Štatistický úrad Slovenskej republiky (Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic)

Miletičova 3,

824 67 Bratislava,

Since 2001 the Statistical Office of the SR has conducted regular farm structure surveys. Surveys carried out in the years 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007 covered holdings reaching at least one of the physical thresholds:

a/  utilized agricultural area (UAA) at least 0,5 ha,

b/ area of intensive crops (orchards or vegetables or flowers) at least 1500 m²,

c/ area of vineyards at least 500 m²

d/ number of livestock - 1 head of  cattle or 2 heads of pigs or 4 heads of sheep or 4 heads of goats or 50 heads of poultry,

e/ number of fur animals at least 100 heads or 100 heads of rabbits or 5 colonies of bees.

The threshold values amended in 2010 and remained also in force for the surveys in 2013 and 2016:

a/ utilized agricultural area (UAA) at least 1,0 ha,

b/ area of vineyards, orchards and nurseries at least 0,5 ha,

c/ area of tobacco, hops, vegetables, flowers, melons, strawberries and covered areas at least 0,1 ha,

d/ number of livestock at least 1 head of cattle or 3 heads of pigs or 5 heads of goats or 5 heads of sheep or 100 heads of poultry.

The definition of a farm is in compliance with the EU definition (article 2a) of the EU regulation 1166/2008. Slovakia uses the same list of agricultural activities for the definition of an agricultural holding, as indicated in Annex I of this Regulation.

The survey also includes holdings exclusively maintaining agricultural land in good agricultural and environmental condition (under 01.61 of NACE Rev. 2)

Used thresholds for the farm:
a/ area of utilized agricultural area (UAA) at least 1,0 ha (A_3_1),
b/ area of vineyards, orchards and nurseries at least 0,5 ha for each of them (B_4_4, B_4_1, B_4_5),
c/ area of tobacco, hops, vegetables, flowers, melons, strawberries and covered areas at least 0,1 ha for each of them (B_1_6_1, B_1_6_2, B_1_7, B_1_8),
d/ number of livestock at least 1 head of cattle (C_2) or 3 heads of pigs (C_4) or 5 heads of goats (C_3_2) or 5 heads of sheep (C_3_1) or 100 heads of poultry (C_5).

The geographical coverage: NUTS 3. We covered the whole country.

Holdings (330 farms) with area only in B_1_12 and B_3_3 keep this area in good agricultural and environmental conditions.

NUTS3 region was determined according to the majority of the total area of the holding where the holding is located or if farm has no land according to the place (settlement) where animals are kept.

Data for the land and labour force characteristics, were collected for the reference period from the
1^st November 2015 to the 31^st October 2016.

The reference day for livestock characteristics was the 31^st October 2016.

The Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic included the survey in the Program of State Statistical Surveys approved for the period of 2015 - 2017. The Farm Structure Survey 2016 was carried out on the basis of the Decree of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic No. 291/2014 Coll as amended.

Calendar (overview of work progress) :

The Statistical Office of the SR is a responsible body for the work performed by the Agricultural Statistics Department. Competencies were divided among working groups from employees of the center in Bratislava and 8 regional workplaces.

Tasks of the center:

- preparation of the timetable of the project,
- preparation of the budget,
- preparation of the final version of the questionnaire and methodological instructions,
- provision of printing,
- preparation of the proposal of survey methodology,
- preparation of the technical documentation of data processing,
- training of supervisors,
- creation of the file of reporting units,
- software testing,
- data collection monitoring,
- data analysis,
- calculation of the typology of farm,
- publishing activities,
- coordination of activities of working groups,
- preparation of data file and other documents for Eurostat.

Competences of regional workplaces:

The Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic included the survey in the Program of State Statistical Surveys approved for the period of 2015 - 2017. The Farm Structure Survey 2016 was carried out on the basis of the Decree of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic No. 291/2014 Coll as amended.

The frame was created by multiple registers:

- set of holdings from FSC 2013,

- new holdings identified during regular statistical surveys,

- new holdings from the register of organizations of SO SR,

- new holdings from external registers:

• register of orchards;
• register of vineyards;
• register of cattle;
• register of pigs;
• register of sheep;
• register of goats;
• register of organic farms;
• register of applicants for the Single Area Payment Scheme (SAPS).

All registers and the sampling frame are list frames at the farm level.

We carried out a sample survey only on the households with the UAA less than 5 ha.
The sampling design is one-stage stratified random sampling of holdings.

The sampling frame was divided into two strata:
- a stratum with legal persons, registered natural persons and households with the UAA >= 5 ha. The sampling rate in this stratum was 100%.
- a stratum of households with the UAA less than 5 ha. The stratification variables were NUTS3.

Administrative data sources were used to construct the frame. Administrative data was used for imputation and FSS 2016 data verification.

External registers:

• Register of orchards, according to the Act 597/2006 Coll. as amended by the act 467/2008 Coll. and Decree 15/2009 of MPRV SR (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic);
• Register of vineyards, according to EU Regulations 479/2008 and 436/2009 (Commission Regulation (EC) No 436/2009 of 26 May 2009 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No479/2008 as regards the vineyard register)
• Farm animals central register (FACR) records (farms and facilities; owners and keepers; animals and events that concern them; transfers of animals; veterinary operations and controls) according to the act 39/2007 Coll. as amended by the act 342/2011 Coll. Animals by species on the basis of separate Decrees:
  • register of cattle, Decree 20/2012,
  • register of pigs, Decree 17/2012,
  • register of sheep, Decree 18/2012,
  • register of goats, Decree 18/2012;
• Register of organic farms, according to the Act 189/2009 Coll. on organic agricultural production;
• Register of applicants for the Single Area Payment Scheme (SAPS), according to the Regulation of the Government of SR 369/2012, file of applications submitted on 15-th May.

