Structure of agricultural holdings and methods of agricultural production
NOTES ON METHODOLOGY
Objective and legal basis of the survey
The objective of the survey is to obtain the most accurate data possible on the state of Croatian agriculture having in mind the importance of this sector for Croatian economy.
The Farm Structure Survey (hereafter referred to as FSS) and the Agricultural Census are a part of basic statistical surveys in the area of agriculture. The results of the survey are comparable at the international level.
The FSS is obligatory conducted every tenth year as a census, while in the years between them it is conducted as a sample-based survey. In the Republic of Croatia, this survey was conducted in 2003 and 2020 as the Agricultural Census, while in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2023 it was carried out as a sample-based survey.
The objective of the survey is to collect the following data:
- on the labour force on agricultural holdings;
- on managers of agricultural holdings;
- on the method of land use (arable land and gardens, permanent crops, kitchen gardens, pastures and meadows);
- on agricultural machinery and equipment;
- on the number of livestock;
- on ecological farming;
- on animal housing;
- on manure management;
- on soil management practices;
- on rural development support measures;
- on irrigation.
Legal basis
- The Official Statistics Act (NN, Nos 25/20 and 155/23).
- The FSS 2007 was conducted on the basis of the Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 of 29 February 1988 on the organization of Community surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings.
- The FSSs 2010, 2013 and 2016 were conducted on the basis of the Regulation (EC) No 1166/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on farm structure surveys and the survey on agricultural production methods and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 of 29 February 1988 on the organization of Community surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings.
- Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018 on integrated farm statistics and repealing Regulations (EC) No 1166/2008 and (EU) No 1337/2011
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1874 of 29 November 2018 on the data to be provided for 2020 under Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 of the European Parliament and of the Council on integrated farm statistics and repealing Regulations (EC) No 1166/2008 and (EU) No 1337/2011, as regards the list of variables and their description
- Regulation (EU) 2021/2269 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 2021 amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 as regards the Union contribution for integrated farm statistics under Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093 laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2021 to 2027
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/2286 of 16 December 2021 on the data to be provided for the reference year 2023 pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 of the European Parliament and of the Council on integrated farm statistics as regards the list of variables and their description and repealing Commission Regulation (EC) No 1200/2009
- 2020 Agricultural Census Act (NN, No. 63/19)
- Act on Amendments on 2020 Agricultural Census Act (NN, No. 64/20).
Coverage
The FSS covers all agricultural holdings, that is, private family farms and business entities and parts thereof that are engaged in agricultural production.
Agricultural holdings were selected from the Statistical Register of Agricultural Holdings of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics. The frame includes holdings that have more than 0.4 ha of agricultural land and more than 0.5 livestock units.
A total of 173 776 private family farms and 4 421 business entities and parts thereof were selected in 2020, covering 98% of the utilised agricultural area and 98% of livestock units.
A total of 30 000 private family farms and 4 400 business entities and parts thereof were selected in 2023, covering 98% of the utilised agricultural area and 98% of livestock units.
Selection of observation units
Since 2007, the main sampling frame for selecting observation units, which are also reporting units, has been the Statistical Register of Agricultural Holdings kept and maintained by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics.
Agricultural holdings included in the survey frame for 2007 were those with the physical production above certain criteria of:
a) at least one hectare of utilised agricultural area, or
b) less than 0.1 hectares of utilised agricultural area, but:
- at least 0.1 hectares of utilised agricultural area and 0.9 hectares of forest, or
- at least 0.3 hectares of vineyards, olive groves and/or orchards, or
- two or more livestock units (LSUs), or
- from 0.15 to 0.3 hectares of vineyards/orchards and one or two LSUs, or
- are market producers of vegetables, medical herbs, strawberries, mushrooms, flowers or ornamental plants.
Agricultural holdings included in the survey frame for 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2023 were those with the physical production above certain criteria of:
a) at least 0.4 hectares of utilised agricultural area, or
b) at least 0.5 LSUs, or
c) less than 0.4 hectares of utilised agricultural area, but:
- at least 0.1 hectares of vineyards, olive groves and/or orchards, or
- any area of nurseries, or
- are market producers of vegetables, medical herbs, strawberries, mushrooms, flowers or ornamental plants, or
- any number of beehives.
The sample design for private family farms is a stratified random sample based on sampling experts’ selection and on historical experience of the Agricultural Production and Structural Statistics Department. The final weights are products of sampling weights and non-response weights at the strata level (two spatial units for statistics at the NUTS 2 level of classification combined with four size classes referring to production).
Agricultural holdings included in the 2020 Agricultural Census were those with the physical production above certain criteria of:
a) at least 0.4 hectares of utilised agricultural area, or
b) at least 0.5 LSUs, or
c) less than 0.4 hectares of utilised agricultural area, but:
- at least 0.1 hectares of vineyards, olive groves and/or orchards, or
- any area of nurseries, or
- are market producers of vegetables, medical herbs, strawberries, mushrooms, flowers or ornamental plants, or
- any number of beehives.
