Agricultural statistics are generated within the framework of the EU programme on surveys on farm structure conducted by all EU members in order have up-to-date, comparable information on the member states, with the purpose of being used a basic tool for designing the Common Agricultural Policy. This programme establishes that an Agricultural Census shall be performed every ten years and three sample-based surveys in the intervening years. In these censuses, which are exhaustive, all the existing farms are researched, while in the Surveys on Farm Structure the population studied is defined by less broad criteria, which limits the comparability of the survey data with the census data. What is more, the census questionnaire also includes an additional sheet through which information of interest to the Catalan agricultural sector can be gathered.
In Catalonia, these statistical operations have been performed by Idescat with the support of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Action (abbreviated DAR), thanks to the signing of a cooperation agreement with the INE.
The detailed results of these operations are published in the section entitled Agricultural Statistics in the Bank of Statistics on Municipalities and counties, as well as in several paper publications. The information from the Agricultural Census is in ten-year periods, but it is disaggregated by territory. The Survey on Farm Structure provides biannual data in the periods between censuses.
Furthermore, in conjunction with DAR, Idescat has generated a variety of statistical documents in the form of informative sheets setting out the main results of the Agricultural Census and the Survey on Farm Structure. The document devoted to the Agricultural Census contains a compilation of the main variables and compares them with the corresponding previous censuses, pointing out and commenting on the basic factors in their evolution in the intervening period. The documents devoted to Survey on Farm Structure provide data on the main variables in this survey and compare them with the universe of reference of the corresponding Agricultural Census.
