ISTAT - Italian National Statistical Institute

ATC - Division for agricultural statistics and surveys

Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, 26 - 00144 Roma

The data describe the structure of agricultural holdings providing the general characteristics of farms and farmers and information on their land, livestock and labour force.  They also describe production methods, rural development measures and agro-environmental aspects that look at the impact of agriculture on the environment.

The data are used by public, researchers, farmers and policy-makers to better understand the state of the farming sector and the impact of agriculture on the environment. The data follow up the changes in the agricultural sector and provide a basis for decision-making in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and other European Union policies.

The statistical unit is the agricultural holding (farm). The aggregated results are disseminated through statistical tables. The data are presented at different geographical levels and over periods.
The data collections are organised in line with Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 and have a new structure, consisting of a core data set and several modules. The regulation covers the data collections in 2020 (the agricultural census), 2023 and 2026. The data are as comparable and coherent as possible with the other European countries.

Data are arranged in tables using many classifications. Please find below information on most classifications.

The classifications of variables are available in Annex III of Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 and in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1874.

The farm typology means a uniform classification of the holdings based on their type of farming and their economic size. Both are determined on the basis of the standard gross margin (SGM) (until 2007) or standard output (SO) (from 2010 onward) which is calculated for each crop and animal. The farm type is determined by the relative contribution of the different productions to the total standard gross margin or the standard output of the holding.

The territorial classification uses the NUTS classification to break down the regional data. The regional data is available at NUTS level 2.

The statistics cover agricultural holdings undertaking agricultural activities as listed in item 3.5 below and meeting the minimum coverage requirements (thresholds) as listed in item 3.6 below.

The list of core variables is set in Annex III of Regulation (EU) 2018/1091.

The descriptions of the core variables as well as the lists and descriptions of the variables for the modules collected in 2019/2020 are set in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1874.

The following groups of variables are collected in 2020:

• for core: location of the holding, legal personality of the holding, manager, type of tenure of the utilised agricultural area, variables of land, organic farming, irrigation on cultivated outdoor area, variables of livestock, organic production methods applied to animal production;
• for the module "Labour force and other gainful activities": farm management, family labour force, non-family labour force, other gainful activities directly and not directly related to the agricultural holding;
• for the module "Rural development": support received by agricultural holdings through various rural development measures;
• for the module "Animal housing and rural development module":  animal housing, nutrient use and manure on the farm, manure application techniques, facilities for manure.

See sub-category below.

The agricultural holding is a single unit, both technically and economically, that has a single management and that undertakes economic activities in agriculture in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 belonging to groups:

- A.01.1: Growing of non-perennial crops

- A.01.2: Growing of perennial crops

- A.01.3: Plant propagation

- A.01.4: Animal production

- A.01.5: Mixed farming or

- The “maintenance of agricultural land in good agricultural and environmental condition” of group A.01.6 within the economic territory of the Union, either as its primary or secondary activity.

Regarding activities of class A.01.49, only the activities “Raising and breeding of semi-domesticated or other live animals” (with the exception of raising of insects) and “Bee-keeping and production of honey and beeswax” are included.

See sub-categories below.

The thresholds of agricultural holdings are available in the annex.

The same population of agricultural holdings defined in item 3.6.1

The above answer holds for the modules ‘Labour force and other gainful activities’ and ‘Rural development’. The module ‘Machinery and equipment’ is not collected in 2020.

The subset of the population of agricultural holdings defined in item 3.6.2 with at least one of the following: bovine animals, pigs, sheep, goats, poultry or where fertiliser (whatever type) have been used.

See sub-categories below.

The entire territory of the country.

The  following territories are covered by the data: Livigno and Campione d'Italia

Not available

Farm structure statistics in our country cover the period from 1961 onwards. Older time series are described in the previous quality reports (national methodological reports).

The 2020 data are processed (by Eurostat) with 2017 standard output coefficients (calculated as a 5-year average of the period 2015-2019). For more information, you can consult the definition of the standard output.