Sources and methods of data collection
The data are collected by the FSS (sample-based surveys) or in the 2003 Agricultural Census and 2020 Agricultural Census.
Reporting units are business entities and parts thereof defined in section A Agriculture, forestry and fishing according to the NKD 2007 as well as other business entities and parts thereof engaged in agricultural production but classified in other activities. Data for business entities and parts thereof were collected by the reporting method on a form and via a web application.
Reporting units are also private family farms engaged in agricultural production, whose data are collected by interviewers.
The two questionnaires are slightly different in the chapter related to labour force.
Data on private family farms were collected by enumerators using the computer-assisted personal interviewing method, while data on business entities were collected using web reporting method, or by entering data into the electronic census questionnaire.
Definitions
Agricultural holding is a production management unit engaged in agriculture and operating as a company, craft or cooperative if it is registered for conducting agricultural activities as well as a private family farm, which jointly uses labour force and production means (machinery, buildings or land, etc.).
The reference date of the survey is 1 June in a year when the survey is planned to be carried out. Some data refer to a period of one year before the survey, mostly from 2 June of the previous year to 1 June of the current year (labour force, irrigation, soil management practices, machinery and equipment).
Agricultural production includes the following:
- growing of annual crops
- growing of perennial crops
- growing of seeding material and ornamental plants
- breeding of livestock, poultry and other animals
- mixed agricultural production (growing crops and breeding livestock and other animals together)
- auxiliary activities in agriculture and activities that follow harvest (land preparation, planting, crop attendance, harvest/gathering, cleaning, peeling, seed processing). Activities related to breeding animals, such as feeding or cleaning of facilities, are also included.
Agricultural production does not include:
- processing of agricultural products
- forestry (growing and exploitation of forests)
- fishery (fish farming and fishing).
Labour force
Manager is a natural person responsible for usual daily financial and production routines of running a holding.
Holder is a person responsible in legal and economic terms for functioning of a holding; a person who has the legal title, that is, a person who takes on economic risks of doing business. The owner/user can have direct ownership of a farm, have a lease contract on it (for a longer or a shorter period of time) or be given the estate to benefit from and take care of.
Regularly employed labour force are persons who worked for the holding during the last 12 months on the weekly basis, irrespective of the number of hours they worked weekly, and persons who worked regularly during only a part of that time for some reason, e.g. because of education, sickness, disease, accident or death, commencement or termination of employment within the last 12 months or cessation of work due to natural disasters (floods, fires, etc.). Employed persons do not include seasonal workers, who do not have a contract of employment.
Non-regularly employed labour force are those who worked temporarily on a holding during the reference period of 12 months.
Annual work unit is a reference unit expressing the extent of work in annual work units (AWU). One annual work unit corresponds to one person working full time for a holding and amounts to 1 800 hours.
Agricultural land
Total area of land consists of the utilised agricultural land and non-agricultural land area.
Utilised agricultural area is the total agricultural area that was used for crop production in the year in question. It covers arable land and gardens, kitchen gardens, orchards, olive groves, vineyards, meadows and pastures, nurseries, land under osier willow and other permanent crops (Christmas trees).
Arable land and gardens refer to the land that is regularly farmed and cultivated and is under crop rotation. The following plants are grown on arable land and gardens: cereals, pulses for dry grain, root and tuber crops, industrial crops, fodder crops, fresh vegetables and strawberries, flowers and ornamental plants, seeds and seedlings plants as well as fallow land.
Kitchen gardens are areas scheduled for growing of crops (mostly vegetables) that are intended for consumption by persons living in a household and mainly not intended for sale. Only occasional surplus of products grown on these areas is sold outside the household.
Cereals for grain production include soft wheat (winter and spring), durum wheat, spelt, rye (winter and spring), barley (winter and spring), oats (winter and spring), maize for grain, triticale, millet, sorghum and buckwheat.
Dry pulses and protein crops for the production of grain include dry grain peas, dry grain fodder peas, dry grain beans and other dry pulses (broad beans, lentils, lupines, etc.).
Root and tuber crops include potatoes (early, late and seed), sugar beet (excluding seed) and fodder root crops and brassicas (fodder beet, fodder kale, fodder turnip, fodder pumpkin and other fodder root crops).
Industrial crops include oil crops (soya-bean, sunflowers, rapeseed, pumpkins for oil, hemp for oil, poppy and flax for oil), tobacco and other industrial plants (aromatic, culinary and medicinal herbs, and other industrial plants).
Other oilseeds include pumpkins for oil, flax, poppy and hemp for oil.
Green fodder crops cover green maize, other green fodder crops, clover and mixtures, lucerne, leguminous plants and temporary grassland.
