-cow ;

c) 2 cattle (C_2);

d) 2 buffaloes;

e) 1 female for reproduction (equidae);

f) 2 working animals (equidae);

g) 5 pigs (C_4);

h) 1 breeding-sow (C_4_2);

i) 5 breeding-ewes (C_3_1_1);

j) 2 breeding she-goats (C_3_2_1);

k) 50 laying hens (C_5_2);

l) 100 chicken for fattening (C_5_1);

m) 10 honey-bee colonies (C_7);

n) 10 rabbits (breeding females) (C_6);

o) 1 reproductive male animal used for natural mating - bull, stud, boar;

p) special animal and fowl species – 1 000 birds (C_5), 1 000 quails, 30 other birds (turkeys, geese, ducks etc.), ostriches (C_5_3) angora goats, angora rabbits, minks, nutrias, silkworms etc.

Animal production: 10,000 eggs; 200 rabbits; 100 chickens for fattening; 10 lambs and / or goats; 5 pigs; 2 calves.

Production of mushrooms - 500 kg mushrooms.

The farm threshold applied is lower than the one required by Eurostat.

All geographical areas are covered.

The map presented in the Figure shows the grouping of statistical regions – level 2 according to the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) of the European Union under Regulation (EC) No 176/2008.

The districts on NUTS 3 level according to the Regional Development Act are distributed as follows:

Severozapaden (North-West Region)               - Vidin, Vratsa, Montana, Lovech and Pleven;

Severen tsentralen (North-Central Region)    - Veliko Tarnovo, Gabrovo, Rousse, Razgrad and Silistra;

Severoiztochen (North-East Region)                - Varna, Dobrich, Targovishte and Shumen;

Yugoiztochen (South-East Region)                   - Bourgas, Sliven, Yambol and Stara Zagora;

Yugozapaden (South-West Region)                  - Blagoevgrad, Kyustendil, Pernik, Sofia (capital) and Sofia;

Yuzhen tsentralen (South-Central Region)     - Kardzhali, Pazardzhik, Plovdiv, Smolyan and Haskovo.

A detailed program for preparation and conduct of the survey activities was prepared and approved by the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry. Most of the activities were carried out according to it.

The organisation and allocation of responsibilities of the FSS activities were divided into two levels – central and regional level.

Type of frame: List frame

The agricultural holdings from the Organic Register are observed exhaustively . Part of the new holdings, observed in the previous statistical surveys, have been observed exhaustively. These holdings are in the strata "99999"; "90000" with weight 1. Due to the large number of new holdings, some of them were sampled. The sample is designed according to the type of crops and animals and their size - area and number of animals over a certain threshold were observed exhaustively.

Due to the large number of new farms, some of them have been sampled. Their sample is designed according to the type of crops and animals and their size - area and number of animals.
Common land holdings (special holdings created to report common land) were added to the sample in "88888" stratum with a weight equal to one. 

LEGAL BASIS: Veterinary Information System VetIS is built in full compliance with the requirements and principles of the veterinary legislation of the EU and the World Organisation for Animal Health and the corresponding Bulgarian legislation. The main legal acts setting the maintenance of VetIS are: - Law on Veterinary Activity, published in SG No 87 of 1 November 2005, in force of 1 May 2006, art. 51-56; art. 7; art. 132-139d; art. 118 etc.; - Agricultural Producers’ Support Law, published in SG No 58 of 22 May 1998 and its amendments;  - Law on the Implementation of the Common Market Organization of Agricultural Products of the EU, published in SG No 96 of 28 November 2006; - Ordinance No 6 of 08 October 2013 on the requirements on the instruments for official identification of the animals and their use, the terms and control over the collection, entry, maintenance and use of the information in the Integrated Information System of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency, published in SG No 90 of 2013 and its amendments; - Ordinance No 61 of 9 May 2006 on the terms of official identification of the animals for which there are not requirements in the EU regulations (title changed in SG no 90, of 2013 in force of 15 October 2013);  - Ordinance No 105 of 22 August 2006 on the terms of establishment, maintenance, access and use of the integrated system for administration and control, issued by the MAF, published in SG No 82 of 10 October 2006 and its amendments; - Ordinance No 44 of 20 April 2006 on the veterinary requirements to the livestock breeding sites, published in SG No 41 of 19 May2006 and its amendments; - Regulation (EC) No 1760/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 July 2000 establishing a system for the identification and registration of bovine animals and regarding the labelling of beef and beef products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 820/97; - Council Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 of 17 December 2003 establishing a system for the identification and registration of ovine and caprine animals and amending Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 and Directives 92/102/EEC and 64/432/EEC; - Council Regulation (EC) No 1560/2007 of 17 December 2007 amending Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 as regards the date of introduction of electronic identification for ovine and caprine animals; - Commission Regulation (EC) No 933/2008 of 23 September 2008 Amending the Annex to Council Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 as Regards the Means of Identification of Animals and the Content of the Movement Documents.

updating: System for identification and registration of animals – continuously

Organic register - data control, identification of new holdings. Organic register (database on producers, processors and traders of agricultural organic products and foods), used for data control and list update.

