The Farm Structure Survey has begun
The 2013 survey in Estonia is a sample survey, meaning that data are collected only from the roughly 10,000 holdings included in the sample.
The survey questionnaires are pre-filled with crop and livestock farming data from the Estonian Agricultural Registers and Information Board. There are also questions about other gainful activities of the holding and about the existence and use of labour force and farm machinery. For the first time, respondents will be asked about land rental prices, which is an increasingly important factor in agriculture. More than half of the 940,000 hectares of agricultural area used in Estonia has been rented by holdings; large holdings rent more than 70% of the utilised agricultural area. Rental payments raise production costs, reduce profit and, most importantly, increase the price of food. In the last decade, the total agricultural area has increased by about 70,000 hectares (mainly rented land).
The holders of the agricultural holdings included in the sample can submit these and all other FSS data on Statistics Estonia’s website until the end of September. The pre-filled data (collected from various sources) can be changed and corrected by the respondents, if necessary. Online questionnaires can be completed by registered users of eSTAT (the electronic data submission channel) and all other holdings in the sample (both legal and natural persons). All respondents have been sent a letter about the survey together with the list of data collected. Smaller holdings, who are not eSTAT users and cannot submit the data online, will be contacted by Statistics Estonia by phone in October.
About 40% of the European Union (EU) budget is allocated for the EU Common Agricultural Policy, which also provides support to Estonian farmers. The results of the Farm Structure Survey will be used to assess changes in agriculture and make plans for the future, both in Estonia and on the EU level. The FSS has been conducted in Europe since 1966. In Estonia, there have been five surveys so far, two of which were agricultural censuses. The 2013 Farm Structure Survey is the sixth survey of this kind in Estonia.