Mixed-mode:

as the basis:

a/ internet - application allowing the survey units to complete questionnaire electronically;
b/ postal questionnaires - paper questionnaires - sent to some survey units by mail.

as the follow-up:

c/ telephone interviews with non-response units

Note: According to the Act on State statistics from 1 January 2016 reporting units are obliged to fill in and send questionnaire in an electronic form. The reporting unit who is a physical person or a physical person – entrepreneur and who by 31 December of previous calendar year does not have any employee, or the reporting unit who has a seat in the municipality without internet connection or signal can fulfil the obligation of providing data also by delivery of the questionnaire in a paper form (§ 18, article 5 of the act No. 540/2001 Coll. on Official Statistics, as amended).

Submission of questionnaires:

a/ electronically 40 %

a/ entering data online by the farmer -questionnaire in an electronic form;

Number of holdings in the survey frame plus possible (new) holdings added afterwards

In case of a census 1=3+4+5

Number of holdings in the gross sample plus possible (new) holdings added to the sample

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

Number of ineligible holdings with ceased activities

This item is a subset of 3.

Number of holdings with unknown eligibility status

4>4.1+4.2

Number of eligible holdings

5=5.1+5.2

Number of eligible non-responding holdings

5.1>=5.1.1+5.1.2

Number of the records in the dataset 

6=5.2+5.1.2+4.2

Tools used for data validation: Information System of the SOSR, which ensures the data recording.

Level of data validation:

- at the level of the local collection center;

- at the level of the central data processing.

Data format checks, completeness check, range/outlier checks were defined during the preparation phase of programme intended for recording the statistical data. It is not possible to change those checks during the following phases of the processing the data.

The relative standard error is the standard error divided by the point estimate, multiplied by 100.

We used the formula for standard error used by SAS manual:

The over-coverage errors are caused by the units, which in the past carried out agricultural activities, but the data acquisition has shown that they stopped their activities. Those units are especially the households.

The data were corrected due to over-coverage.

Measurement errors may concern the employment characteristics of farms.

The elimination of such errors was secured in two ways. In the first place, we embedded control algorithms to the software for recording data in order to detect the most important errors arising from relationships between workers on the farm. During the creation of the file for Eurostat, we built in further algorithms in order to help detect also other possible errors.

All data errors have been corrected, but the error rate cannot be documented.

The cause of errors: the inability of respondents to provide accurate data (number of hours worked at the households farms (E_1_1, E_1_2, E_1_3)) and the difficulty of the characteristic (OGA).

Item non-response was treated in regional offices of the SOSR. The missing data were obtained by repeated telephone contact with the farms.
Most of item non-response occurred on the labour force characteristics and other gainful activities (OGA).

Item non-response occurred in small farms (households) that did not fill part of farm labor force for lack of record of necessary data. In large farms, the non-replies were exceptional and predominantly resulted from their inattention.

The reasons for the unit non response were as follow:

• demise of farms

• owner died
• farms stopped their agricultural activities
• liquidation of farms
• change of activities

• farms did not even start their activities

• contact with farms was not successful

• suspended activity of farms.

Any errors in processing were continuously removed.

We do not consider to revise the data from previous surveys.

We do not consider to revise the data from FSS surveys (in general, including the current FSS survey).

Data FSS 2016 are comparable with the data of the FSS 2013.

23 566

1 901 614

1 363 419

21 145

An important part is arable land, on which no fodder was grown

518 339

18 923

644 825

468 213

39 093

13 962

 40 924

35 063

Data were compared at the micro level with the data from internal and external sources.

Comparisons with the internal data:

- FSS land use with data from regular statistical survey Inventory of areas sown by agricultural crops   on 20th May 2016,

- FSS main categories of livestock,  poultry in total, cattle in total, cows, sheep in total and pigs in total with results from the annual survey on Inventory of farming animals on 31th December 2016,

- FSS data with the results of the FSC 2013.

Comparisons with external data:

- FSS list and data of organic farms with the register kept in the Central Controlling and Testing Institute in Agriculture that registers and controls organic farms based on the act.

- obtained FSS data was compared with data from SAPS (Single Area Payment Scheme).

- FSS total numbers of animals were compared with the data from the Central register of livestock. Comparison was made for the following animals - cattle, pigs, sheep and goats.

These comparisons were made for all three groups of reporting units such as registered legal persons, registered natural persons and non-registered natural persons (households). Differences were tested during decentralized data processing at the workplaces of the Statistical Office, which carried out the data collection and checks.

For entrepreneurial subjects data can be combined with results from other sources. Data for households (subsistence farms) cannot be linked with other data. The differences do not arise from the different methodology.

Comparisons at the macro level:

- with the FSC 2010 data,

- with data from SAPS,

- with the data from the central register of livestock,

- with SOSR internal data.

For entrepreneurial subjects data can be combined with results from other sources. Data for households (subsistence farms) cannot be linked with other data. The differences do not arise from the different methodology.

Preliminary information contains the main characteristics of survey at the national level.

First publication will contain the characteristics of the survey according to the legal status of the farm and the regional breakdown by NUTS 3 level.

The Act on State Statistics does not allow an access to confidential data for current users. The Statistical Office may provide confidential data for scientific purposes to legal persons, who have scientific research as a basic mission and provide conditions for their protection.

Data are provided in the form:

a/ complete confidential data are provided only to the MPRV SR (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic) within the data exchange,