Other green fodder crops cover cereals for green fodder, other annual grasses, fodder sorghum and Sudan grass.
Leguminous plants cover field peas for green fodder, other green leguminous plants and multiannual clover-grass mixtures.
Temporary grassland covers multiannual grass-clover mixtures and multiannual grass and mixtures of grass.
Vegetables cover areas intended for growing of crops mainly for sale in fresh condition and for industrial processing and they are as follows: cauliflower and broccoli; white and red cabbage; kale; other brassicas (kohlrabi and brussels sprouts); lettuce (all types); leek; asparagus; other leafy vegetables (Swiss chard, spinach, celery, radicchio, chicory, artichoke and parsley); tomatoes; cucumbers and gherkins; melons; watermelons; peppers; courgettes and marrows; gourds and pumpkins; other top fruit (aubergine, crookneck pumpkin and pattypan squash); strawberries; onion (all types); garlic; carrot; beetroot; other root vegetables (horseradish, radish, parsnip, kohlrabi, sweet potatoes for human consumption, parsley root etc.); beans, fresh grains or string beans; peas, fresh grains or string beans; sweet corn.
Permanent crops cover areas under orchards, olive groves, vineyards, nurseries and other permanent crops (osier willows and Christmas trees) which are not cultivated in crop rotation, which are not permanent grassland and occupy land for a longer period and give yields for many years.
Permanent grasslands are areas used for grazing, making hay and silage (meadows, intensive and extensive pastures). They do not include:
- grassland not in use any more (bad quality, difficult to access)
- grassland overgrown with forest trees, which are included in forests
- partly overgrown grassland, which are included in wooded land
- areas sown with clover and lucerne, which are included in arable land and gardens
- areas sown with multiannual grasses, grass mixtures and grass-clover mixtures, which are included in arable land and gardens.
Common land in Croatia is mainly state-owned land used as extensive pastures and used for grazing livestock by several agricultural holdings.
The approach to recording it has changed in different reference years.
In 2010, the area of common land was allocated to holdings based on a model.
In 2013, it was recorded as a separate unit at the level of counties (NUTS 3).
In 2016, 2020 and 2023, common land was included both as part of the holdings that used it (based on written or oral agreements) and as separate, virtual units without managers at the level of counties.
Other land
Unutilised or unused agricultural land is an area no longer farmed for economic, social or other reasons and which is not used in the crop rotation system.
Wooded area is an area covered with trees or forest shrubs, including poplar plantations inside or outside of the forest, and forest-tree nurseries grown within the forest for the holding’s own requirements as well as forest facilities (forest roads, storage depots for timber, etc.).
Irrigation
The area of other crops on arable land irrigated in the past 12 months includes the following crops: fodder beet, fodder turnip, fodder pumpkins, other root crops, soya, pumpkins for oil, poppy, flax for oil, hemp for oil, tobacco, aromatic herbs, spices and medicinal herbs, vegetables and strawberries grown in gardens for sale in fresh, areas producing seeds and seedlings, fallow land, and outdoor flowers and ornamental plants.
Animals
Livestock unit (LSU) is a standard measurement unit that allows the aggregation of various categories of livestock in order to enable comparison between them as regards years or between different countries (Table 1).
The total number of livestock units (LSU) for poultry represents the sum of individual livestock units for each type and category of poultry calculated on the basis of the corresponding coefficients.
Since Eurostat used a single coefficient for all poultry when publishing data on its website, there are differences in the nationally published data and the data in Eurostat's databases.
Poultry
Poultry includes broilers, hens, turkeys, geese, ducks and other poultry.
Table 1: List of livestock unit coefficients used in the Republic of Croatia, by years.
Other
Standard output (SO) is a monetary value of gross agricultural production, the price at the gate of the farm.
Typology means a uniform classification of agricultural holdings in the EU Member States at the farm structure surveys: in terms of economic size (expressed in 1 000 euro) and according to the type of agricultural production.
Classifications
Published data on the structure of agricultural holdings use the following standard classifications:
NUTS and NKPJS, and the NUTS 2021 classification for Croatia was taken from the Eurostat website:
Statistical regions in the European Union and partner countries
Report on the structure of agricultural holdings for 2023 in Croatian:
Report on the structure of agricultural holdings for 2023 in English:
Quality Report for Statistical Survey
Quality Report for Statistical Survey for 2013
Quality Report for Statistical Survey for 2016
Quality Report for Statistical Survey for 2023
Due to the rounding of numbers in tables, a total sum may differ from total sums of class sizes.
Abbreviations
EU European Union
Eurostat Statistical Office of the European Communities
ha hectare
NKD 2007 National Classification of Activities, 2007 version
NKPJS National Classification of Spatial Units for Statistics
NN Narodne novine, official gazette of the Republic of Croatia
NUTS 2021 National Classification of Statistical Regions 2021 – HR_NUTS 2021
‘000 thousand
Symbols
- no occurrence