Transcript How to Build an Integrated Database in Agriculture and Food: The

How to Build an Integrated Database in
Agriculture and Food: The Farm Income and
Prices Section Database – A Case Study
Presentation to the Fourth International Conference
on Agriculture Statistics - Beijing, China
October 22-24, 2007
Statistics Canada
Denis Chartrand
Outline
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Introduction
Evolution of farm structure and farm income
issues
Agriculture Economic Statistics Framework
The role of the Farm Income and Prices
Section and its database
The new system for processing farm income
and prices data
Benefits to be realized
Summary and Questions
Evolution of farm structure and
farm income issues
• Agriculture’s place in the Canadian
economy:
– 1.5% of GDP (primary agriculture)
– 8.1% of GDP (agriculture and agri-food)
– 13.1% of employment (agriculture and agrifood)
Trend towards fewer but larger farms
continues
Farm numbers and average farm size
Sales are becoming more concentrated
in larger operations
Smallest percentage of farms needed to account for
half of the agricultural sales
Agriculture Economic Statistics
Framework
The role of the Farm Income and
Prices Section and its database
• Integrator of agriculture data
• Provider of official statistics on farm performance
• Provider of expertise on agriculture economic
issues
• Evolving user needs
• Evolving system for processing farm income and
prices data
The new system for processing
farm income and prices data
• Challenges posed by the environment
• Weaknesses of the existing system
• Options for an upgraded system
The new system for processing
farm income and prices data
• Project Life Cycle: Analysis and Design
Phase
• Design Challenges
– Disciplined workflow and quality assurance
measures
– Flexibility versus structure
The new system for processing
farm income and prices data (Con’d)
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System Design
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Characteristics
User Interface
Database
Load Function
Business Rule Editor
Analysis and Reports
Benefits to be realized
• Update the existing databases to a more
sustainable technology
• Offer basic standards of quality to make
verification easier and reducing the risk of errors
• Provide consistent definitions of important data
such as the period, geographic coverage,
source, data quality and confidence indicators
• Provide an environment less dependent on
individuals and more dependent on teams.
Benefits to be realized (Concluded)
• Allow for flexibility and innovation in analysis
• Provide a secure environment that protects the
data against inadvertent change but allows
updates by authorized users
• Provide a strong systems commitment to
maintaining and protecting the system and data
• Make documentation and training easily
available to users
Summary
• Long history of high-quality unbiased information on
the performance of the agricultural sector
• The agriculture industry, along with farm families, is
changing rapidly, impacting measures of farm income
and performance
• Effective and efficient system needed to ensure highquality data are produced
• Challenge: to continue to develop and then implement
the system as efficiently and quickly as possible while
continuing to produce the high-quality data and
information required by users
• Future Developments