Report from the Commission to the Council on the implementation of the Eurofarm project (in accordance with Article 13 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88)
Date: 2003-02-24
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: agricultural holding, agricultural statistics, database, economic survey, policy on agricultural structures

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

Brussels, 24.02.2003
COM(2003) 86 final

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL

on the implementation of the Eurofarm project (in accordance with Article 13 of
Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88)

   
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL

on the implementation of the Eurofarm project (in accordance with Article 13 of
Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88)

INTRODUCTION

Council  Regulation  (EEC)  No  571/881,  on  the  organisation  of  Community  surveys  on  the
structure of agricultural holdings, hereafter referred to as the "basic Regulation", defines  the
Eurofarm project as a "set of data banks to be used for processing Community surveys on the
structure of agricultural holdings for the requirements of national and Community agricultural
policies".

Article 13 of the basic Regulation states that every three years the Commission shall submit to
the Council a report on the implementation of the Eurofarm project and shall also propose any
necessary changes to the Regulation.

The  last  report  on  the  implementation  of  the  Eurofarm  project  was  adopted  by  the
Commission  on  23  April  19992  and  considered  by  the  Council's  Special  Agricultural
Committee on 14 February 2000. This is the fourth report to be submitted by the Commission
to the Council.

The current report presents in particular:

–  an overview of the activities in connection with the 1997 survey

–  a progress report on the activities in connection with the 1999-2000 basic survey

–  a short description of the preparatory work for the 2003 survey

–  a progress report on data processing developments concerning the Eurofarm system.

 A.

1997 SURVEY

The  results  of  the  1997  survey  (tabular  data  for  Germany  -  individual  data  for  the  other
Member  States)  were  transmitted  to  Eurostat  in  accordance  with  the  agreed  definitions  and
formats. The 1997 results were analysed and published to a greater and more detailed extent
than the results of the previous surveys.3

 1

 2
 3

OJ L 56 of 2.3.1988, p. 1, last amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 143/2002 (OJ L 24 of
26.1.2002, p. 16).
COM(1999) 189 final.
Eurostat publications:
 - Twenty years of European agriculture: Proportion of young people in agriculture remains stable
 - Changes in land cover and land use
 - The tobacco industry and employments in less-favoured regions
 - Thirty years of agriculture in Europe: Changes in agricultural employment
 - The range of agricultural holdings and fruit and vegetable production 1. Vegetables

2

                                                     
A great deal of aggregated data are now included in the Eurostat databases. Nevertheless, the
following limiting factors should be highlighted as far as the potential for exploitation of the
results are concerned:

–  the data sometimes lack freshness because of their delayed transmission by some Member

States and the slowness of the validation process;

–  Germany did not provide microdata;

–  users have easy access only to predefined tables;

–  responses to ad hoc requests are hampered by cumbersome procedure.

The Community contribution to the 1997 survey amounted to 13.8 Mio euro in total.

 B.

1999-2000 basic survey

In order to establish the implementing procedures for the 1999-2000 survey and to adapt the
typology  of  agricultural  holdings,  the  Commission  adopted  five  decisions4  in  line  with  the
procedure laid down in Article 15 of the basic Regulation.

The  list  of  characteristics  surveyed  was  in  fact  adapted  to  take  account  of  new  information
requirements  in  connection  with  rural  development  and  methods  of  sustainable  production.
The importance of the  survey  on  the  structure  of  agricultural  holdings  for  the  production  of
agri-environmental indicators was emphasised in the communication from the Commission to
the  Council  and  the  European  Parliament  on  20  March  20015.  Unfortunately,  the  optional
variables  (relatively  numerous)  were  supplied  by  only  some  of  the  Member  States,  thus
making it impossible to compile the corresponding Community totals.