Two kinds of units are generally used:

• the units of measurement for the variables (area in hectares, livestock in LSU (livestock units), labour force in persons or AWU (annual working units), standard output in Euro, places for animal housing etc.) and
• the number of agricultural holdings having these characteristics.

See sub-categories below.

The use of land refers to the reference year 2019/2020; in particular the crop year was considered (1 November 2019- 31 October 2020).

In the case of successive crops from the same piece of land, the land use refers to a crop that is harvested during the reference year, regardless of when the crop in question is sown.

The reference period for Irrigable area is the crop year (1 November 2019- 31 October 2020).

Soil management practices: Not applicable for 2019/2020

According to Regulation (EU) 2018/1091, the reference day for livestock is the 1st of December 2020, with the exception of poultry for which the average number in a 12-month period including the 1st of December 2020 was considered.

Variables on animal housing refer to a 12-month period: from the 1st of January 2020 to the 31st of December 2020.

 Variables on manure management refer to a 12-month period: from the 1st of January 2020 to the 31st of December 2020.

The 12-month period ending on 31 October 2020.

The three-year period ending on 31 December 2020.

The reference day is the 1st of December 2020.

See sub-categories below.

Lex n. 205, December 27, 2017 (art. 1, subsections 227-237)

https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2017/12/29/17G00222/sg

2018

In Italy, the main stakeholders which produce administrative data or carry out surveys and analyses as regards agriculture, forestry and fishery are: ISTAT, Ministry of Agriculture (MIPAAF), AGEA (the Italian IACS authority), ISMEA (research body managed by the MIPAAF), CREA (research body managed by MIPAAF which is responsible fo FADN), the Italian Regions. These 6 bodies signed a memorandum of understanding on December 12, 2017, which will end in December 2022. All these bodies belong to the Italian National Statistical system. The Memorandum states that the administrative data owned by the authorities which signed it should be available for statistical purposes without any additional financial cost for ISTAT. The most important admin data managed on the basis of the memorandum concern:
1. the "Fascicoli aziendali " (Farm files), managed by AGEA in order to guarantee the UE financial support to farmers
2. The micro-data concerning rural developments measures adopted by farmers, managed by AGEA.
3. Regional farm registers including the active agricultural holdings at regional level
4. Organic farming data managed by MIPAAF.
Moreover, a special agreement has been signed between ISTAT and the Ministry of Health. According to that, ISTAT receives from the Ministry the yearly database of holdings which own livestock, for the mai kinds of animals.

Several national legal acts guarantee the confidentiality of data requested for statistical purposes. According to art. 9, paragraph 1 of the Legislative Decree n. 322 of 1989, personal 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. Legislative Decree n. 322 of 1989, art. 6 bis and Legislative Decree n. 196 of 2003 Annex A3 (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), art. 8, provide 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. The supply of the identification data of statistical units is allowed within the framework of entities included in the National Statistical System if the requesting party declares that no identical statistical result can be obtained otherwise . Regarding subjects who do not belong to Sistan, Article. 7 of the Code of conduct (Decree n. 196/2003, Annex A3) states that it is possible to transmit individual data files without direct identifiers within the framework of specific laboratories set up by entities included in the National Statistical System, under certain conditions and only if that the data are protected by the application of different statistical methods that make it highly unlikely the identification of statistical units.

At the moment ISTAT did not implement any specific actions regarding census data confidentiality. The main reasons are: 1) We are just completing the database final validation (in order to send micro-data to EUROSTAT); 2) as regards population census, existing legislation allowed the release of data even at a very detailed territorial level with a specific legal act; however, at the moment as regards agriculture census there is not a specific legal act which rules data confidentiality, even though a specific act may available along next months. Given this uncertain context, and considering that in Italy very detailed territorial data will be released not before October 2022, we started evaluations on data confidentiality with experts of the methodology directorate. No final decision was agreed up to now, however we are likely to apply perturbation techniques in some specific domains in order the tackle the problem. Further information may be supplied to EUROSTAT later on.

See sub-categories below.

See sub-categories below.

Not applicable

See sub-categories below.

