Irish National Farm Survey (NFS)
Teagasc, the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority
The National Farm Survey (NFS) has been conducted by Teagasc on an annual basis since 1972. The survey is operated as part of the Farm Accountancy Data Network of the EU and fulfils Ireland’s statutory obligation to provide data on farm output, costs and income to the European Commission. A random, nationally representative sample, of between 1,000 and 1,200 farms depending on the year, is selected annually in conjunction with the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Each farm is assigned a weighting factor so that the results of the survey are representative of the national population of farms. Pigs and poultry systems are not represented because of the small number of farms in these systems. Co-operation in the survey is voluntary but the survey is supported by the main farming organisations. The success of the NFS is largely dependent on the voluntary co-operation of farmers in providing reliable and accurate data on their farm businesses.
Data Attributes
| Collection Method | The data collected cover all the key financial and physical indicators at farm level viz inventories, sales, purchases, costs, subsidies, liabilities, assets, cropping programme, yields etc. In recent years the NFS has extended the range of data covered to the farm household, as the increased emphasis on rural development and viability of rural communities has placed greater emphasis on farm household data e.g. off-farm employment and income, farm inheritance, household composition, age structure etc. Additional data are also being collected regarding environmental issues. Data is collected using laptop computers on a regular basis throughout the year by a team of trained Teagasc Research Technicians located throughout the country. The NFS has always been conducted to ensure total confidentiality of individual farmer’s data. A unique code is used to identify each farm thus ensuring that data cannot be linked to a particular farm. |
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| Other Info | Main Uses of this dataset: Financial, Research, Policy, Farm advice/benchmark performance, EU Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), National Data on Agriculture To access the data, please complete a ISSDA Data Request Form for Research Purposes Link to download form:https://www.ucd.ie/issda/t4media/ISSDA_Application_Research_V5.docx sign it, and send it to ISSDA by email <issda@ucd.ie>. Data will be disseminated on receipt of a fully completed, signed form. Incomplete or unsigned forms will be returned to the data requester for completion. |