QUALITY DECLARATION - SUMMARY


INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT

For information on the institutional environment of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), including the legislative obligations of the ABS, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, please see ABS Institutional Environment.

RELEVANCE

Preliminary estimates from the 2016-17 Rural Environment and Agricultural Commodities Survey (REACS) will be presented in two separate publications:

Principal Agricultural Commodities, Australia, 2016-17 (cat. no. 7111.0), contains statistics on principal crop area and production and livestock numbers. The publication presents data on a national, state and territory basis. Final estimates that also include sub-state level data will be released in mid 2018 in Agricultural Commodities, Australia, 2016-17 (cat. no. 7121.0).

Value of Principal Agricultural Commodities Produced, Australia, Preliminary, 2016-17 (cat. no. 7501.0) presents preliminary value of production statistics. It contains statistics on principal value of crops, livestock slaughterings and disposals and livestock products. The publication presents data on a national, state and territory basis. Final estimates that also include sub-state level data will be released in mid 2018 in Value of Agricultural Commodities Produced, Australia, 2016-17 (cat.no. 7503.0).

TIMELINESS

Principal Agricultural Commodities, Australia, 2016-17, Preliminary (cat. no. 7111.0) and Value of Principal Agricultural Commodities Produced, Australia, Preliminary, 2016-17 (cat. no. 7501.0) will be published within twelve months of the end of the reference period. Final estimates from the 2016-17 REACS will be released in Agricultural Commodities, Australia, 2016-17 (cat. no. 7121.0), Water Use on Australian Farms, 2016-17 (cat. no. 4618.0) and Land Management and Farming in Australia, 2016-17 (cat. no. 4627.0) in mid 2018.


ACCURACY

Preliminary estimates from the 2016-17 REACS are based on an achieved response rate of 77.8% and have been extensively quality assured. The resultant estimates have been checked against earlier years' estimates and relevant other sources, to ensure the accuracy of estimates produced.

All estimates in this publication are subject to sampling error. For more information about these errors, refer to the Explanatory Notes within this release.


COHERENCE

The 2016-17 REACS was conducted using a frame based on the Australian Business Register (ABR). This is the same as the frame used for the 2015-16 Agricultural Census and for annual agricultural surveys and agricultural censuses conducted since 2005-06.

For the purposes of this collection a business (statistical unit) is identified as undertaking agricultural activity if any of the primary or secondary productive activities of that business fall with the Agriculture Subdivision (Subdivision 01) as defined by the 2006 edition of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC). For more information, please refer to Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 (cat. no. 1292.0).

The scope for the 2016-17 REACS was all agricultural businesses with an Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations (EVAO) of $40,000 or greater. This is a change from previous ABS REACS collections, where a scope of EVAO of $5,000 or greater was used, and is a continuation of the scope used in the 2015-16 Agricultural Census. The change in scope better aligns this collection with contemporary definitions of an agricultural business and reduces the overall reporting load for smaller agricultural businesses. It is proposed that only agricultural businesses with an EVAO of $40,000 or greater will be in scope for ABS rural environmental and agricultural commodity collections in the future. For more information about EVAO, refer to the Explanatory Notes within this release.

As a result of the change in scope, the estimates from the 2016-17 REACS will not be directly comparable to previous published REACS outputs. To address this, additional estimates have been produced from a number of rural environment and agricultural commodity collections from 2010-11 to 2014-15 using an EVAO of $40,000 or greater. These estimates are now available at the national, state/territory levels and sub-state levels on the ABS website.


INTERPRETABILITY

The REACS and the Agricultural Census provide a broad range of data about Australian agricultural commodities through a suite of standard products or as data customised for individual requirements. Time series data are available for some estimates that were collected through previous surveys/censuses. Detailed explanatory notes are provided with each publication to assist users in determining and specifying their data requirements and to understand the concepts underlying the data.


ACCESSIBILITY

An extensive range of data are available from a variety of rural environment and agriculture based collections on the ABS website.

If the information you require is not available as a standard product or service, ABS Consultancy Services can assist with customised services to suit your requirements. Inquiries should be made to the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.