Table 5
New topics proposed by data users for the Census of Agriculture
| Topic | Submission received from data users | Number of comments submitted | Qualitative tests completed | Assessment of topic - Does the topic meet the criteria to be included in testing as outlined in the feedback and submission form? What were the results from testing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1-Agri-Tourism (Out of scope for the Census of Agriculture) |
Add agri-tourism question | 5 | Not tested for 2016 | These questions are not in scope for the Census of Agriculture, which covers primary agricultural activities. Agri-tourism was tested for 2011; however, the concepts were not universally understood or consistently defined across the country. Agri-tourism questions have been included in the Farm Financial Survey (FFS, 3450). |
| 2.2-Animal Welfare (Content of subjective nature and/or difficult to measure objectively) |
Add a question about animal welfare | 2 | Not tested for 2016 | The concepts are not universally understood or consistently defined. Most of the proposed questions are open-ended and cannot be answered by either "Yes", "No", or a quantitative response. The response would be subjective, could not be validated and would not produce reliable and robust statistics. |
| Ask for animal welfare changes to housing and cost of changes | 1 | |||
| 2.3-Census Date (Comments not related to content) |
Change Census of Agriculture date to June 30 | 1 | Focus group | The topic was included in the focus group discussions. Statistics Canada recognizes that mid-May is one of the busiest times of the year for many farmers. However, collecting the data at the same time as the Census of Population streamlines procedures and saves millions of dollars. |
| 2.4-Direct Sales / Marketing (Content tested, modified and retained (in whole or parts) |
Ask for details on direct sales and value-added processing | 1 | MP1, MP2, IT1, IT2 | All suggestions were reviewed and researched. Depending on the results of the research, some were included in qualitative testing. Suggestions that tested well at this stage moved on to quantitative testing in May 2014 in the National Census Test. The marketing channel and the proportion of farm receipts that were direct sales were tested in MP1. The direct sale of agricultural products to consumers was tested in the direct sales question in MP2, IT1 and IT2 testing. Value-added questions are not in scope for the Census of Agriculture, which covers primary agricultural activities, however, for ease of reporting (and response burden reduction), a general question on value added was included in qualitative testing. These questions for specific commodities in the direct sales step could not be added due to space limitations on the questionnaire. Also, this suggestion would have increased response burden. Marketing channels, intermediaries and range of distribution are not universally understood or consistently defined concepts. Due to space limitations on the questionnaire, the commodity sections cannot be expanded to include direct marketing. Direct sales to consumers questions were also tested for 2011. |
| Add a question about direct marketing | 1 | |||
| Add a question for direct marketing channels and sales | 5 | |||
| Add a question about marketing channels and value-added products | 1 | |||
| Add a question about direct marketing and commodity types direct marketed | 1 | |||
| Ask for percentage of poultry production that is direct marketed | 1 | |||
| Add a question about direct marketing channels | 1 | |||
| Add a question about marketing channels (e.g. collectives, direct marketing) | 1 | |||
| Add a question for direct marketing channels such as farmers’ markets, on-farm stores, direct to restaurants, institutions or supermarkets | 1 | |||
| Add a question about selling locally or at Farmer's Market | 1 | |||
| Add a question about direct marketing to consumers and intermediaries | 1 | |||
| Add section after each commodity for operator to report percentage of production that was sold through direct marketing | 1 | |||
| Add question about the percent of meat sales that are direct sales | 1 | MP1, MP2, IT1, IT2 | The proportion of farm receipts that were direct sales was tested in MP1. The direct sale of unprocessed agricultural products (including meat) to consumers was tested in the direct sales question in MP2, IT1 and IT2 testing. | |
| 2.5-Education (A national census would not be the best data collection instrument) |
Ask for education level of operator | 6 | Not tested for 2016 | Questions on the education level of operators were not incorporated into the questionnaire as they will be available on a cost‑recovery basis from the Agriculture-National Household Survey linkage. |
| Ask a question about education level and on-going training | 1 | |||
| 2.6-Entry and Exit Farms (Content difficult to understand and did not test well) |
Add breakdown of how many farms are transferred/consolidated and how many are totally new | 1 | MP1 | This question did not test well. There was variation in the interpretation and understanding of the terms ownership and transferred. Changes in ownership were tested; however the concepts of transfer, purchase, and consolidation were not consistently distinguished between existing and new operations. Since the concepts are not universally understood or consistently defined, the proposed questions cannot be answered by either "Yes", "No", or a quantitative response. |
| 2.7-Environmental Practices (A national census would not be the best data collection instrument) |