LEGAL BASIS: The database is maintained in accordance with the provisions of Art. 28, para. 5 of Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 and Art. 16, para. 3, item 1 of the Implementing Act of the Common Organization of the Agricultural Markets of the European Union.

updating: Organic register - continuously.

Register of agricultural holders - data control, identification of new holdings.

LEGAL BASIS: Agricultural Producers Support Law (APSL), published in SG No 58 of 22 May 1998 and its amendments; - Ordinance No 3 of 29 January 1999 on the establishment and maintenance of the Register of Agricultural Holders (RAH) and its amendments.

Owner of the dat a: According to art 15 of Ordinance No 3/1999 the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (MAFF) establishes and maintains information system of the register of agricultural holders.
The information system has two levels – national (central) and district level. The registration of agricultural holders is done at the district level. The information system at central level is built and filled in with data from the RAH by MAFF’s District Directorates “Agriculture”.

updating: From 1 October to 28 February the agricultural holders submit updated information about their activity using special questionnaires and forms.
Within one month after any change that has occurred or within the period for up-date mentioned here above, each registered agricultural holder can update the information about his/her business in the relevant municipal or district administration unit of MAFF.
Upon termination of activities the agricultural holder is obliged within one month to submit to the director of the District Directorate “Agriculture” a declaration for removal from the register. 
In case of removal from the register or missed certification within the period for update the agricultural holder can register again for the next economic year.

Vineyard Register - data control, identification of new holdings.

LEGAL BASIS: Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2008 of 29 April 2008 on the common organisation of the market in wine, amending Regulations (EC) No 1493/1999, (EC) No 1782/2003, (EC) No 1290/2005, (EC) No 3/2008 and repealing Regulations (EEC) No 2392/86 and (EC) No 1493/1999 - Commission Regulation (EC) No 436/2009 of 26 May 2009 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2008 as regards the vineyard register, compulsory declarations and the gathering of information to monitor the wine market, the documents accompanying consignments of wine products and the wine sector registers to be kept - Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 – art. 145 setting that the Member States shall maintain a vineyard register which shall contain updated information on the production potential - Wine and Spirit Drinks Act ¬ published in SG No 45 of 15 June 2012, in force of 16 September 2012 - Ordinance No 12 of 19 October 2005 on the rules and procedures of establishment and maintenance of register of wine-grower holdings and specialised vineyards map.

Owner of the data: According to art. 27 of the Law on wine and spirit drinks the Executive Agency on Vine and Wine (EAVW) maintains the Vineyard Register, which contains up-to-date information on the production potential.

updating: Date in the Vineyard Register is permanently up-dated with the declarations and requests submitted by the producers for: - structural changes – in case of adding properties (by purchase or rent), excluding properties (by sell or discontinuing of the rent), partition or joining of properties, and change in the type of management of the property; - end of planting with rights from the National Reserve for planting of vineyards with wine grapes varieties; - end of grubbing-up; - end of replanting.
Producers of wine grapes and wine producers declare each year the quantities produced within the previous year. Wine producers and traders also declare annually their stocks. 

IACS-SAPS data control and identification of new holdings and imputation when non-response.
State Fund Agriculture for the measures of the National Rural Development Programme.

ORDINANCE № 105 OF 22 AUGUST 2006 ON THE TERMS AND PROCEDURE FOR ESTABLISHING, MAINTAINING, ACCESSING AND USING THE INTEGRATED ADMINISTRATION AND CONTROL SYSTEM; § 4. The Ordinance is issued pursuant to Art. 30, paragraph 6 of the Farmers Support Act.

Art. 1. (Amended – SG, Issue 16 of 2015)
(1) This Ordinance shall regulate the terms and procedure for establishing, maintaining, accessing and using of:
1. System for registration of the candidates, the aid applications and the payment requests - once a year;
2. Land Parcels Identification System (LPIS);
3. System for identification and registration of animals;
4. Integrated control system;
5. Integrated information system (electronic database) -  updating: System for identification and registration of animals - continuously; SAPS -  Registration is done annually with option for correction of the area in the application (from  March to June of the current year); Organic register - continuously.
(2) The electronic database under paragraph 1, point 5 includes data from the systems under points 1, 2 and 3 and from external databases.

