The AFiD-Panel Agriculture: New Potential for Agricultural Research

Based on the farm structure surveys as well as the census of agriculture the AFiD 1 -Panel Agriculture allows detailed longitudinal analysis of the agricultural sector. The data set provides comprehensive information concerning land use, livestock and economic conditions of German farms collected by official statistics. As agriculture has become one of the most integrated policy areas in the EU consuming a major share of the EU budget, there exists distinctive political interest to collect extensive information in order to monitor the success of policy measures. Therefore, the EU mandates regular surveys of the agricultural sector in all member states, the farm structure survey forming the backbone of the whole system. The data collected provide the most important source for analysing the medium and long term evolution of the agricultural sector as well as the social development in rural areas. Based on those data agri-environmental indicators are calculated and the Economic Accounts for Agriculture (EAA) can be prepared, a significant instrument for monitoring and assessing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Furthermore, the data is used for preparing policy measures. The surveys’ legal basis is constituted by the current versions of the related EU regulations and by the German Law on Agricultural Statistics. 2 Beyond these functions of official statistics, the Research Data Centres (RDC) of the Federal Statistical Office and the statistical offices of the federal states provide the opportunity for scientists to analyse data of the German farm structure surveys as well as of the census of agriculture. These statistics have been merged into the AFiD-Panel Agriculture, which currently covers the reference periods 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007. Thus, the data can be