2020 micro-data will be released to specific users (members of SISTAN) and data files will be accessible in micro-data form for researchers.

The confidentiality provisions applied are those foreseen by the Legislative Decree of 9 September 1989, n.322 (concerning the statistical confidentiality) as amended by Legislative Decree n. 281/99, Legislative Decree of June 30, 2003.

The milestones of the release calendar are:

June 2022: first press release (aggregated data)

September-December 2022: Data Browser

December 2022- first semester 2023: ad hoc thematic publications

The Release calendar is an internal thecnical document not accessible from external.

Istat policy provides for free access to data by citizens. The main means of dissemination is the corporate website. The availability of data is emphasised through both media outreach and social networks. Dissemination formats are designed for different audiences, so they range from infographics, more accessible to non-experts, to microdata for researchers.

Not applicable

At national level IFS data are disseminated every 3 years

See sub-categories below.

https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/273753

https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/274950

See sub-categories below.

Not yet published.

See sub-categories below.

Not available.

Not applicable at the moment: the database is not yet available.

See sub-category below.

Not available

Not requested.

See sub-categories below.

Not requested.

Metadata are available online on Istat's website: https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/252629

A short edition of the handbook is available online on Istat's website: https://www.istat.it/ws/fascicoloSidi/1043/Manuale%20per%20la%20navigazione%20sul%20Questionario%20elettronico.pdf

Methodological papers will be published in next future and will be available at the following link: https://www.istat.it/it/metodi-e-strumenti/strumenti-per-la-qualit%C3%A0/siqual

Metadata on IFS will be stored in SIQUAL which is an informative system for documenting the process and the quality of all surveys carried out by Istat, in a standard way.

See sub-categories below.

Not available

The main groups of users and the groups of variables they need are the following:

- National Account Service of Istat (variables on Labour force to build the economic accounts of the agricultural sector)
- Environment Service of Istat (variables on Irrigation to study the use of water in agriculture)
- ISPRA (National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, variables connected with environmental impact of agriculture)

- Regions (Local policies)

- Ministry of Agriculture (National policies)

- University and other Research Institutions (Researches)

The main group of variables collected for national purposes concern:

• more details on Irrigation
• Impact of Covid on agriculture
• variables connected with trade

The most important user needs are met

Not applicable

Not applicable (no measures to determine user satisfaction).

Not applicable

Information on low- and zero prevalence variables is available on: Eurostat's website.

Not applicable for Integrated Farm Statistics as the not collected variables, not-significant variables and not-existent variables are completed with 0.

See categories below.

See sub-categories below.

Please find the relative standard errors for the main variables in the annex.

There are no cases where estimated RSEs are above thresholds.

See attached file.

See sub-categories below.

See sub-categories below.

The over-coverage rate is available in the annex. The over-coverage rate is unweighted.
The over-coverage rate is calculated as the share of ineligible holdings to the holdings designated for the core data collection. The ineligible holdings include those holdings with unknown eligibility status that are not imputed nor re-weighted for (therefore considered ineligible).
The over-coverage rate is calculated over the holdings in the main frame and if applicable frame extension, for which core data are sent to Eurostat. 

Not available

100%

See sub-categories below.

The degree of under-coverage is zero as the whole target population has been included in the frame population and the frame extension. 

The population frame includes both the population frame and the frame extension.

Not available

Not applicable

The most up-to-date contact information possible was used to build the reference list.

See sub-categories below.

The variables mostly affected by measurement errors are:

UAA - Utilised agricultural area

Poultry:

A5140 Broilers heads
A5110O Laying hens heads
A5000X5100 Other poultry heads
A5230 Turkeys heads
A5210 Ducks heads
A5220 Geese heads
A5240_5300 Other poultry fowls, n.e.c.

Most of measurement errors have been detected by the electronic questionnaire (influential). The remaing measurement errors have been solved during the check and edit phase.

See sub-categories below.

