Post on 01-May-2023
Date: 08.02.2016 Final report Page 1/30
GRANT
Pilot studies in the framework of linking IACS and other administrative registers and
statistics. POLAND
Final report
Accepted by: Janusz Dygaszewicz
Director of Programming and Coordination of Statistical Surveys Department Project Coordinator
EUROSTAT/Grant Agreement No.: 08414.2013.001-2013.461
Doc. No.: Final report
Issue/Rev.: 2.0
Date: 2016-02-08
Date: 08.02.2016 Final report Page 2/30
Table of contents
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 3
2. Work organisation ......................................................................................................................... 5
3. Changes introduced to the information structures and the impact of these changes on
improvement of data transfer ...................................................................................................... 6
3.1. Analysis of registers kept by ARIMR and by other institutions in terms of agricultural variables
used in the surveys of the Central Statistical Office. .................................................................... 6
3.2. Changes in the information structures in the IACS introduced by ARIMR in 2015 in connection
with the RDP for 2014-2020. ....................................................................................................... 12
4. Testing of the adopted methodological solutions and the plan for implementation of the
results in practice. ....................................................................................................................... 14
4.1. Change in the range of variables and the deadline for transfer of data from the IACS ............. 14
4.2. Change in the method of data transfer to the Central Statistical Office of Poland .................... 17
4.3. Results of testing of the adopted solutions (result of analysis of ARIMR's preliminary data
provided in 2015). ....................................................................................................................... 18
5. Impact of the project on changes in cooperation between statistics and administration ......... 20
5.1. Future actions necessary for implementation of the presented suggestions. ........................... 20
5.2. Expected benefits resulting from the adopted solutions. .......................................................... 21
6. The sustainability of the project results ...................................................................................... 25
7. Recommendations for other countries ....................................................................................... 28
8. Annexes ....................................................................................................................................... 30
Annex No. 1 The concept of creating a register of agricultural holdings with the use of data from
different administrative sources, including the IACS. ................................................................. 30
Annex No. 2 Basic terms used in statistics ......................................................................................... 30
Annex No. 3 Basic terms used in the IACS and in other registers and systems kept by ARIMR ........ 30
Annex No. 4 List of agricultural variables related to the use of land, sown areas and livestock ....... 30
Annex No. 5 List of agricultural variables collected by the Central Statistical Office and their
presence in other administrative registers ................................................................................. 30
Annex No. 6 Report on the work conducted in the framework of elaboration of solutions that have
impact on the improvement of the IACS quality ........................................................................ 30
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1. Introduction
On 3 December 2013, contract no. 08414.2013.001-2013.461 was concluded
between the European Commission, represented by the Director for Sectoral and
Regional Statistics of Eurostat, and the Central Statistical Office of Poland, represented
by the President of the Central Statistical Office, for an action entitled Pilot studies in the
framework of linking IACS and other administrative registers and statistics. The eligible
period for implementation of activities covered by this contract is 04.12.2013 -
03.12.2015.
The objective of the action was to obtain a broader and faster access to data in
the Integrated Management and Control System, hereinafter referred to as the IACS, as
well as to reduce the respondents' burden by developing a method of expanding the
scope of data obtained from a farmer at the time of submitting the applications for
direct payments. The specific objectives of the project included:
1. Development of a methodology for the use of data collected in the IACS in order to
reduce the burden on respondents and statistical systems.
2. Providing access to administrative data by adjusting the IT systems.
3. Adjustment of data collection methods in a way that would facilitate better use of
the data in IACS.
Reconstruction of the system, resulting from changes in legal regulations
concerning provisions on direct payments for farmers, as well as the new Rural
Development Programme (RDP) for the period of 2014 - 2020, was a stimulating
circumstance, providing an opportunity to collect more information on agricultural
holdings in the IACS databases.
At the European level, a clear tendency can be currently seen to use IACSs not
only as tools for the system of direct payments for farmers, but also as information
systems widely used for implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy, and as a
source of data on agriculture.
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As a result of the project implementation, a description was created concerning
changes introduced to the information structures and the impact of these changes on
improvement of data transfer. The adopted methodological solutions were tested and a
plan for implementation of the results in practice was prepared. The impact of the
project on changes in cooperation between statistics and administration was also
tested. A concept was elaborated of creating a register of agricultural holdings on the
basis of administrative sources.
In a long-term perspective, the conducted study works will provide the official
statistics with a broader, faster and easier access to the data located in the IACS. The
developed concept of the agricultural holdings register established on the basis of
administrative data can be used to create the agricultural holdings register. The
experience and knowledge gained during the project implementation will be used to
further harmonise national databases in order to enable their broader use by statistic. It
is also planned to utilise the gained experience in further activities in the framework of
linking the data from the IACS and other administrative registers and statistics.
