Agri-environmental commitments (until 2015)

Statistics Estonia

Economic and Environmental Statistics Department

Kätlin Laats

Senior Statistician

51 Tatari Str, 10134 Tallinn, Estonia

katlin.laats [at] stat.ee

+372 625 9167

09/01/2015

09/01/2015

Used quantities of fertilizers, treated area and consumption by crop.

Indicators of environmentally friendly farming in agricultural holdings: changes in utilised agricultural land, water use in agriculture, area under organic farming, production of biofuels and energy crops, bird index of agricultural land.

Nitrogen and phosphorus balances according to basic data of agricultural statistics.

Classifications used in agricultural statistics and in the related environmental domains

Agriculture EMTAK 01

Agricultural holding – a single unit both technically and economically, which has single management and which produces agricultural products or maintains its land which is no longer used for production purposes in good agricultural and environmental condition, where:

- there is at least one hectare of utilised agricultural land or

- there is less than one hectare of utilised agricultural land but agricultural products are produced mainly for sale.

Units where agricultural products are not produced but only land is maintained in good agricultural and environmental condition are included from 2007.

Until 2007 the definition of agricultural holding included also the reference to standard gross margin (at least 1 ESU, if the area of agricultural land was less than 1 hectare). From 2010 this reference has been replaced by provision that agricultural products are produced mainly for sale. The change does not have an effect to the comparability of the data.

Agricultural products – cereals, legumes, potatoes, fodder roots, linseed, flax fibre, plants used for seasoning and herbs, vegetables, vegetable plants, flowers, ornamental plants, green fodder, fruits, berries, young plants of trees and bushes, (excl. young plants of forest trees grown on wooded land for own consumption), livestock and poultry, meat, milk, eggs, wool, honey and wax.

Arable land – land worked regularly, generally under a system of crop rotation.

Arable land consists of:

- area under cereals (wheat, rye, barley, oats (including mixture of cereals), other cereals (including buckwheat and triticale) for the production of grain;

- area under legumes (peas, field beans, other legumes, including mixture of cereals and legumes) for the production of grain;

- area under potatoes;

- area under fodder roots (excluding seeds for sale);

- area under industrial crops (rape and turnip rape, linseed, flax and aromatic and medicinal plants and herbs and other industrial crops);

- area under fresh vegetables and strawberries, outdoor or under low (non-accessible) cover;

- area under flowers and ornamental plants, outdoor or under low (non-accessible) cover;

- area under fresh vegetables under glass or high (accessible) cover (crops which for the whole of the period of growth or for the predominant part of it are covered by greenhouses or fixed or mobile high cover (glass or rigid or flexible plastic));

- area under flowers and ornamental plants under glass or high (accessible) cover (crops which for the whole of the period of growth or for the predominant part of it are covered by greenhouses or fixed or mobile high cover (glass or rigid or flexible plastic));

- area under fodder plants (all green arable crops intended for animal feed, grown in rotation with other arable crops and occupying the same land for less than five years) – temporary grass including leguminous plants, maize and other forage plants (including cereals and legumes harvested green);

- area under seeds and seedlings for sale (excluding cereals, legumes, potatoes and oil seeds);

- fallow land (land left to recover, normally for the whole of a crop year) – bare land and green fallow.

Statistics are published on various agri-environmental issues, such as environmentally friendly farming, changes in agricultural land use, water use in agriculture, area under organic farming, production of biofuel and energy crops.

Not applicable.

FRAME

Not applicable.

Estonia as a whole

2004–…

Not applicable.

Various units of measure

Year

DIRECTLY APPLICABLE LEGAL ACT

Not available.

Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament – Development of agri-environmental indicators for monitoring the integration of environmental concerns into the common agricultural policy {SEC(2006) 1136} /* COM/2006/0508 final */

OTHER AGREEMENTS

Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat)

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 34 and § 35 of the Official Statistics Act.

Not applicable.