The unit non-response rate is in the annex of item 13.3.1.1. The unit non-response rate is unweighted.
The unit non-response rate is calculated as the share of eligible non-respondent holdings to the eligible holdings.  The eligible holdings include those holdings with unknown eligibility status which are imputed or re-weighted for (therefore considered eligible).
The unit non-response rate is calculated over the holdings in the main frame and frame extension, for which core data are sent to Eurostat.

Not carried out.

The electronic questionnaire did not allow skipping the most important questions. So that only few variables were affected by non-response.  For these variables imputation has been performed.

The minimum non response rate (unweighted) is: 0.01

The maximum non response rate (unweighted) is: 2.18

OWN_UAA Own farmed utilised agricultural area

RENT_UAA Rented farmed utilised agricultural area

Not available

See sub-categories below.

Intervention on electronic questionnaire

Intervention to realign the format of electronic questionnaire deriving from CATI technique.

Software: Sas and R, Banff, R packages such as validate, validatetools, errorlocate and VIM; SeleMix for influential errors and outliers; staff profiles: researchers and  technical assistants of the Directorate for Methodology and Statistical Process Design.

Not available

Not applicable

See sub-categories below.

18 months: June 2022 first publication (excluding microdata transmission to Eurostat in April 2022)

 24 months, considering the publication of complete and final results on Istat web site .

See sub-categories below.

See sub-categories below.

Not requested.

The first release of data on main variables was scheduled for June 2022 and this deadline was respected. Other publications are foreseen in next months.

See sub-categories below.

Not applicable, because there are no mirror flows in Integrated Farm Statistics.

See sub-categories below.

No deviations from Regulation (EU) 2018/1091

Not applicable

See sub-categories below.

The thresholds applied for the national data collection are the same applied for the data sent to Eurostat.

Not applicable

See sub-categories below.

We collect and send to Eurostat data with the same definitions and classification of variables compared to Regulation (EU) 2018/1091, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1874 and EU handbook.

The national definition of the categories for Agricultural Training of the Manager is not exactly the same of Eurostat, since in national definition also the level of education is taken into account.

In national dissemination some variables have a different format (i.e. Livestock).

The information is available in the annex. 
The number of working hours and days in a year for a full-time job correspond to one annual working unit (AWU) in the country. One annual work unit corresponds to the work performed by one person who is occupied on an agricultural holding on a full-time basis. Annual working units are used to calculate the farm work on the agricultural holdings.

The information is available in the annex of item 15.1.4.1.1. 

The information is available in the annex of item 15.1.4.1.1. 

Italy uses the same LSU coefficients as the ones set in Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 in order to transmit data to Eurostat.

However, data on livestock at national level are published in number of heads (not in LSU).

Italy does not include Equidae in Other livestock n.e.c.

Equidae livestock represents a single item in the questionnaire.

See sub-categories below.

Data collected, sent to Eurostat and published are in compliance with the reference periods/days set in Regulation (EU) 2018/1091.

Not applicable

Not applicable

The virtual common land units have been created at municipality level, on the basis of the information collected by:

- in 14 Regions (NUTS2): a direct survey, on optional basis, managed by the Regions

- in 7 Regions (NUTS2): administrative sources (in Regions that did not participate in the survey).

‘Common land agricultural unit’ means an entity of land on which common rights apply. They are normally under the responsibility of a public authority (state, parish, etc.) over which another person is entitled to exercise rights of common, and these rights are generally exercisable in common with others.

The main problem in collecting data on common land in Italy concerns the lack of information from the public authority on this kind of land. In many cases (Regions, municipalities, etc) there is no a digitized management of information and is very hard to discriminate from land on which common rights applied and land allotted to individual farms.

Moreover, due to the previous difficulties to collect data for these kind of units, common land excludes organic areas since no information on this topic is available.

See sub-categories below.

There are no deviations in the national standards and rules for certification of organic products from Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007.

Not applicable

There are no differences in the methods used across regions within the country.

See sub-categories below.

10 years

See sub-categories below.

Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 newly considers agricultural holdings with only fur animals. However even if our country raises fur animals, holdings with only fur animals are not included in our data collection because they do not meet the thresholds.  The thresholds for animals are expressed in livestock units (LSU) and fur animals are not associated LSU coefficients. We did not add thresholds related to fur animals; there is no reason for it (fur animals do not contribute towards 98% of the total LSU).

