Large Farm Data Collection In Brazil: Methodology And Substantive Insights

Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2015 March 23-27, 2015

Washington, DC

Paulo SoaresAgricultural Statistics Division

Contents

Overview of Agricultural statistics in Brazil

Data collection and Census of Agriculture operation

Challenges on collecting data

LARGE FARMS: how to define?

The Special Data Collection - insights

Agricultural Statistics

Annual - MunicipalCrops

LivestockForestry and Tree Farming

Monthly - State

Quarterly - State

Per Semester - Mun.

Early Crops Estimates

MilkEggs*

Slaughter Leather

Grain Stocks*

Subjective surveys

(unstructured)

Panel surveys

(structured)

Continuous Surveys

* Farm providers

Agricultural Census*

The Census of Agriculture in Brazil accounts for all farms and ranches and the people who operate them. The Census, taken only once every ten years, looks at land use and ownership, production practices, operator characteristics, labor force, income and expenditures.

2006 CA: Total of farms: 5.175.636

Next operation – 2017 – will be the basis for a direct interview sampling survey

Statistical unit

• Agricultural holding - as defined by FAO WCA 2010

Limits

• no matter area size, purpose of production, land tenure, value

of sales

• all sectors of agriculture

• includes forestry and aquaculture

Coverage

• Entire country, rural and urban areas (85,147 Enumeration

areas or tracts)

Method

• Complete enumeration by direct interview (CAPI - PDA)

2006 Census of Agriculture characteristics

4.172.691

831834

35.009

175846

0

500.000

1.000.000

1.500.000

2.000.000

2.500.000

3.000.000

3.500.000

4.000.000

4.500.000

Rural Urbano

Estabelecimentos agropecuários, segundo a existência de coordenadas

Com coordenadas Sem coordenadas

Large farms...

TYPOLOGY:

WHAT PURPOSE?

WHAT CONCEPTS?

In BRAZIL, only TYPOLOGY for policy purpose is “family farming” (agricultura familiar), defined BY LAW.

To be considered a family farm a holding has to meet simultaneously the following 4 conditions:

- AREA: be smaller than 4 times the size of a “módulo fiscal”, which is determined locally (ranging from 5 to 110 ha),

- LABOR SOURCE: mainly family labor (FAMILY>HIRED),

- VALUE: the household receives predominantly its income from the economic activities of the holding,

- OPERATION: managed by its owner with his/her family.

Obs.: for subtypes gross value of prodution and opportunity cost are aditional criteria

USA:

The USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) has developed a farm typology that sorted farms into homogenous groups for reporting and research purposes. One of the main criteria is a measure of farm revenue.

The farm typology was originally developed to classify farms based on theirgross farm sales (the adopted measure for DIMENSION), the primary occupation of their operators, and whether the farms are family farms.

Recently*, 2103, a shifting from gross farm sales to gross cash farm income (GCFI), considered a better measure of farm revenue.

DIMENSION = REVENUE

*Hoppe, Robert A., and James M. MacDonald. Updating the ERS Farm Typology, EIB-110, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, April 2013.

ARGENTINA: Primary occupation of the operatorNon-family hired labourRegistration as business enterprisesLimits of capital level: farm size, cultivated

area, and size of herds, machinery assets

In Argentina, Smallholders are those producers running a farm under the following criteria:

1. the producer works directly on the farm;2. the producer does not employ non-family permanent

labour;3. the producer may hire temporary non-family labour.

Upper limits vary in the different regions of the country: for farm size between 500 and 5000 ha, for cultivated size

between 25 (in irrigated oases) and 500 ha. Upper limit for cattle is 500 units of livestock.

(de Obtschako, Foti and Román, 2007).

MOZAMBIQUE: Trimodal typology. Farms are classified as small, medium or large on the basis of:

cultivated area livestock population.

Small farms are farms with less than 10 ha of cultivated areawithout irrigated land, fruit trees or plantation, or farms with less than 5 ha with irrigated land, fruit trees or plantation, or

less than 10 head of cattle, or less than 50 head of sheep/goats/pigs or less than 5 000 head of poultry (Censo

Agro-Pecuario 1999/2000, Instituto Nacional de Estadística de Mozambique).