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2. Work organisation
The project was executed in the Central Statistical Office of Poland (CSO) by a
team composed of the employees of the Programming and Coordination of Statistical
Surveys Department of CSO, the Agriculture Department of CSO, the Statistical
Computing Centre, the Regional Statistical Office in Warsaw and the Regional Statistical
Office in Olsztyn. The Programming and Coordination of Statistical Surveys Department
of CSO was responsible for coordination and monitoring of implementation of works
conducted under the project. The organisational units of CSO involved in the project
carried out works within the project taking account of their areas of operation,
according to the agreed schedule of tasks.
External experts from a paying agency were also involved, namely from the
Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture (ARIMR) – as subcontractors,
as well as from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MRIRW) - free
consultations, due to their unique knowledge and competencies related to the IACS,
necessary to implement the tasks within the framework of the project. The experts
participated in the works in the scope necessary to reach the assumed goals of the
project. As part of the tasks entrusted thereto, the experts analysed the registers kept
by ARIMR, in terms of the content of agricultural variables acquired by statistic and
indicated by CSO as variables to be acquired. In addition, they provided detailed
information concerning changes implemented in the IACS, resulting from changes in the
Common Agricultural Policy, developed in the financial perspective 2014-2020. On the
basis of relevant provisions of the Programme of Statistical Surveys of Official Statistics
for 2015, ARIMR provided statistics with IACS data, which constituted the basis for
testing new methodological solutions aiming at broadening the acquisition of
administrative data being the responsibility of the Agency. The ARIMR experts took part
in preparation of the concept of the agricultural holdings register, constituting Annex
No. 1 to this report.
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3. Changes introduced to the information structures and the impact of
these changes on improvement of data transfer
3.1. Analysis of registers kept by ARIMR and by other
institutions in terms of agricultural variables used in the
surveys of the Central Statistical Office.
The analysis of registers included:
- identification of the users' needs,
- identification of data sources,
- selection of registers,
- description of selected registers,
- determination of the registers evaluation criteria,
- analysis of the selected registers, taking account of the adopted criteria,
- formulation of conclusions and their presentation as overviews.
The works in the framework of this project have been commenced by
determination of information needs of official statistics (CSO) and other institutions
using information on agricultural holdings, i.e. the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development (MRIRW), the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture
(ARIMR).
After determining the information needs, works concerning identification of
information sources were conducted (registers, systems). In the course of the
identification process, the following registers/systems were selected, to be used in
subsequent works:
Item Name of the register/system Leader
1. Integrated Administration and Control System - IACS
Agency for Restructuring and
Modernisation of Agriculture 2. Animals Identification and Registration
System (IRZ)
3. Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS)
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4. SI-Agencja*KI ARIMR
5. OFSA-PROW 2007-13
6. OFSA-DD
7. PROW – RG PROW
8. National Official Business Register REGON (National Official Register of the
Business Entities of the National Economy)
Central Statistical Office of Poland
CSO 9. National Official Register of Territorial
Division of the Country - TERYT
10. Integrated system for information about real estate ZSIN
Head Office of Geodesy and
Cartography GUGIK
11. Tax Information System - Database of taxpayers of the personal income tax (PIT) (in the part regarding achieving incomes from special branches of agricultural production; declaration PIT 6/PIT 6L)
Ministry of Finance
12. Information System of the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund - KRUS
Agricultural Social Insurance Fund KRUS
13. Database on merchandisers
Main Inspectorate of Agricultural and
Food Quality Inspection GIJHARS
14. List of organic producers
15. List of establishments keeping laying hens registered in accordance with Directive 2002/04
Chief Veterinary Inspectorate
GIF
16. List of Poultry Production Establishments
17. Register of land and buildings Poviat starosties (district offices)
18. Real Estate Tax Register Gmina offices e.g. Municipal offices
The abovementioned registers and systems have been described according to
the adopted information structure. Their descriptions constituted the basis for
subsequent works - analyses from the point of view of the use of registers as a source of
data for statistical surveys, as well as for the purposes of the concept of creating the
agricultural holdings register. The aforementioned descriptions of registers have been
attached to the concept and constitute its part.
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The analysis of registers and systems kept by the Agency for Restructuring and
Modernisation of Agriculture (ARIMR) and by other institutions, such as the Ministry of
Finance (MF), the Main Inspectorate of Agricultural and Food Quality Inspection
(GIJHARS), the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund (KRUS), was conducted taking into
consideration the following criteria:
scope of information,
definitions of terms,
update frequency,
source data in the register - the state of the obtained data,
method of data clustering,
access to the data for official statistics - timeliness of data/access time, method of
data transfer.
The primary condition for the use of data from administrative registers in
statistics is methodological compliance, including compliance of definitions of terms, key
variables adopted in statistics with those adopted in administrative registers.
