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What information is needed?

What information is needed?. Farm income only a partial view of overall household income. Panel Data Cross-sectional periods Number of time periods Smoothes out farm income fluctuations Shift away from commodity production as household unit Why is this information important?

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What information is needed?

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  1. What information is needed? • Farm income only a partial view of overall household income. • Panel Data • Cross-sectional periods • Number of time periods • Smoothes out farm income fluctuations • Shift away from commodity production as household unit • Why is this information important? • Statistics can be used as policy management tools • To assess how other policies apart from agricultural ones are affecting these households

  2. What information is available? • Macroeconomic -V- Microeconomic • Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) • Off-farm / Non-farm income is often missing • Agricultural Resource Management Study (ARMS) • Small farmers & those with off farm-income regularly excluded • No panel data → limitation • Difficult to compare the total income of farm households against ‘other’ households even on an aggregate level. • Tax incentives and cut backs in the agricultural sector make it inaccurate to use tax files and other related data as a source of information.

  3. What are the obstacles to obtaining and using the desired information? • Three obstacles • 1. Administrative • Miscommunication between ministries and statistical agencies. • Costs (particularly in the case of new surveys) • Frequency • Legal / confidentiality difficulties preventing the merging of data. • 2. Technical • False representation on surveys due to small number of farms. • Wealth information even with International Financial Reporting Standards. • 3. Political • Disagreement on content of surveys leads to void or false responses. Hence affecting the rate and quality of responses.

  4. How can these obstacles be overcome? • Legal obligations have been implemented by government audit offices. • Changes in policy prompt changes in data collection systems. • Reduce data collection costs. Eg Telephone & Internet surveys • Cost - Benefit would improve if surveys covered a broader scope. • Pressure put on political figures who influence policy and funding decisions. • Improved communication all parties involved

  5. How would such information help policy makers? • To assess the nature, cause and extent of income problems. • To define policy objectives with measurable targets. • Design new programmes for anticipated income problems. • Improve current programmes. • Compare alternative options.

  6. Conclusion • Public accountability needs to be reviewed at a national and international level. • Process of improvement is long term, the sooner work on improvements begins the sooner things will get better. • Co-operation between countries needed to move forward. • Inter-Secretariat Working Group on Agricultural Statistics (IWG-AGRI) • Main burden of improvements still lies on the shoulders of national Governments.

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