Skip to main content

Currently Skimming:

Summary
Pages 1-14

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 1...
... A healthy agricultural sector helps to ensure a safe and reliable food supply, improves energy security, and contributes to employment and economic development, traditionally in small towns and rural areas where farming serves as a nexus for related sectors from farm machinery manufacturing to food processing. The agricultural sector also plays a role in the nation's overall economic growth by providing crucial raw inputs for the production of a wide range of goods and services, including many that generate substantial export value.
From page 2...
... NASS and ERS publish statistics and reports that regularly and extensively detail the number of farms in the United States, the quantities and types of commodities they produce, the incomes of both the farm businesses and the farm households that run these businesses, and the status and conditions of the agricultural economy. To justify this public investment in the nation's statistical system, surveys and other data collection instruments must satisfy a range of demands.
From page 3...
... Indeed, given the kinds of information on the agricultural sector that have high value to stakeholders, expanding the breadth and diversity of data sources from which statistics are constructed represents a natural evolution for the statistical agencies measuring the sector. THE ESSENTIAL PERSPECTIVE OF DATA PROVIDERS: BURDEN, RESPONSE RATES, AND DATA ACCURACY When assessing a data collection infrastructure, key considerations are the burden imposed on respondents and the accuracy of the statistics produced.
From page 4...
... Minimizing respondent burden is an especially pressing challenge in today's climate of declining survey response rates and increasing survey costs. Compared with small farms, large farm operations -- where the roles and relationships among multiple owners and managers and the operations they oversee are more difficult to unambiguously identify -- have been found to exhibit lower response rates to ARMS and Census of Agriculture questionnaires.
From page 5...
... In line with the day-to-day use of the word and current practice at statistical agencies, the definition of a farm should focus on the productive entity as a business engaged in clearly specified types of activities: For conceptual purposes, the National Agricultural Statistics Service and Economic Research Service should define a farm as an establishment (single unit with a legal or informal management structure) that (1)
From page 6...
... farm establishment as a business establishment engaged in farming and (2) farm business as a collection of business establishments with at least one farm establishment linked by common ownership or control.
From page 7...
... The essence of the problem, and an important source of complexity in agricultural production, is that farming activities take place within a larger food and agriculture supply chain. When policies or programs require information on overall agricultural production in the United States, as opposed to what happens "on the farm," some farming and agricultural activities -- carried out by establishments that are not classified in a statistical framework as farms but instead as agricultural support firms, food processing companies, or retailers -- should be considered within the scope.
From page 8...
... This can be done with a methodology based on the input-output tables of the national accounts (and their satellite accounts) that link farming to activities in other sectors: The National Agricultural Statistics Service, the Census Bureau, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis should report on the size of the agribusi ness complex and its components in terms of income, employment, and environmental impacts and develop a program that harnesses existing data collection efforts to create a new satellite account for reporting on food and agriculture industries.
From page 9...
... The USDA already has a well-established sampling frame methodology that deals with some of the complexity brought on by the presence of multiple statistical units that are all of interest. By using a combined frame of farm businesses and individuals, NASS and ERS track the linkages between the two.
From page 10...
... It would be an "evergreen" product, regularly updated as new information becomes available.5 Survey-specific list frames would be drawn from the Farm Register at a single point in time to support individual statistical programs, including the Census of Agriculture and ARMS. The Farm Register should follow a farm establishment/farm business structure (as defined above)
From page 11...
... The National Agricultural Statistics Service should create a separate list frame of farm households within the overall Farm Register that would lead to a more efficient sampling of farm households and/or persons involved in farm activities, since the household list itself can be stratified or augmented with auxiliary data. (Recommendation 5.6)
From page 12...
... Use of nonsurvey data for the production of agricultural statistics is an approach increasingly being undertaken by statistical agencies around the globe and indeed by USDA itself; geospatial data and numerous administrative sources are prominent examples. While both NASS and ERS currently use nonsurvey data sources for statistical purposes, there is even greater potential for their use.
From page 13...
... Any redesign of the Census of Agriculture and ARMS should be done with the presumption that these instruments will need to be linkable to other data sources maintained by USDA, to other statistical agencies, and even to nongovernment organizations. The key design element in the data system for promoting data linkages -- for example, between household records and farm business records -- is created during questionnaire design.


This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More information on Chapter Skim is available.