In order to develop the methodology for the use of data from administrative
systems and reduction of the respondents' burden, as part of the conducted works, a
comparison was made of the basic definitions of terms applied in the IACS, other
registers and systems, as well as in statistics. In the course of implementation of the
project, much attention has been paid to works - arrangements concerning consistency
of definitions of terms used by statistics and for the needs of the IACS. Specifications
were prepared of the basic definitions of terms used by statistics (Annex No. 2) and the
IACS, as well as other registers and systems kept by ARIMR (Annex No. 3). The
differences in definitions identified during the analysis result from the fact that their
descriptions were created for different purposes, e.g. area payments, survey on the
structure of agricultural holdings. The analysis of the abovementioned terms allowed for
detailing the scope of agricultural variables meeting the quality level adopted in
statistics, as well as qualifying a specific scope of data from the administrative registers
to be obtained by statistics.
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Other variables essential for statistics, contained in the administrative registers,
which did not meet the quality requirements, were the object of further works of CSO
and experts from ARIMR and MRIRW. In the course of execution of tasks, the degree of
discrepancy of definitions was determined, as well as the sources of definitions specified
in the legal regulations or internal documents, containing the methodology adopted by
the entities keeping the administrative registers. The source of definitions is important
from the point of view of the possibility to introduce changes in order to achieve
conformity of definitions in various registers and systems, including statistics, or to
minimise discrepancies. During the aforementioned works performed by CSO along with
the experts, the scope of tasks to be implemented after completion of the project was
determined; this will contribute to broadening the use of data from administrative
registers in statistics.
Another issue covered by the project works was analysis of the scope of information
collected in the IACS and other administrative registers. CSO analysed the scope of
information collected so far in statistical surveys - directly from the respondents, and
determined, which information could be replaced by data acquired from the administrative
registers, with observance of specific conditions. In order to provide statistics with better
access to data from the IACS, in the course of the conducted works, CSO developed
organisational-methodological solutions, aimed at official statistics using administrative data
from the ARIMR registers or data that could be additionally acquired from farmers filling their
applications for area payments, e.g. additional questions in applications for direct payments,
or acquired otherwise, e.g. using surveys. The solutions proposed by CSO, enhancing the
scope of data obtained from agricultural producers, were the subject of a number of
meetings, discussions and arrangements with the experts from ARIMR and MRIRW. The
aforementioned works were conducted during development of projects of changes in the
national law carried out by MRIRW and ARIMR, resulting from changes in the Common
Agricultural Policy in the financial perspective of 2014-2020, as well as in the EU regulations.
The MRIRW experts provided the official statistics with subsequent versions of the proposed
changes in regulations in order to obtain the opinion of CSO of Poland. New legal regulations
of the EU, as well as the regulations proposed by MRIRW and ARIMR, were evaluated by CSO.
In addition, ARIMR provided CSO with the prepared material "Designed changes in the
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Common Agricultural Policy in the financial perspective of 2014-2020". On the basis of
available documents and information, CSO formulated suggestions for changes in the
proposed legal regulations, significant from the point of view of the identified needs of official
statistics.
In connection with the works conducted in MRIRW on determination of detailed
principles of granting direct payments since 2015, in the opinion of CSO, the direction of the
IACS reconstruction should include, apart from operation of the direct payment system, also
the possibility of integrating the ARIMR systems with statistical databases, and therefore
foster cost reduction of functioning of public administration and ease the burden of
respondents (farmers).
The change in legal regulations concerning direct payments appeared to be just the
right moment to extend the scope of the IACS information system. Gathering data about
particular crops in the IT databases, instead of the so far collected data on groups of crops,
would allow for increasing the use of the IACS by statistics. Such solutions were also sought by
the users of official statistics, including agricultural organisations representing producers and
processors, which for a long time have been pointing out the lack of precise data on total crop
area, which significantly hinders correct production planning.
In the framework of this project, CSO developed a list of agricultural variables related
to the use of land, sown areas and livestock populations, acquisition of which is particularly
essential for official statistics (Annex No. 4), as well as proposals for the method of declaring
crops on the application for direct payment, which covered the following issues:
1. Introduction to the IT system of the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation
of Agriculture all crop areas by all farmers submitting applications for direct
payment, which will enable control of compliance with the obligation of crop
diversification, proper grouping of crops and standardisation of template
application for direct payments.
2. According to CSO, on the basis of many years of experience acquired in the
course of conducting agricultural statistical surveys, grouping of crops is an
additional impediment for farmers, who fill out applications for direct payments.
It is easier for farmers to specify the areas of particular crops, without the need
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to group them. This task, according to CSO, should be performed systemically by
ARIMR. It would simplify the method of filling the application for direct payments
by the farmer.
3. All farmers stating particular crop areas on the application for direct subsidies
would be beneficial also in the point of view of MRIRW, as it allows MRIRW to
have a set of data on the area of all crops at a low aggregation level.
4. Adoption of such a solution is also supported by the needs of agricultural
organisations representing producers and processors, which more and more
often point out the lack of precise data concerning crop areas of the basic plants,
which significantly hinders correct planning and production management.
