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Change in collection scope for ABS rural environment and agricultural commodity collections

A change in collection scope has been adopted for the 2015-16 Agricultural Census and the 2015-16 Land Management Practices collections. The ABS has increased the minimum value of the estimated value of agricultural operations (EVAO) used to scope agricultural businesses from $5,000 and greater to $40,000 and greater. This change is expected to continue for future ABS rural environmental and agricultural commodity collections in 2016-17 and beyond.

The change in scope cut-off value will align the ABS definition of an agricultural business with that used by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARES), and will bring the ABS’s agricultural survey program more in line with other ABS business surveys. It will also decrease the number of businesses in scope of the collections thereby reducing respondent burden and improving collection efficiency.

To assist understanding the effect increasing the EVAO scope cut-off value will have on 2015-16 Agricultural Census and Land Management Practices Survey outputs, estimates consistent with the revised scope are being made available for a number of rural environment and agricultural commodity surveys from 2010-11 to 2014-15. These will provide a time series based on the new scope over a 5 year period and will be released progressively from December 2016.

Estimates are provided for three EVAO classes;