NSO to carry out first farm structure survey

The National Office of Statistics is holding the first farm structure survey in October.

NSO manager Mario Vella said yesterday that the survey would then be held every two years based on the census of agriculture held in 2001. The census itself is to be held every 10 years.

Farm structure surveys are held across the EU, helping assess the agricultural situation and monitor trends in the structure of holdings.

While all farmers are interviewed for the census, only about 14 per cent will be interviewed for the survey, making its cost about a fifth of the Lm80,000 required for the census.

The census had established the economic size of each of the 11,959 holdings on the islands and provided a stocktaking of arable land, livestock, the agricultural work force, agricultural production and machinery.

The farm structure survey will give a very accurate result of how the situation is developing while saving money and time. This is because no major changes will have taken place over two years.

The people to be interviewed have already been selected and they will be contacted soon and given an appointment for an interview. Results would then have to be delivered within nine months.

Mr Vella pointed out that the most glaring change between the 2001 census and a survey that had been held in 1999 was that registered vineyards had expanded in area from 492 hectares to nearly 600 hectares.

This could be as a result of the EU regulation that wine not made with grapes grown in Malta could not be called Maltese wine. The government's aim is to increase the area under vine to 1,000 hectares, to cover local requirements.

An aerial survey was also held in April, 2000 and this had given basically the same results as the census.