As a result of analysis of registers kept by ARIMR and other institutions in terms
of agricultural variables used in the CSO surveys, a list was drawn up under the project
(Annex No. 5: "List of agricultural variables collected by the Central Statistical Office and
their presence in other administrative registers"), in which all acquired variables were
categorised according to the importance of their collection and use by other institutions,
i.e.:
data currently acquired by CSO from the existing registers (marked green in the
presented list),
important data, which should be included in registers and should be available for CSO
(marked red),
data that could be acquired by CSO, which are currently absent from the registers,
from which CSO acquires data (marked yellow),
data that can be found in the registers, but are not used by CSO due to their low
quality (marked blue),
other data acquired mainly on the basis of surveys and own estimates of CSO (not
marked with any colour).
The studies and suggestions of substantive solutions submitted by CSO to MRIRW and
ARIMR were the subject of their qualitative evaluation. The suggestions of changes in
legal regulations presented by CSO have been partially taken into consideration. The
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issues, which have not been taken into consideration by MRIRW and ARIMR will
constitute the object of further works in the future.
3.2. Changes in the information structures in the IACS
introduced by ARIMR in 2015 in connection with the RDP for
2014-2020.
Types of payments
In the e-Application system, the farmer can apply for:
financial aid under direct payment systems, i.e.:
uniform area payment and payment for planting greening,
additional payment,
payment for young farmers,
payment for the crop area of sugar beet,
payment for the crop area of cannabis,
payment for the crop area of protein crops,
payment for the crop area of starch potatoes,
payment for the crop area of soft fruit (strawberries or raspberries),
payment for the crop area of tomatoes,
payment for the crop area of linen,
payment for the crop area of hop,
payment for cows,
payment for cattle,
payment for sheep,
payment for goats,
decoupled payment for tobacco;
financial aid for areas facing natural or other specific constraints (LFA payments);
agri-environmental climate payments (RDP 2014 - 2020), including for
preservation of endangered genetic resources of animals in agriculture;
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environmental payment (RDP 2014 - 2020);
agri-environmental payment (RDP 2007-2013), including for preservation of
endangered genetic resources of animals in agriculture;
financial aid for afforestation (RDP 2007-2013).
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4. Testing of the adopted methodological solutions and the plan for
implementation of the results in practice.
4.1. Change in the range of variables and the deadline for
transfer of data from the IACS
As a result of changes in the Common Agricultural Policy, from 2015 the scope of
data included in applications for payments, submitted to the Agency for Restructuring
and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARIMR) by agricultural producers has been changed.
As part of this project, ARIMR provided CSO with the new scope of information of the
Application for direct, LFA and agri-environmental payments for 2015. On the basis of
the communicated information, CSO developed solutions improving access to the IACS
by official statistics, including the possibility of earlier access to the data (e.g.
preliminary data, before cross-control). These issues were discussed with ARIMR
experts, also in the course of direct cooperation, during meetings organised by CSO. In
order to provide legal basis for ARIMR to transfer to CSO, earlier than before, the
increased scope of data collected in applications for payments, the following
determinations were made:
- CSO introduced changes to the Regulation of the Council of Ministers on the
Programme of Statistical Surveys of Official Statistics for 2015, taking account in the
survey card 1.80.01 "Statistical Units System – sampling frames" of the new scope
of the acquired data based on the Application for granting direct, LFA and agri-
environmental payments for 2015, as well as the earlier deadline for data transfer.
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The table below illustrates the differences between years 2014 and 2015 with
regard to obtaining and use of data from the IACS.
Programme of Statistical Surveys of Official
Statistics for 2014
Programme of Statistical Surveys of Official
Statistics for 2015
The scope of information acquired
from the IACS
Frequency and
deadline
The scope of information acquired
from the IACS
Frequency and
deadline
ARIMR Information System; unit data
on agricultural holdings with regard to:
identifier assigned to the entity during
entry to the producer registry, data
concerning the area of the agricultural
holding, along with the specification of
identifiers and the areas included in
the cadastral parcels; in an electronic
form
until 31 March
2015, data for the
year 2014
unit data on agricultural holdings
with regard to: identifier assigned to
the entity during entry to the
producer registry, type of payment
indicated in the application, PESEL,
REGON, number of animals declared
for a given payment, data on the
cadastral parcels: location of the
cadastral parcel (voivodeship, poviat,
gmina); data according to the land
and building registers (surveying
district no., map sheet no., cadastral
parcel no. ); area on the cadastral
parcel (total eligible hectare, total
arable land, including arable land not
reported for payment, land not
reported for payment; ecological
focus element, forested area within
the boundaries of the cadastral
parcel.