 - The range of agricultural holdings and fruit and vegetable production 2. Fruit
 - Sugar beet: Common Organisation of the Market facing challenges
 - Arable land, increased size of holdings and changes in crop rotation
 - Thirty years of agriculture in Europe - Cereals still the staple crop
 - Twenty years of agriculture in Europe - Ever larger holdings but different economic situations
 - Thirty years of agriculture in Europe - Farm numbers declining as farms grow in size
 - Europe's farm landscape: some examples and figures
 - Farm structure - Historical results - Surveys from 1966/67 to 1997
 - Farm structure: 1997 survey - detailed tables - ISBN 92-827-9809-7
 - Agriculture - The spotlight on women
Commission Decision 1998/377/EC of 18 May 1998 adapting Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC)
No 571/88 in view of the organisation of the Community surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings
(OJ L 168 of 13.6.1998).
 Commission Decision 1999/714/EC of 19 October 1999 establishing deadlines for the communication of
the results of the 1999/2000 basic surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings to the Statistical Office
of the European Communities (OJ L 282 of 5.11.1999).
 Commission Decision 1999/725/EC of 22 October 1999 amending Decision 85/377/EEC establishing a
Community typology for agricultural holdings (OJ L 291 of 13.11.1999).
 Commission Decision 1999/799/EC of 29 October 1999 fixing a new Community programme of statistical
tables to be stored in the Tabular Data Bank (BDT) of the Eurofarm system (OJ L 320 of 13.12.1999).
 Commission Decision No 2000/115/EC of 24 November 1999 relating to the definitions of the
characteristics, the list of agricultural products, the exceptions to the definitions and the regions and districts
regarding the surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings (OJ L 38 of 12.2.2000).
Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament "Statistical Information
needed for Indicators to monitor the Integration of environmental concerns into the Common Agricultural
Policy", COM(2001) 144.

 4

 5

3

                                                                                                                                                                     
The  1999-2000  surveys  were  conducted  in  all  the  Member  States  between  1.12.1998  and
1.3.2001 and covered 6.8 million holdings. The individual data were transmitted to Eurostat
by  all  the  Member  States  (including  Germany,  for  the  first  time).  They  were  transmitted
between August 2000 and July 2002 (the individual countries' transmission dates are shown in
Annex).  One  point  to  note  is  that  the  deadlines  laid  down  by  Decision  1999/714/EC  were
respected with regard to the initial transmissions of non-validated data by all Member States
except  Ireland  (which  transmitted  its  results  in  July  2002  instead  of  December  2001).  The
validation of the data was sometimes spread over several months, but by August 2002 all the
validated  individual  data  were  in  the  Eurofarm  individual  data  base  apart  from  the  data  for
Ireland (October) and Italy (November).

Experience has shown that the production of all the tables to be stored in the Eurofarm tabular
data  base  in  accordance  with  Commission  Decision  No.  1999/799/CE  is  cumbersome  and
time-consuming. In order to reduce the delays required to make results available to users;

–  a list of simplified and better structured tables was devised in agreement with the Member
States; the corresponding tables will gradually become available in Eurostat's NewCronos
data base;

–  the computer programs will be optimized.

Several Eurostat  reports  mainly based at the 1999-2000 Survey will be  widely disseminated
concerning in particular

– 

– 

– 

– 

– 

– 

the main results of the 1999-2000 Survey

the age of farmers

the female employment in agriculture

organing farming

grazing livestock

pigmeat industry (environmental impact)

It should be easier to use the results of the 1999-2000 survey thanks to the new table generator
developed  as  part  of  the  support  for  management  of  Eurofarm,  and  thanks  to  a  speedier
procedure  for  validating  ad  hoc  tables  (simultaneous  transmission  of  ad  hoc  tables  to  users
and statistical services in the event of urgent requests).

The  payment  of  the  Community  contribution  to  the  1999-2000  survey  (including,  where
appropriate,  an  additional  contribution  of  50%  for  a  complete  survey)  began  in  2000  and
should  be  completed  in  2003.  In  total  the  Community  contribution  should  amount  to  some
26.6 Mio euro.

4

 C.

2003 SURVEY

With a view to the 2003 survey, the Commission has adopted three regulations6 in accordance
with the procedure laid down in Article 15 of the basic Regulation. The number of optional
variables  has  been  restricted  (in  order  to  avoid  complicating  and  overburdening  the
management  of  data  without  the  possibility  of  compiling  Community  totals),  and  a  section
focussing on environmental aspects of agriculture was added to the list of characteristics to be
collected  for  this  survey.  An  important  development  for  this  survey  is  that  the  transmission
deadlines now refer to the transmission of already validated data (so that delays in validation
should not affect the date foreseen for availability of results).

In  order  to  speed  up  the  availability  of  the  main  results  and  to  avoid  excessive  time  lags
between the dissemination of the data by the Member States and the Commission, a common
set  of  tables  would  be  transmitted  to  Eurostat  by  the  Member  States  as  soon  as  the  initial
national data were disseminated.

 D.