Add more questions on environmental practices | 1 | n.a. | Additional detailed questions on environmental practices could not be added to the Census of Agriculture because it would have taken up too much space on the questionnaire and it would have increased response burden. A national census would not be the best data collection instrument for detailed environmental practices. A post-census survey such as Statistics Canada's Agricultural Water Survey (5145) or the Farm Environmental Management Survey (5044) might be more appropriate to collect data for these questions. Most of the proposed questions are open-ended and cannot be answered by either "Yes", "No", or a quantitative response. The response would be subjective, could not be validated and would not produce reliable and robust statistics. Improvements made through an Environmental Farm Plan were tested for 2011, however, it was not received well as the topics were too regionally specific. The Farm Environmental Management Survey (5044) includes some questions about environmental practices. The Farm Financial Survey (3450) asks for the capital investments made for environmental protection improvements. |
| Ask for information on investment in environmental initiatives | 1 | n.a. | ||
| 2.8-Ethnic Food Production (Scope too limited or narrow for a national census) |
Ask for information on the production of ethnic food | 1 | Not tested for 2016 | This scope of this topic is too narrow for the Census as relatively few farmers are involved in this. An attempt to collect such data would result in increasing burden for data that would not be publishable since data on crops that are not widely cultivated would likely be suppressed for confidentiality protection. |
| 2.9-Farm Management (A national census would not be the best data collection instrument) |
Ask for details on debts and liabilities of the operation | 1 | Not tested for 2016 | Statistics Canada's Farm Financial Survey (3450) that is conducted every two years is a source of detailed debt data. This would be the preferred way to collect data since trained interviewers can assist in explaining concepts to respondents (unlike the Census of Agriculture which is self-enumerated). The FFS provides data on farm assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses, capital investments and capital sales, which are available by farm type, revenue class and province. The survey, Farm Debt Outstanding (3472), measures the total amount of mortgage and non-mortgage farm debt. Repeating these questions on the Census of Agriculture would significantly increase response burden. |
| Add question about the use of futures, options, forward contracting, and other hedging tools as risk management strategies | 1 | |||
| Add question about business management (e.g. business management tools used; risk management practices; use of expertise; future business plans; information resources). Ask if there is a written business plan, a marketing plan, an Environmental Safety plan | 1 | |||
| 2.10-Finance - PIN (A national census would not be the best data collection instrument) |
Ask for PIN (Participant Information Number) to use AgriInvest and AgriStability data (for federal programs) | 1 | IT2 | This was tested as a separate module and did not test well. The PIN (Participant Information Number) was not universally understood or consistently defined due to regional differences in program names and was not applicable to all operators. This is considered a sensitive topic by some respondents. |
| 2.11-GMO (Scope too limited or narrow for a national census) |
Add questions about the use of genetically modified seeds and products | 8 | Not tested for 2016 | Questions about genetically modified seeds and products would require that similar questions be asked for all commodities and these questions would be too detailed for the Census. The response could not be validated and would not produce reliable and robust statistics. The areas of corn for grain and soybeans planted with genetically modified seed are asked in the Field Crop Reporting Series of Surveys by the Agriculture Division. These data are available upon request for Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. |
| 2.12-GPS Data (A national census would not be the best data collection instrument) |
Collect GPS coordinates for the main farm location | 1 | MP1 | The availability of the data and the willingness of operators to provide the data were discussed during testing. The micro-data would be suppressed in order to protect confidential data. This question could be quite burdensome as not all operators have this information readily available. GPS coordinates of land parcels could be obtained from administrative data sources such as crop insurance programs. |
| 2.13-Grain Storage (A national census would not be the best data collection instrument) |
Add a question asking for grain storage capacity on the farm | 1 | Not tested for 2016 | This topic was asked on March Farm Survey as special one-time only supplement in 2014. Grain stocks are asked three times per year (December, March and July) in Statistics Canada's Field Crop Reporting Series (3401) four times a year. |
| 2.14-Injuries (A national census would not be the best data collection instrument) |
Add step on injuries | 1 | Not tested for 2016 | Data available from Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting (CAIR, www.cair-sbac.ca). Topic was tested for 2011. |
| 2.15- Labour: Unpaid (Content of subjective nature and/or difficult to measure objectively) |