data on the use of agricultural
parcels: designation of the
agricultural parcel, group of
crops/area/crop, agricultural
parcel area, no. of the land
parcel, on which the agricultural
parcel is located, agricultural
parcel area within the boundaries
data for 2015:
until 31 March
2016 (until 30
September 2015,
preliminary data)
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of the cadastral parcel, area
declared for LFA payment on the
agricultural parcel within the
boundaries of the cadastral
parcel, agri-environmental/agri-
environmental
climate/environmental payment,
percent (%) of ecological focus
area maintained individually at an
agricultural holding, no. of the
cadastral parcel, on which the
ecological focus element is
located, name and designation of
the ecological focus element,
actual size of the ecological focus
element (m or m2 or pcs.), size of
the ecological focus area after
application of the conversion
factor and the weighing factor;
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Based on the provisions of the Regulation of the Council of Ministers on the
Programme of Statistical Surveys of Official Statistics for 2015, ARIMR provided CSO with
data sets within the agreed extended scope and on an earlier date (preliminary data). In
connection with CSO obtaining these data, works have been conducted under the
project, with the use of the provided data sets. The extended scope of data and its
earlier acquisition from the IACS improved the quality of plant production estimates.
This allowed for more precise determination of the crop groups area, as well as the use
of data to update the sampling frame. In order to illustrate the scale of changes
concerning the scope of data acquired by CSO as a result of the project implementation,
below the scope of variables from the IACS is presented, taken by statistics a year before
- in 2014, before determination of changes in the scope of transmitted data.
microdata data on agricultural holdings with regard to: identifier assigned to the
entity during entry to the producer registry, data concerning the area of the
agricultural holding, along with the specification of identifiers and the areas included
in the cadastral parcels.
4.2. Change in the method of data transfer to the Central
Statistical Office of Poland
As part of the works covered by the project, during the meetings organised by
CSO, CSO discussed with ARIMR's experts issues concerning change in the method of
data transfer to CSO in two timescales. In order to change the method of data transfer
to CSO in a short timescale (currently, data is transferred on external electronic
carriers), CSO conducted an analysis regarding the possibility to use an IT tool used in
official statistics - the Internet application for data transfer, the so-called TransGUS,
enabling electronic transfer of files with data via safe encrypted connection.
The application's website provides information on transfer of data sets, an
instruction specifying the principles of their transfer, as well as a description of the tool
for transfer of these sets to the CSO resource server. Data transfer is possible within the
time specified in the schedule of data acquisition.
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In order to enable electronic data transfer to CSO, the data administrator
appoints a coordinator, who receives from CSO individual access data (login and
password) permitting data transfer by means of the Internet application TransGUS. The
abovementioned solution will be implemented into practice with regard to IACS data
and data obtained from other systems and ARIMR registers, starting from 2016.
In a longer time frame, the ARIMR portal was recognized as the best solution for
data transfer to CSO.
Implementation of a functional tool providing CSO with access to data collected
by ARIMR in IACS, other systems and registers, in accordance with the rights vested
therein, will be the object of subsequent works.
4.3. Results of testing of the adopted solutions (result of
analysis of ARIMR's preliminary data provided in 2015).
As part of the project, ARIMR provided CSO with sets of data with the new set of
variables covering the scope of information in the application for direct, LFA and agri-
environmental payments for 2015 (data for 2015). CSO received 9 tables, containing
data on: agri-environmental climate payments, agri-environmental payments,
agricultural payments - crop groups, claimed payments, environmental payments,
agricultural parcels, animal payments, cadastral parcels and ecological focus areas. Data
in all tables are connected via producer's number, PESEL number and REGON number.
The analyses verified correctness of the data contained in the tables. The result
of the data quality analysis, among others, demonstrated doubling of records, as well as
gaps in fields concerning identifiers (producer's number). For example, in the case of
tables containing cadastral parcels, 118 records with no producer's number filled in
were observed (11073421 records in total). Subsequently, the data were analysed in
terms of their suitability for use in statistics as direct data sources (they replace the data
obtained from the respondent), as data for updating the reports for agricultural surveys,
as well as data for multidisciplinary statistical analyses.
Tables containing data relating to agri-environmental and agri-environmental
climate payments contain information on particular crop species. In the first case, it is
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656, and in the second - 357 species. In 2015, 9474 producers applied for agri-
environmental payments, and the applications were submitted for 103746 ha, out of the
total of 14 202708 ha and 1351795 agricultural producers. Data on total crop area for all
producers can be found in the table concerning agricultural payments. These are
payments related to crops and to animals. In the case of crops, we received data on the
area of: sugar beets, protein crops, hop, starch potatoes, soft fruit (strawberries or
raspberries), tomatoes, linen, cannabis and tobacco (decoupled payment). For these
crops, ARIMR collections contain data for all producers, who have submitted
applications for these payments in 2015. These data will be used to update the sampling
frame for agricultural surveys.
Data from ARIMR on ecological focus areas located in an agricultural holding and
the information on whether the agricultural holding is located on less-favoured areas
(LFA) may replace the data acquired during the agricultural survey (direct data source).
