Content
About the statistics
Definitions
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Name and topic
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Name: Production of potatoes and forage plants
Topic: Agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing
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Responsible division
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Division for Housing, Property, Spatial and Agricultural Statistics
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Definitions of the main concepts and variables
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Agricultural holding
A single unit both technically and economically, which has single management and which produces agricultural products. The holding is independent of municipality boundaries. The agricultural holding's headquarter must be located to an agricultural property.
Agricultural area in use
Agricultural land that is harvested at least once during a year, including planted area of permanent crops, where no harvest has been produced so far. Includes also arable land included in the crop rotation system with no intention to produce a harvest during the year, but which will be harvested the next year.
Meadows for mowing:
Include cultivated meadow and surface-cultivated meadow.
Coarse fodder crops:
Include area of rye-grass, grain for silage, fodder rape, fodder cale and fodder roots.
Fodder roots:
Include area of swedes and turnips for feed and fodder beets.
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Standard classifications
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Not relevant
Administrative information
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Regional level
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County.
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Frequency and timeliness
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Annual.
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International reporting
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Eurostat, FAO.
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Microdata
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A data file with anonymous individual data is stored at Statistics Norway.
Background
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Background and purpose
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The purpose of the statistics is to estimate the yield of potatoes, meadows for mowing and coarse fodder in Norway. Since 1990, statistics on grain production have been provided by data from administrative sources.
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Users and applications
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The main users of the statistics are the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the Norwegian Agricultural Economics Research Institute, the Agricultural Budget Commission, the Norwegian Farmers Union, the Norwegian Smallholders Union etc.
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Equal treatment of users
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No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 10 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given inthe Statistics Release Calendar. This is one of Statistics Norway’s key principles for ensuring that all users are treated equally.
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Coherence with other statistics
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Not relevant
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Legal authority
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Statistics Act §§2-1, 2-2, 2-3.
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EEA reference
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Not relevant
Production
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Population
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In a wider context official statistics on agricultural yields cover grain, potatoes and forage plants. Statistics on grain production are based on administrative data, Agricultural yields and production
Statistics on yield of potatoes and forage plants are based on a yearly sample survey. The target population of this survey is holdings referring to these crops when applying for governmental grants.
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Data sources and sampling
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The register of holders applying for governmental grants provides information on persons associated with the holding and the size of areas used for potatoes, coarse fodder and meadows for mowing. Data on area harvested, and of total yield of each crop are provided by holders who fill in the forms of the annual survey.
Each year a sample is drawn from the register of holders applying for governmental grants. The size of the sample is about 3 100 holders.
All types of holdings with combinations of areas of potatoes, coarse fodder and meadows for mowing are included in the sample survey of agricultural yields. To provide a better representation in certain counties with few holdings a higher percentage of holdings are selected in these areas.
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Collection of data, editing and estimations
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In November each year, letters are sent to the holdings drawn for inclusion in the survey. As from 205, the farmers have to report via Internet.
A number of controls and corrections are done to ensure consistency both within a single form and between forms and available register information.
Primary data are obtained from the forms filled in by the respondents. They may contain errors made by the individual respondents when filling in the form. A number of errors are discovered and corrected during the editing process at Statistics Norway.
A number of errors during the collection and processing of the data are unavoidable and include errors that occur during revision, data processing errors etc. Extensive work has been carried out to reduce these errors as much as possible.
Data on area harvested and total yield of the different crops, are provided by the holders. Average yield is calculated regarded to this information. Total yield for the entire county is calculated by use of average yield from the sample survey, and area of the different crops in each county based on information from the total population of agricultural holdings.
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Seasonal adjustment
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Not relevant
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Confidentiality
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Figures based on few units (holdings) are not published if this causes risk for identifying any of the units concerned, or the results are considered to be all too uncertain for giving estimates.
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Comparability over time and space
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The statistics are basically comparable back to 1990.
Accuracy and reliability
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Sources of error and uncertainty
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Non-response in the survey is due to the failure of individual respondents to deliver questionnaires or that a property has been sold or is no longer farmed as an independent unit.
All sample surveys will be encumbered by a certain amount of uncertainty. Generally, the fewer the observations are, the more uncertain the results. Groups based on few observations will be particularly sensitive to extreme values, i.e. values that deviate considerably from the average. Such extreme values are consequently assigned a weight equal to 1, so that they only represent themselves in the material.
All types of holdings with various combinations of area of potatoes, coarse fodder and meadows for mowing are included in the sample survey. To provide a better representation in certain counties with few holdings a higher percentage of holdings are selected.
The quality of the register basis from which the sample is selected also has an impact on the quality of the final result.
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Revision
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Not relevant