In Mozambique, 99% of farm holdings have less than 10 ha, representing 70% of farmland.

Brazil is characterized for its socioeconomic inequalityLand tenure is one of the most evident aspects: Index for land tenure concentration:

GINI= 0,854The Census of Agriculture reports this Gini index for land distribution in Brazil. It is not exactly a farmland property indicator, since only land under production is investigated.

A slight improvement since 1985: 0,857 (1985) and 0,856 (1995-1996).

Agricultural establishments:

>= 100 ha: 9% of farms79% used area

> 1,000 ha: 0,9% of farms, 45% of used area; and28.5% of gross value of production

< 10 ha : around 50% of farms2,4% area12.5% of gross value of production

Current Data Collection challenges

• Complex establishments and enterprises are respondents for many kind of surveys (burden)

• For agriculture, main challenges are related to:• Muti-activity enterprises• Enterprises with many establishments• Office separate and far from the establishment • Absentee producers

Sugarcane mills are the most numerous and typical example

Sugarcane sector case: (the right tail of the graphic)

• 1 Sugar cane Mill → hundreds spread “establishments” as statistical units

• 2006 Ag Census ad-hoc agreement with repondents:

→ 1 form by Minimum Civil Division

→ In many cases: 1 complete form for the headquarter (labor, inputs, costs...); others just area and production

Sugarcane sector case

In Business Surveys the unit of investigation is the enterprise ; in Ag surveys the establishment

Sugarcane Mill financial data includes agricultural expenses like fertilizers, pesticides, fuel, etc.

→ Intermediate consumption is over estimated→ value added under estimated

1 form by municipality (minimum civil division, urb + rural)

In many cases: 1 form complete (for the headquarter)

others (plots) just area and production

- Elementary unit: Agricultural holding / farm / establishment

- Respondent units:

COMPANIES (enterprises/corportations) or Individual+Group of FARMERS

The most usual situation is:

holding operator's family household

Another important case:

“DECENTRALIZED COLLECTION” (holding ≠ household or headquarter)

Data collection procedures

Decentralized Collection = Absentee producers (can't be found in the farm during the period of field operation)

OPERATOR BY PLACE OF RESIDENCE %

On farm 76,9Not on farm same minor civil division

urban area 10,57

rural area 9,0

different minor civil division

urban area 2,86

rural area 0,65CA,2006: Total of Farms: 5,175,636 establishments

Decentralized: 50,137 (1%)

Decentralized Data Collection (absentee operator living in a different Minor Civil Division

Total: 50,137 establishments

Companies

Non agro

Agro

Multi

Single

LARGE

Specia

l C

olle

ct

Complexes

Family

Multi

Single

LARGE

Not large

“Decentralized”

Local

Special Collect

Not large

“Decen-tralized”

Local

Special procedures: selection, register, trainning, approach, contact,

ways of filling up the forms,

management of the collection / updating the list (from 2006 on)

SELECTION: All “large establishments” will be part of a

LIST for SPECIAL COLLECTION

For the regular data collection there will be also

a complete list with all the units (the “large ones” included,

but they will have a “finished” status for te field enumerator)

SPECIAL DATA COLLECTION proposal:

A definition of Large Farms For

Special Data Collection

...ONLY!

Filter to select the LARGE FARMS:

ESP_A = area> 1,000ha OR decentralized OR temp_crops>500ha OR cattle> 500 OR chicken> 20,000 OR swine> 1,000

+ESP_B= area> 500ha AND mechanization

+ESP_C= gross_production_value > 500,000

+(elimination of the repetitions)

Goal: Improve the quality of the collected dataCriterion: The Special Data Collection to achieve that goal must bea feasible task considering the resources of IBGE: people, funds,time

highest rate: 4.5%

What is new:2 ways of data collection in the same operation

Earlier collection for the LARGE FARMSdone by trainned employees

A LARGE FARMS REGISTER (kept updated)Different approach: a longer and more open

contact with the respondentPossibility of different ways of responding

(internet, callcenter – CATI) An exception for the straight concept of

“establishements”: forms for all the area of a municipality (sugar cane example)

paulo.soares@ibge.gov.br

+55 (021) 2142 0268