The up-to-date data obtained from ARIMR were also used for analyses and
comparisons with the results of representative agricultural surveys conducted in the
current year.
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5. Impact of the project on changes in cooperation between statistics
and administration
5.1. Future actions necessary for implementation of the
presented suggestions.
Linking the IACS and other administrative registers with the CSO system - having
efficient access to administrative registers is important from the point of view of CSO.
According to CSO, the issue of methodological compliance of administrative systems is
also important (metainformation, glossaries). In the framework of the works completed
under the project, the needs of CSO were reported to ARIMR. At the moment, ARIMR
conducts work on developing an Internet platform for making data available to entities
authorised by the law. The abovementioned option would be the simplest way for CSO
to obtain access to the data from the IACS and other administrative registers.
Future actions will also include further increase of the scope of data acquired for
statistical surveys from the IACS and other administrative registers.
With regard to the concept of the agricultural holdings register developed under
the project, future actions will include popularisation of the concept among government
administration bodies competent for agriculture, including the Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development (MRiRW) and the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation
of Agriculture (ARiMR). For this purpose, it is planned for the Central Statistical Office to
organise a seminar in 2016. Subsequently, cooperation of a team of experts from
MRIRW and ARIMR will be conducted, which will result in creation of a document
implementing the concept of the agricultural holdings register into practice in the Polish
public administration. As part of the legislative needs described in the concept,
proposals of changes in binding regulations will also be prepared, as well as framework
assumptions for new regulations. Issuance of new regulations and implementation of
the abovementioned changes will be the basis for CSO undertaking subsequent works in
cooperation with MRIRW and ARIMR in design, establishment, maintenance and
development of the agricultural holdings register.
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Creating register of the agricultural holdings will require access to many
administrative systems and exchange of information between the register of agricultural
holdings and other registers, among others, in order to supply administrative registers
with the agricultural holding identifier. Implementation of this task will require
preparation of detailed assumptions describing not only the way, in which the register is
to be created, but also the principles of its updating. Due to the fact that, in the register
of agricultural holdings, an agricultural holding identifier will be assigned, it will be also
necessary to prepare the principles of creation of this identifier and its succession. These
issues will be the subject of cooperation of CSO with other public administration
authorities.
5.2. Expected benefits resulting from the adopted solutions.
As part of this project, more efficient methods of standardisation, normalisation
and validation of data from the administrative register were prepared, which also
improve the quality of IACS data. The methodology of improving the quality of IACS data
sets transferred to CSO was prepared, which was included in the document entitled
Report on the work conducted in the framework of elaboration of solutions that have
impact on the improvement of the IACS quality (Annex No. 6). The abovementioned
tasks were completed in close cooperation between CSO and ARIMR's experts. CSO also
arranged workshops for ARIMR's experts in the Regional Statistical Office in Warsaw,
during which good practice was communicated, used in CSO to increase quality of
source data from the administrative registers, which is to be also used in the IACS.
The tasks completed under the project provided the right conditions for the
official statistics to broaden the data acquisition from the IACS, which will contribute to
improvement in the quality of the sampling frame for agricultural surveys and will
expand the scope of variables used directly for statistical surveys. This will allow CSO to
forego collecting data for statistical surveys directly from the respondents.
The possibility for official statistics to obtain IACS data in the year of submission
of the application for payments will ensure quicker access to up-to-date data. So far,
CSO have been acquiring IACS data in March of the following year. Early and broader
access to data from IACS will enable execution of many new analyses and comparisons
Date: 08.02.2016 Final report Page 22/30
with the results of current agricultural surveys. It will also have a positive impact on
improvement in the quality of the Polish official statistics.
Creation of the agricultural holdings register will be a significant advantage not
only for CSO, but also for other public administration bodies. So far, no such register has
been created in Poland. Agriculture is a special form of professional activity, which in
Poland is not considered a business activity at all, which results in limited access to data
on agricultural holdings. Many registers exist, in which such data can be found, however
the differences in subjectivity of these registers (owner, user, administer, agricultural tax
payer, the insured, agricultural producer, payer of tax on special branches of agricultural
production, etc.) make it much more difficult to link these data, and therefore to
effectively use them for the purposes of statistics. Adding the agricultural holding
identifier assigned in the agricultural holdings register to other administrative registers
would increase the chance to make use of these registers for the purposes of statistics.
Large benefits for the official statistics and impact on further works can be
attributed to the acquired knowledge, learning of good practices with regard to the
methodology and organisation of the use of data from the administrative systems,
including IACS, in agriculture statistics.
As part of the project, CSO representatives participated in a study visit in the
Italian National Institute for Statistics ISTAT in Rome. This office was selected under the
project due to the works conducted therein, concerning the use of data from
administrative registers, linking data from various sources, including IACS, as well as
interesting solutions in the field of quality evaluation of statistics based on many data
sources.