See sub-categories below.

The table summarizes the differences between the thresholds adopted in FSS 2016 and in Census 2020.

For some variables there have been enough changes to warrant the designation of a break in series.

See sub-categories below.

Not applicable

See sub-categories below.

Legal personality of the agricultural holding

In IFS, there is a new class (“shared ownership”) for the legal personality of the holding compared to FSS 2016, which trigger fluctuations of holdings in the classes of sole holder holdings and group holdings.

 Other livestock n.e.c.

In FSS 2016, deer were included in this class, but in IFS they are classified separately.
In FSS 2016, there was a class for the collection of equidae, while in IFS, according to the EU regulation and handbook, equidae should be included under "Other livestock". Italy did not include equidae under "Other livestock".

 Livestock units

In FSS 2016, turkeys, ducks, geese, ostriches and other poultry were considered each one in a separate class with a coefficient of 0.03 for all the classes except for ostriches (coefficient 0.035). In IFS 2020, the coefficients were adjusted accordingly, with turkeys remaining at 0.03, ostriches remaining at 0.35, ducks adjusted to 0.01, geese adjusted to 0.02 and other poultry fowls n.e.c. adjusted to 0.001.

 Organic animals

While in FSS only fully compliant (certified converted) animals were included, in IFS both animals under conversion and fully converted are to be included.

See sub-categories below.

Concerning the variables on manure managements in FSS 2016 the information was collected for the reference period 1 November 2015 – 31 October 2016, while in IFS 2020 the information was collected for the reference period 1 January 2020- 31 December 2020.

See sub-categories below.

The main change concerns the data collection technique, since the definition of common land did not change.

In 2016 data on common land have been collected using the same questionnaire and the same interviewers as for the other agricultural holdings in the sample.

In 2020 data on common land have been collected using a mixed technique (direct interview with ad hoc questionnaire and administrative sources) and with a specific net of interviewers (employee from Regions)

We suspect 2016 data on common land are under estimated.

Overall comparison between 2020 with 2016.

1. FSS 2016 was a sampling survey, so estimates are affected by sampling errors, which do not apply to 2020 census data. As a consequence, the comparison must take into account that precision of 2020 is higher than precision of 2016 estimates and this basic difference reflects on the discrepancies between 2020 and 2016 data.

2. Beyond precision of estimates, it is absolutely possible that along 4 years we are facing percent changes larger than 10%: agriculture is changing quickly and we cannot overlap theoretical assumptions concerning the expected range of variation for some indicators to the real development of agriculture production systems and levels. Other explanations may be raised: for instance, more vegetarians imply lower need of bovine livestock.

Concerning the specific explanations:

- ARA99T: the questionnaire used for the FSS 2016 did not include any specific question on this item. As a consequence, data transmitted to EUROSTAT in 2016 are not comparable with data collected during the census 2020.

- G9100T+G9900T, during the last years several farmers changed the final destination of lands cultivated for cereals, depending on climate changes, selling prices, consumers' preferences and other reasons. This item includes many different kind of cultivation, so that it is difficult to know exactly the reasons for the decrease.

- I2990T: 2020 and 2016 data are not comparable. In 2016 this item included several textiles species which in 2020 have been asked for in separate specific questions. For this reason in 2020 the item "Other…" is quite lower than the corresponding item in 2016.

- I6000T+I900T: Situation which underlines an opposite trend compared with G9100T+G9900T (point 2 above). The main reasons are the same, basically the overall amount of surfaces is low.

- J3000TE: Permanent agricultural grassland not in use eligible for financial support- are increasing because, as a matter of fact, any farmer which could receive economic benefits tries to receive them according to the rules established in order to compliant with that.