DATA PROCESSING DEVELOPMENTS CONCERNING THE EUROFARM SYSTEM

 D.1

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENTS 1997-2002

 D.1.1

Introduction

As envisaged in the last Report to the Council on the implementation of the Eurofarm project,
major developments in the Eurofarm software have been conducted. Certain of these became
necessary  as  the  hardware  and  operating  system  used  for  the  ‘old’  Eurofarm  system  are  no
longer supported by the Commission’s Directorate of Informatics.

However,  the  migration  of  Eurofarm  to  a  new  computer  system  has  also  provided  the
opportunity  to  improve  the  functionality  of  the  Eurofarm  system  and  to  find  solutions  for
certain imperfections identified in the old system.

 D.1.2 Migration of Eurofarm to a UNIX platform

Transfer of the Eurofarm database to the new system was carried out in a step-wise manner,
which allowed to set-up all (meta-) data  for the migration  of  ‘old’ data from  the mainframe
and to process incoming data from the 2000 survey.

The  software  for  the  new  Eurofarm  system  was  developed  by  an  external  company,  using
market-standard software tools. Data are stored in Oracle databases running on a UNIX server
and are accessed  from PCs equipped with  software  developed with  Oracle  tools.  UNIX  and
Oracle are software tools widely used in- and outside the Commission. By using these tools,

 6

Commission Regulation (EC) No 143/2002 of 24 January 2002 amending Annex I to Council Regulation
(EEC) No 571/88 in view of the organisation of the Community surveys on the structure of agricultural
holdings in 2003, 2005 and 2007 (OJ L 24 of 26.1.2002).
 Commission Regulation (EC) No 1444/2002 of 24 July 2002 amending Commission Decision 2000/115/EC
relating to the definitions of the characteristics, the exceptions to the definitions and the regions and districts
regarding the surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings (OJ L 216 of 12.8.2002).
 Commission Regulation (EC) No 68/2003 of 16 January 2003 concerning the use of information from
sources other than statistical surveys and the time limits for the communication of the results for the 2003
survey on the structure of agricultural holdings.

5

                                                     
the  Eurofarm  system  has  been  brought  into  line  with  the  Commission’s  informatics  policy.
This had not been the case with the previous system where for different reasons a wide range
of  software  tools  were  used,  some  of  which  were  out-dated  (Cobol,  MVS)  or  were  niche
products without a clear future (Acumen).

Special attention has been made to facilitate the management of the Eurofarm system and to
bring the management requirements into line with the Commission’s personnel policy. While
the software development has been made by an external company, all processing of the farm
structure data can be made by non-informatics personnel having an appropriate understanding
of the application logic. This and consequent personnel decisions made it possible to dedicate
all data processing to Eurostat officials without recourse to external personnel.

Since spring 2002 ad-hoc tables from the 2000 survey have been created with the new system
to respond to  user demands and since  October  2002  tables  created  with  the  new  system  are
progressively being published in Newcronos.

The total development costs for the new Eurofarm system were 900,000 euro, part of which
was financed by the Commission’s Informatics budget and the rest by the budget for the farm
structure survey.

 D.1.3 New Structure of the Eurofarm Database System

According to their function, the data relevant for farm structure survey processing have been
separated into three databases:

– 

"metadatabase"

This  database  stores  “metadata”  needed  for  the  processing  of  the  Eurofarm  data
(from the definition of the survey files through to the validation of incoming data and
the selection of the parameters needed to define statistical tables).

Information stored in this database (such as the list of survey characteristics, typology
rules etc.) covers all surveys from the basic 1989/1990 survey onwards.

The approach to develop a “metadatabase” has been chosen in order to centralise all
types  of  parameters  previously  distributed  over  different  files  in  one  central
repository  to  make  them  easily  accessible  and  the  processing  of  the  Eurofarm  data
transparent to the end-users, as well as to facilitate expected future extensions (future
surveys - candidate and EFTA countries).

– 

"individual database"

This database allows a consistent view of all survey data from the different surveys
and countries.

Special  attention  has  been  paid  to  develop  all  processing  programs  in  a  uniform
manner for the different survey years and different countries. Specific differences for
the  different  survey  years  (list  of  characteristics  etc.)  are  managed  via  the
metadatabase and not –as in the old system- hidden in the programs themselves.

The database currently contains a total of 15 439 476 records.

6

– 

“tabular database”

This  database  contains  the  aggregated  tables  which  are  derived  from  the  individual
data  of  the  “individual  database”  using  the  table  definitions  stored  in  the
“metadatabase”.