During the visit, the Polish delegation had an opportunity to share their
experience and become familiar with good practices applied by Italian statistics in its
statistical surveys. Particularly valuable were information regarding the use of data from
the IACS and other administrative sources, which may be applied in agriculture
statistical surveys. The acquired knowledge, regarding issues concerning survey
methodology, quality of acquired data, spatial data analyses and quality of the obtained
output information was essential for the Polish official statistics.
Date: 08.02.2016 Final report Page 23/30
As part of this project, CSO representatives took part in three foreign trips to
participate in international meetings organised by Eurostat.
The participation of CSO employees in the meetings of the Standing Committee
for Agricultural Statistics (CPSA) was very important, as the topics raised therein
concerned the use of administrative registers in agricultural statistics. During the
meetings, their participants discussed topics related to the reform process of the
Common Agricultural Policy CAP and the IACS. The issues discussed included: new
elements of market mechanisms, new elements in CAP, in rural development, new
programmes for rural areas. During the meetings, it was emphasized that the use of
administrative data is an important part of the "Strategy for Agricultural Statistics 2020
and beyond". These actions require cooperation with Member States, since only they
have the detailed information on IACSs kept thereby.
Participation in the seminar and in the meeting of the Directors' Group on
Agricultural Statistics was extremely significant due to the issues discussed therein, such
as: an analysis of the changes that took place in CAP in 1980-2020, the main reform
paths and instruments of the new CAP, issues relating to direct payments in Member
States as a result of changes in CAP, as well as the process of Member States accepting
the Rural Development Programme for the years 2014-2020.
Cooperation with persons participating in the abovementioned meetings helped
implement tasks covered by the project and will positively affect subsequent works
executed in the Polish official statistics.
Activities completed as part of the project, the developed solutions, as well as
the knowledge acquired during trips under the project, will allow for achieving the
following benefits:
- Better serving the needs of the crucial users: government administration, local
administration - for information reflecting changes occurring in agriculture
and its environment.
- Increase in consistency of data in various administrative systems.
- Increase in interoperability of administrative registers - sharing information
and knowledge through data exchange via ITC systems.
Date: 08.02.2016 Final report Page 24/30
- Improvement in the quality, including completeness of data collected during
surveys taken on drawn samples.
- Provision of a basic source of information for the purpose of updating the
statistical register of agricultural holdings, as well as for statistical surveys.
- Provision of an up-to-date data source for analyses and comparisons with
regard to agricultural data collected during representative agricultural
surveys.
- Reduction of administrative burden of respondents providing data for
statistics.
- Assigning subjectivity to the agricultural holding.
- Clear identification of an agricultural holding in administrative registers -
creation of a standard agricultural holding identifier.
- Establishment of a reference register in the scope of information on
agricultural holdings.
- Gathering in one register information on all agricultural holdings.
Date: 08.02.2016 Final report Page 25/30
6. The sustainability of the project results
1. The experience and knowledge gained in the project will be used to further improve
the quality of resources of identified administrative registers being subject to analysis
in the project and their usefulness for official statistics. It will have positive effect on
further increase of methodological consistency of administrative registers with system
of official statistics. During the work carried out by the Central Statistical Office in
cooperation with the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture
(ARIMR) the scope of tasks to implementation after the completion of the project was
established. Realization of these tasks will contribute to the wider use of statistical
data from the administrative registers. The area of cooperation issues concerns the
information content of administrative registers, quality and accessibility for the CSO.
The evaluation criteria used in the project to analyse and evaluate the quality of
administrative registers will also be used in the preparatory work for the National
Agricultural Census 2020 (PSR 2020) and the National Population and Housing Census
2021 (NSP 2021), to develop a model to assess the availability and usability of the
administrative registers for the censuses purposes. The aforementioned evaluation
criteria are used already in the ongoing surveys realized in various fields of statistics.
Solutions developed as part of a project can be considered as a sustainable work
results.
2. Organizational and methodological solutions developed during the project, that
concern the use of the administrative data from registers of ARiMR for official statistics
purposes, including the possibility of earlier access to the data, will be applied in
subsequent years during the use of administrative data from the above-mentioned
registers.
3. Changes to the regulations - Regulation of the Council of Ministers on the Programme
of Statistical Surveys of Official Statistics for 2015, resulting from project activities,
concerning the change in the scope and timing of the transfer of data from the IACS to
CSO of Poland, were also reflected in the Regulation of the Council of Ministers on the
Programme of Statistical Surveys of Official Statistics for 2016 and project for 2017.
This action can be considered as a sustainable change. It is beneficial for the Polish
Date: 08.02.2016 Final report Page 26/30
Official Statistics. Work on further wider use of data with the IACS system will be
continued.