Add a section for unpaid labour and ask for the number of unpaid individuals and the hours worked | 2 | Not tested for 2016 | Adding this topic to the questionnaire would increase respondent reporting burden since the information is not likely documented as it is not required for bookkeeping or tax purposes. Also, unpaid labour may not be consistently defined (for example, depending on the operating arrangements dividends instead of wages could be received, or alternative compensation arrangements such as payment in-kind and bartering exist). The response would be difficult to validate and would not produce reliable and robust statistics. |
| 2.16-Marketing (Content of subjective nature and/or difficult to measure objectively) |
Add question about geographic range of distribution | 1 | Not tested for 2016 | Range of distribution and local market are not universally understood or consistently defined concepts. Also, respondents may not know the range of distribution if they sell through intermediaries. Most of the proposed questions are open-ended and cannot be answered by either "Yes", "No", or a quantitative response. The response would be subjective, could not be validated and would not produce reliable and robust statistics. |
| Ask if products are for local or export markets | 1 | |||
| Add question about marketing practices | 1 | |||
| Add questions relating to the type of marketing used | 1 | |||
| 2.17-Non-Agricultural Sources of On-Farm Income (Out of scope for the Census of Agriculture) |
Add question about non-agricultural activities on the farm (e.g. windmills, solar panels, etc) as a source of income | 1 | Not tested for 2016 | These questions are not in scope for the Census of Agriculture, which covers primary agricultural activities. On farm energy production was tested for 2011 however very few farmers produce energy for their own use or for sale to the grid. The concepts were not universally understood or consistently defined and there was confusion about the activities being hosted on the farm or owned by the operation. |
| 2.18-Product Processing (Out of scope for the Census of Agriculture) |
Ask if the operation does on-farm processing | 2 | Not tested for 2016 | Questions on product processing are not in scope for the Census of Agriculture, which covers primary agricultural activities. On-farm packaging/processing was tested for 2011 with mixed results as the concepts were not universally understood or consistently defined. |
| 2.19-Questionnaire Design (Comments not related to content) |
Design the on-line questionnaire so that it is accessible to those without high-speed Internet | 1 | IT2 | The on-line questionnaire is designed for all those with Internet access according to Statistics Canada's current Electronic Standards and Design Specifications. |
| 2.20-Succession Plan (Content tested, modified and retained (in whole or parts of proposed questions) |
Ask if the farm operation has a succession plan | 1 | MP1, MP2, IT1, IT2 | All suggestions were reviewed and researched. Depending on the results of the research, some were included in qualitative testing. Suggestions that tested well at this stage moved on to quantitative testing in May 2014 in the National Census Test. |
| Ask if a person has been identified to take over the farm operation | 7 | |||
| Ask how the farm was acquired and possible exit intentions | 2 | |||
| Ask if planning to sell or transfer the operation in the next five years and if there is a planned successor | 1 | |||
| Ask for the intended changes to the farm operation | 1 | |||
| Ask about intentions to retire and the succession plan for the operation | 1 | |||
| 2.21-Technology (Content tested, modified and retained (in whole or parts of proposed questions) |
Ask about types of technology used on the farm | 1 | MP1, MP2, IT1, IT2 | All suggestions were reviewed and researched. Depending on the results of the research, some were included in qualitative testing. Suggestions that tested well at this stage moved on to quantitative testing in May 2014 in the National Census Test. |
| Add question asking for detailed computerized technologies on farm | 1 | |||
| Add question asking for technologies used on farm for management, production and communications | 1 | |||
| Ask for milking system | 1 | |||
| Ask for area that is precision farmed | 2 | |||
| Ask for information resources and technologies used to manage the farm | 1 | |||
| Ask for information resources for farm management | 2 | |||
| Ask about type of Internet, mobile devices, and GPS | 1 | |||
| Ask about type of Internet, mobile devices, GPS, and social media | 1 | |||
| Ask about type of Internet, and other types of technology used | 2 | |||
| Ask for Internet use, method of connection and social media | 1 | |||
| Ask about type of Internet | 1 | |||
| 2.22-Urban Farms (Scope too limited or narrow for a national census) |
Add a question to identify urban farms | 2 | Not tested for 2016 | An attempt to collect urban farm data would result in increasing burden for data that would not be publishable since the data on urban farms would likely be suppressed for confidentiality protection in many instances. |
| 2.23-Waste | Ask for amount of plastic waste produced | 1 | Not tested for 2016 | Questions on waste produced are not in scope for the Census of Agriculture, which covers primary agricultural activities. A post-census survey, such as Statistics Canada's Farm Environmental Management Survey (5044), might be more appropriate to collect data for questions about waste management practices. |
| IT2 = Integrated Test for the electronic questionnaire. The qualitative tests were: MP1 = Modular Phase 1 test; MP2 = Modular Phase 2 test; IT1 = Integrated Test for the paper questionnaire; |
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