Art. 2.
(1) The systems under Art. 1 are established and maintained :
1. under points 1, 4 and 5 - by the Paying Agency (PA);
2. under point 2 - Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry;
3. (amendment – SG, Issue 21 of 2012) under point 3 - from the Bulgarian Agency for Food Safety (BAFS).
(2) The systems under Art. 1, points 1, 2, 3 and 5 shall be set up  and maintained on the basis of registries and graphic information as computerized databases.

Art. 28.
(1) (Amended - SG. Issue 16 of 2015) The Paying Agency sets up an Integrated information system uniting the data from the system for registration of the candidates,  of the aid applications and the payment requests, LPIS and the system for  identification and registration of animals.
(2) The Integrated Information System is created and maintained in accordance with:
1. information strategy approved by the executive director of PA;
2. established rules and procedures for information systems and databases in PA;
3. the international standards for information systems;
4. the requirements of EU legislation;
5. (new – SG, Issue 21 of 2012) the requirements of the Personal Data Protection Act, the Access to Public Information Act and the eGovernment Act.

Law on statistics:

Article 4. (Supplemented, SG No. 81/2005, amended, SG No. 98/2008)
(1) Data necessary for the statistical survey, including individual data, shall be collected directly from the statistical units as well as from administrative sources.
(2) Collection of individual data directly from statistical units shall be carried out on the basis of compulsory or voluntary participation of natural persons, households, economic units or other organisations.
(3) The statistical authorities shall provide the National Statistical Institute with data, including individual data, necessary for development and production of the official national or European statistical information.
(4) To reduce the administrative burden and costs for development and production of official national or European statistical information the National Statistical Institute and the statistical authorities shall receive data, including individual data, as well as aggregate information from administrative sources set up and maintained by other government authorities.

Part of the parcels/holding is not eligible for support and therefore not registered in IACS due to the minimum threshold for parcel/holding size. 

Legal grounds for the land use are requested when registering in IACS. Some famers have not (could not) settled the legal grounds for all the agricultural land that they use. In reality they use some land without a legal agreement with the owners. This land is not eligible for support and therefore cannot be registered in IACS. For statistical purposes there is not a requirement about settling the legal grounds for land use and the land for which use farmers don’t have a legal agreement with the owners is in the statistical coverage.

Agricultural Producers Support Act (State Gazette No.58 from 22 May 1998 and amendments)
…..
Additional provisions
§ 1. According to the provisions of this law:
1. "Agricultural producers" are physical and legal persons that produce unprocessed and/or processed crop and/or animal production. 

Most often, a link is on an ID number / BULSTAT number.

Information is collected on paper questionnaire through face-to-face interviews. The data is manually entered into the online network by operators.

This network secures the official information and meets the requirements of the Law on Statistics regarding statistical confidentiality and protection of individual data.

- reminder by phone, second visit on-the-spot, additional clarification of the data by phone.

- giving priority to more important, for example large holdings.

In case of a census 1=3+4+5

Only for sample survey, in which case 2=3+4+5

12 518

This item is a subset of 3.

4>4.1+4.2

5=5.1+5.2

5.1>=5.1.1+5.1.2

81

6=5.2+5.1.2+4.2

Tools used for data validation:

- manual for interviewers;

- online computer system.

Validation is done at district (local collection centre) and central level (final collection centre) of the MAFF.

For all observed crops, information has been gathered on irrigated areas over the last 12 months and area for organic farming

The additional national characteristics were included in the questionnaire after consultations with users of agricultural statistical information in the MAF, NSI and IAE.

- for the number of sheep in NUTS2: BG31, BG41. In some holdings from the sample a significant increase of the number of sheep is observed compared to 2010.

These holdings become atypical for the stratum in which they were allocated in 2010.

No weight correction due to over-coverage.

- Survey instrument: the form, questionnaire or measuring device used for data collection may lead to the recording of wrong values;

Data collection with a paper questionnaire implies technical mistakes. In order to limit these errors multiple controls are set in the computer system during data entry.

During data entry in the software there is no control of the individual data with previous surveys. Some logically related fields get controlled. Example: The sum of the crop area can not be greater than UAA, irrigated area and organic farming area can not be larger than main area, etc.

- Respondent: respondents may, consciously or unconsciously, give erroneous data;

The individual data is compared and clarified if necessary with a second interview. Such interviews are carried out by phone in case significant differences are recorded between the interview data, the administrative crosschecks and data from previous surveys.
Controls of sums and some logically related fields.