4. Change in the method of data transfer to the CSO, developed within the project, is
currently subject to the technical and organizational arrangements to implement them
into practice. Implementation will be processed in two stages. In a short timescale, i.e.
in 2016, transfer of data from ARiMR administrative registers, including IACS, will be
conducted with the use of IT solutions developed and functioning in the official
statistics. In a longer time frame, i.e. 2017-2018, the data transfer will be conducted
with the use of ARIMR IT solutions – portal. These solutions for the transfer of data will
also be used in the preparatory work for the PSR 2020 and NSP 2021, during the
development of the organization for obtaining data from administrative registers, as
well as in the modernization of data transfer to the Central Statistical Office from other
keepers of systems in various fields of statistics. Introduced and planned change can
be considered as a sustainable result of the project.
5. Methodology to increase the quality of data sets of IACS submitted to the Central
Statistical Office, which was developed under the project, have been implemented to
practice and is the current standard in the Polish Official Statistics.
6. In the range of “The concept of creating a register of agricultural holdings, using data
from different administrative sources, including IACS register”, which was elaborated
during the project, in March 2016 an action plan - a roadmap will be prepared. It will
aim at disseminating the concept among other government bodies and local
government, which statutory activity is related to agriculture. In 2016 it is planned that
the Central Statistical Office will organize a conference, a working meeting and also an
inter-departmental task force will be set up for the development of the final version of
the concept of creating a register of agricultural holdings, including the conditions of
its implementation. Some findings on these issues have already been taken with the
ARiMR, and in March this year are planned in relation to the Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development (MRiRW).
7. Enhanced cooperation statistics employees with ARiMR, which was carried out under
the project, contributed to a better understanding of the needs and problems of official
statistics in the range of new data sources and measures to minimize the burden on
Date: 08.02.2016 Final report Page 27/30
respondents. The cooperation is being continued and it will allow increasing the use for
statistical purposes of data from the IACS and other administrative registers as well as
providing faster access to current data.
8. The knowledge and experience gained by the CSO representatives during the study visit
at the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), and participation in Eurostat meetings is
utilized for the modernization of surveys both ongoing and planned as well as will be
reflected in the preparatory work for PSR 2020.
Date: 08.02.2016 Final report Page 28/30
7. Recommendations for other countries
1. IACS should be considered as a good source of data for official statistics and should
be used in the production of national and European statistics due to the reduction of
the administrative burden of persons and entities.
2. In the production of statistics, IACS can be used in different forms: as a direct source
of data for survey, to build lists, frames and to build the register of agricultural
holdings.
3. NSI should work closely with the paying agency in the area of the national legal
regulations concerning the scope, method and organization of collecting information
covered by IACS and also in the range of the planning and introducing changes in the
law in this area.
4. Fact of existence of an administrative register is not a sufficient condition for the use
of its resources in the production of official statistics. Each NSI should develop and
implement a model for assessing the quality and usefulness of the administrative
register, taking into account the key criteria and variables that integrate data from
different sources.
5. NSI should work towards:
- shortening the time between collecting data source in IACS and other
administrative registers and their use in statistics and publication of results,
- electronic transfer of data from administrative registers to the statistics. Priority
should be electronic, remote access of NSI to data in registers and downloading
data from registers in a form, which enables their further processing.
6. The NSI should develop a standard transformation of data from administrative
registers into statistical data. The quality of the source data has an impact on the
quality of the result data - products. In the process of compiling the data from
administrative registers their usefulness should be increased, without a negative
impact of applied sources on the quality of result data.
Date: 08.02.2016 Final report Page 29/30
7. Construction of the official register of agricultural holdings for the purposes of official
statistics and other administrative bodies should be taken into account by the NSI
due to:
- establishment a uniform definition of a agricultural holding in all registers in this area,
- creation of a new data source for statistics,
- obtaining the cooperation of administrative registers and improving their methodological compliance.
In the concept of creating a register of agricultural holdings must be assumed, that in
this register will be assigned a unique identifier for the agricultural holding, which will
ensure unique identification of the holding in different registers. This identifier
should be linked with other identifiers operating in other administrative registers,
which will be used to update the data in the register of agricultural holdings.
8. An important issue of the use of administrative registers in statistics is the
cooperation with authorities maintaining these registers. Good relationships with
them are very important for improving the quality and scope of administrative data
used in statistics.
Date: 08.02.2016 Final report Page 30/30
8. Annexes
Annex No. 1 The concept of creating a register of agricultural holdings with the use
of data from different administrative sources, including the IACS.
Annex No. 2 Basic terms used in statistics
Annex No. 3 Basic terms used in the IACS and in other registers and systems kept by
ARIMR
Annex No. 4 List of agricultural variables related to the use of land, sown areas and
livestock
Annex No. 5 List of agricultural variables collected by the Central Statistical Office
and their presence in other administrative registers
Annex No. 6 Report on the work conducted in the framework of elaboration of
solutions that have impact on the improvement of the IACS quality