In order to ensure that the processing requirements meet the necessary confidentiality
restrictions,  this  database  has  been  separated  into  a  confidential  part  containing  the
raw  tables  and  a  “public”  part  containing  filtered  tables.  The  latter  are  derived  by
taking  into  account  the  confidentiality  requirements  not  to  make  available  any  data
referring to individual entities.

Table generation is now based on one single table generator which uses variable and
dimension  definitions  stored  in  the  metadatabase.  This  is  seen  as  a  major
improvement in comparison with the previous system where for different groups of
tables specific programs were developed. This new functionality gives the flexibility
to respond to new demands for tables without the need for writing new programs.

The tabular database is used as central storage of all tabular data. Table data from this
database  are  extracted  to  respond  to  ad-hoc  requests,  to  copy  them  into  Eurostat’s
general dissemination database or to provide tables for paper publications.

D.2

Planned developments 2003-2004

Eurostat is currently planning three projects to improve the functionality of the system so far
developed and make the farm structure survey results more accessible to users:

(1)

Providing  access  to  a  centralised  validation  system  for  data  providers  (Member
States, Candidate Countries, EFTA countries)

The validation process from the delivery of the first data-set until the acceptance of
the final version often takes several months. In order to speed up this process and to
make validated farm structure data accessible sooner, it is intended to set up a system
within the Commission’s data centre which can be accessed by data providers. This
system will allow data providers to validate data themselves without the need to wait
for a response from Eurostat.

(2)

Facilitate the access to and the performance of the table generator

While the new table generator has the core functionality required, additional efforts
will be undertaken to make the functionality to create statistical tables more widely
available. The current version requires installation of programs and direct connection
to Eurostat’s network. It is planned to develop a system which will allow the creation
of  tables  using  a  standard  internet  access  to  the  Eurofarm  (sub-)system.  This  will
allow  appropriate  users  working  outside  Eurostat’s  premises,  and  in  particular
relevant national statistical bodies, to create tables to meet their specific requirements
for analysis. In the context of this project, features made available in the latest Oracle
software will be used to improve the overall performance of the system.

7

(3)

Providing access to anonymised individual data

The Eurofarm system produces multidimensional tables based on the farm structure
data. This is not in all cases the  best  way to present statistical information. Studies
based  on  multivariate  analysis  need  different  types  of  information  (e.g.  the
distribution  of 
correlations  between  different
characteristics).

characteristics  or 

certain 

Eurostat is currently  looking at  the  different  aspects  related  to  the  dissemination  of
anonymised  individual  data.  Different  methods  to  derive  from  the  confidential
individual  data  modified  ‘individual’  data  which  can  be  disseminated  have  to  be
examined,  so  that  users  of  the  data  may  have  the  flexibility  to  derive  statistics  in
forms other than tabular data.

8

ANNEX

Farm structure survey 2000 –Transmission and validation dates

Country

Official due date

Date of first
delivery

Date of Eurostat’s
response to the
last delivered
version

Number of days
required by Eurostat
to respond to the
different supplied
versions

Number of days required
by Member States to
make correction and
deliver the final version

B

DK

D

EL

E

F

31-Aug-01

6-Sep-01

18-Mar-02

31-Aug-00

7-Aug-00

18-Sep-00

31-Dec-00

4-Jan-01

15-Oct-01

31-Aug-01

20-Apr-01

5-Jul-02

31-Aug-01

27-Nov-01

23-Apr-02

28-Feb-02

10-Oct-01

4-Jun-02

IRL

31-Dec-01

3-Jul-02

14-Oct-02

30-Jun-02

24-May-02

25-Nov-02

31-Aug-00

30-Sep-00

12-Jan-01

31-Aug-00

2-May-00

11-Jul-02

31-Dec-00

4-Jan-01

13-Sep-01

31-Aug-01

19-Feb-01

28-Dec-01

31-Dec-01

20-Nov-01

21-May-02

31-Dec-00

2-Mar-01

31-May-01

31-Aug-01

3-Sep-01

16-Sep-02

I

L

NL

A

P

FIN

S

UK

Average

36

23

98

87

64

38

30

88

53

152

103

129

24

60

70

70

In average the total delay was 253 days, of which 70 days were required in Eurostat and
183 days were required in Member States

157

19

186

354

83

199

73

97

51

648

149

237

158

30

308

183

9