- Interviewer: interviewers may influence the answers given by respondents.

Low possibility of such an error. The misunderstanding of some more complicated characteristics such as "F_2_1-Importance of other gainful activities directly related to the holding" can lead to systematic error of interviewers.

Рroblems caused by difficult questions, unclear definitions, sensitive questions etc. which are likely to determine measurement errors.

Characteristics that are complicated for respondents are: tillage methods on outdoor arable land, soil cover on outdoor arable land, crop rotation on arable land, manure application, manure import/export from the holding, household consumes more than 50% of the value of the final production of the holding , labour force.

Some of the owners/farmers refuse to answer on the questions. The reasons are that they believe that data once given to the administration, for whatever reason, should not be re-collected, and this is an additional burden. These are usually large agricultural holdings, the owners of which are very engaged with a huge workload and cannot spend the time necessary to prepare the data, as their schedule does not allow for an interview. Others are distrustful and refuse to give information, worrying about the purposes for which it will be used. Failures occur in large and small holdings. There are cases where agricultural holders cannot be found because of wrong and outdated addresses (for example, in large populated areas). When the agricultural holding operates and has administrative data and data from other statistical surveys, this data is used and imputed.

Imputation from administrative data or previous surveys was used for unit non-response.

http://www.nsi.bg/sites/default/files/files/pages/Quality_e/1.4.%20GUIDELINES%20NSS_FINAL_EN.pdf

Data revision for FSS data was not performed. 

No significant differences between national and EU definitions of characteristics and classifications of characteristics.

The number of hours per year for a full-time employee is 1 856.

The position of common land includes pastures and meadows. Permanent crops and crops from arable land are excluded.

A separate questionnaire for common land was used in FSS questionnaire.

The type of tenure for common land units is A_3_1_4 (Common land).

Common land identification in the data can be made through field A_2 = 6 (Legal personality of the holding = Holding is common land).

 Comparison of the results – Livestock

Comparison of results - UAA, arable land

The observed differences in arable land are minimal and acceptable. 

The statistics related to crops are comparable to high extent with the administrative data. Many other characteristics surveyed with the FSS are not available in any administrative source.

According to Art.26a of the Statistics Act individual and anonymous data may be provided for the purpose of research to universities or legal persons whose main activity is research after permission by the President of the National Statistical Institute.

RULES FOR PROVISION OF ANONYMOUS INDIVIDUAL DATA FOR SCIENTIFIC AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES OF THE NATIONAL STATISTICAL INSTITUTE

Art. 2. The following users may apply for access to anonymized individual data:

1. universities and other higher education institutions;

2. research organizations and institutions;

3. other agencies, organizations or institutions in which there are separate structural units carrying out research activities;

4. other legal entities using data for research and analytical purposes;

5. natural persons who, for the purposes of scientific and research work, need anonymized data.

Art. 3. The User and eServices Department at the Multisectoral statistics and user services Department maintain and update a list of users that includes the user name, type of data provided, and date of submission.

Art. 4. The data shall be provided on a technical medium in csv, sav, xls or any other format specified in the application.

.......

Section IV

PROVISION OF ANONYMOUS INDIVIDUAL DATA

Art. 17. When anonymizing the data, the following requirements are met:

1. anonymised individual data cannot be provided if they disobey the provisions of Art. 25;

2. the individual records in the database of the requested survey are processed by competent officers by deleting all identifying individual signs from the data (name, address, publicly accessible identification number, etc.), which directly or indirectly identify a particular statistical unit;

3. in the case of records where these rules are not abided by for certain characteristics, the directorates in whose portfolio the data is prepared shall assess whether they should entirely erase the data, delete the data only in the cells of those characteristics, or take other appropriate solutions to protect individual data.

Art. 18. The following procedures shall be followed when providing data from studies for consecutive periods (years, quarters, etc.):

1. where, in the case of comparative analyzes, it is necessary to provide anonymized data from several consecutive observations, the individual data shall be coded with the same numbers for each unit in the database for the individual periods;

2.under item 1, the information database can be processed with special software products, which prevent the eventual disclosure of the data for the statistical units by means of methods for comparison of the used identification numbers.

Art. 19. In order to assess the risk of revelation of data sets prepared by the user by matching anonymized individual data in combination with external data, they are subject to re-control by the experts in the concerned domain.

Microdata from FSS 2016 has not been disseminated.  

In the future, with the introduction of the new system, there might be coordination between surveys to avoid the situation that some farms have to answer multiple questionnaires with the same kind of questions.

Development of built-in statistical farm register.