Notifications about the dissemination of statistics are published in the release calendar, which is available on the website. On 1 October each year, the release times of the Statistical Database, news releases, main indicators by IMF SDDS and publications are announced in the release calendar (in case of publications – the release month).

http://www.stat.ee/release-calendar

All users have been granted an equal access to official statistics: this means that the dissemination dates of official statistics have to be announced in advance and no user category (incl. Eurostat, state authorities and mass media) can have access to the official statistics (results of official statistical surveys) before other users. Statistical information is first published in the Statistical Database. In case a news release is published based on the same data, the information provided in the relevant news release is simultaneously published in the Statistical Database. Official statistics are available on the website at 8.00 a.m. on the date announced in the release calender.

Year

Not published.

„Eesti statistika aastaraamat. Statistical Yearbook of Estonia”

Data are published in the Statistical Database in http://pub.stat.ee.

Not applicable.

Not published.

Agri-environmental indicators: recommendations for priority data collection and data combination

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-RA-11-025/EN/KS-RA-11-025-EN.PDF

Characterisation of data collection-processing-reporting for agri-environmental policies in Member States of the European Union

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-RA-11-026/EN/KS-RA-11-026-EN.PDF

Data requirements, availability and gaps in agri-environment indicators (AEIs) in Europe

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-RA-11-022/EN/KS-RA-11-022-EN.PDF

Not available.

To assure the quality of processes and products, Statistics Estonia applies the EFQM Excellence Model, EU Statistics Code of Practice and the ESS Quality Assurance Framework (QAF). Statistics Estonia is also guided by the requirements provided for in § 7. „Principles and quality criteria of producing official statistics” of the Official Statistics Act.

Statistics Estonia performs all statistical activities according to an international model (Generic Statistical Business Process Model – GSBPM). According to the GSBPM, the final phase of statistical activities is overall evaluation using information gathered in each phase or sub-process (this information includes, among other things, feedback from users, process metadata, system metrics and suggestions from employees). This information is used to prepare the evaluation report which outlines all the quality problems related to the specific statistical activity and serves as input for improvement actions.

Ministry of the Environment

Ministry of Agriculture

Users’ suggestions and information about taking them into account are available on the SE website http://www.stat.ee/tooplaan.

Since 1996 Statistics Estonia conducts reputation surveys and user surveys.

All results are available on the website http://www.stat.ee/user-surveys.

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Not measured.

Not applicable.

The quality of nitrogen and phosphorus balances is influenced by the specific models used for calculations and by the coefficients developed by research institutions.

The quality of administrative data may be influenced by several other factors that should be identified.

The release date will be determined in 2014.

(2011) T+566

Not applicable.

Geographical comparability is still unknown, but Communication COM(2006) 508 from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament, „Development of agri-environmental indicators for monitoring the integration of environmental concerns into the common agricultural policy”, provides a basis for territorial comparability on the EU level.

The data are comparable across time.

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The data revision policy and notification of corrections are described in the dissemination policy of Statistics Estonia http://www.stat.ee/dissemination-policy.

The published data may be revised if the methodology is modified, if errors are discovered, if new or better data become available.

SURVEY DATA

Not used.

ADMINISTRATIVE DATA

Data on agri-environment payments and land use are received from the Estonian Agricultural Registers and Information Board (PRIA). Organic farming data are received from the Agricultural Board. Data on the population trends of farmland birds are received from the Estonian Ornithological Society. Data on agricultural water use and emissions are received from the Estonian Environment Agency. Further administrative sources may be added due the development of the data collection methodology.

DATA FROM OTHER STATISTICAL ACTIVITIES

Data from statistical activities 21201 „Sown area of field crops”, 21203 „Annual statistics of livestock farming”, 21207 „Economic accounts for agriculture”, 21210 „Agricultural Census”, 21211 „Agricultural products”, 21214 „Crop farming”, 21216 „Survey of agricultural household plots” (2013) and 21218 „Compilation of sample design and renewal of the sample of farm accountancy data network” are used.

Year

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The validation process consists of arithmetic and quality checks, incl. comparison with other data. Before data dissemination, several checks on the internal coherence of the data are carried out.

The indicators to be published are calculated on the basis of the collected data, following the guidelines and manuals of Eurostat.

Not applied.

Not available.