- SOGA_NFAM_RH: During last years in Italy many agricultural holdings decided to externalise many kinds of supporting activities. As a consequence, the relative importance of Non-family labour force regularly working on the holding and having other gainful activities as their secondary activity is going to decrease, as other evidences from the 2020 census confirm

- In the last years we are facing the increase of farms which do not have UAA. These farms "produce without lands" because apply the hydroponic and aquaponic gardening systems, which do not require physical land for production

- a strong reduction of smal farms has been recorded from 2016 to 2020. This reduction was also combined with the increase of average size of active farms (in many cases, agricultural surfaces of small farms which stopped their activities have been bought by larger farms). As a consequence, the overall average SO increased

- the evolution of OGA activities of the holdings has increased in 2020 when compared to 2010, but it decreased if compared to 2016. This is probably due to the fact that data collection 2020 happened during the COVID pandemic; this may have led to a lower number of farms which operated connected activities.

See sub-categories below.

Not applicable to Integrated Farm Statistics, because there are no sub annual data collections in agriculture.

Not applicable, because Integrated Farm Statistics have no relevance for national accounts.

See sub-categories below.

Annual crops statistics are not collected on microdata basis.

See sub-categories below.

Precision of census estimates is larger than precision of other estimates because this is just a census (no sampling errors, no experts estimates), even though the census itself may be affected by other error sources (measurement errors only.

No significant overcoverage or undercoverage problems occurred).

the comparison between IFS and APRO provides mixed results: it is not possible that two independent sources/estimates (the census and the Annual Crop Statistics) produce exactly the same data. Moreover, farmers were asked to provide data on agricultural surfaces between January and July 2021, that is after not less than 5 months from the end of the reference agrarian year, so microdata collected may lead to aggregated data which are different from APRO data estimated several months before. APRO estimates cannot substitute census data anyway, that is a matter of methology and quality of basic data sources compared.

The data are internally consistent. This is ensured by the application of a wide range of validation rules.

See sub-categories below.

As for the Census we did not coordinate questionnaires of different data collections in agricultural statistics in order to avoid that farms are asked the same questions more than once

Not available

See sub-categories below.

30 minutes

15 minutes

Not relevant

15 minutes

Preliminary data are not published. Only final data are disseminated.

Preliminary data are not published. Only final data are disseminated.

Not requested.

See sub-categories below.

See sub-categories below.

Statistical Farm Register.

See sub-categories below.

Not applicable for 2019/2020.

Not applicable for 2019/2020.

Not applicable for 2019/2020.

See sub-categories below.

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

See sub-categories below.

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

See sub-categories below.

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

See sub-categories below.

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

See sub-categories below.

The information is available on Eurostat's website.

See the attached Excel file in the Annex.

The information on innovative approaches and the quality methods applied is available on Eurostat's website.

The agricultural census is conducted every 10 years.  The decennial agricultural census is complemented by sample or census-based data collections organised every 3-4 years in-between.

See sub-categories below.

Please note that the questionnaire was only in electronic format.

The questionnaire in annex is a paper version not used to collect data.

See sub-categories below.

Electronic tools (Excel, Sas, specific software)

We did not use weights.

 Please find the imputation rate for main variables in the annex.

 The imputation rate is unweighted.

Covered under Data compilation.

Not applicable to Integrated Farm Statistics, because it collects structural data on agriculture.

See sub-categories below.

CAP – Common Agricultural Policy

CAPI – Computer Assisted Personal Interview

CATI – Computer Assisted Telephone Interview

CAWI – Computer Assisted Web Interview

FSS – Farm Structure Survey

IACS – Integrated Administration and Control System

IFS – Integrated Farm Statistics

LSU – Livestock units

NACE – Nomenclature of Economic Activities

NUTS – Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics

PAPI – Paper and Pencil Interview

SO – Standard output

UAA – Utilised agricultural area

ISTAT = National Statistical Institute

MIPAAF = Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies

AGEA: Agency for the Disbursement in Agriculture

FR = Farm register (register of agricultural holdings mainly based on IACS and BDN data)

BDN = National Register of Livestock (Ministry of Health)

ISPRA =National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research

SISTAN = National Statistical System

SIDI = Informative System on Statistical Processes Quality

No additional comments.