EUROPEAN COMMISSION Luxembourg, February 2002
EUROSTAT
Directorate F: Agricultural, environmental and energy statistics

Doc. AEI/05

Meeting of
Working Party On “Agri-Environmental Indicators“
On 11 and 12 March 2002 in Luxembourg
BECH Building, Room QUETELET
Beginning : Monday 11 March 2002 at 9h30

Working document on

Item 6 of the Agenda

Information on other Agricultural Statistics Committee activities related to the Working Party’s activities:

Agri-environmental indicators in the TAPAS program

1. TAPAS 2001: status report

1.1 objectives

1.2 assessment of the TAPAS 2001 action plan

- agri-environnemental indicators

9 projects, proposed by 8 Member States

Community contribution: 318 000 Euro

2. TAPAS 2002: status report

2.1 explanatory memorandum

2.2 outline of the actions to be implemented

* environmental aspects of agriculture

- agri-environnemental indicators

10 projects, proposed by 9 Member States

Community contribution: 282 500 Euro

1. TAPAS 2001: status report

1.1Objectives

The third annual technical action plan to improve Community agricultural statistics (TAPAS 2001) was approved by the Commission on 12 February 2001 (Commission Decision No 2001/147/EC). The aim of the work planned is to continue a number of actions embarked upon during previous action plans and carry out studies of new topics, particularly the following:

1.1.1.Supply balances

1.1.2.Use of pesticides

1.1.3.Animal production forecasts

1.1.4.Agri-environmental indicators

The Commission is keen to encourage projects that allow existing indicators to be improved, particularly the yields of certain crops at regional level, data on the sales or consumption of mineral fertilisers, etc. It also backs the compilation of landscape indicators such as the length of hedges or walls or utilised area at regional level other than UAAs (common grazing, mountain pasture, etc.), the impact of structural characteristics on the operation of holdings and data on cropping practices.

1.1.5.Environmental aspects of agricultural accounts

1.2.Assessment of the TAPAS 2001 action plan

1.2.1.General balances

The TAPAS 2001 action plan was the first to be implemented after the significant amendments made to a Council Decision 96/411/EC of 25 June 1996 by Decision of the European Parliament and Council No 2000/2298/EC of 28 September 2000. The latter decision modified the management procedures, simplifying funding and ensuring that financial resources are better matched to Member States' needs. The projects embarked on to date are very promising.

Indeed, of the 46 projects for which funding was approved by the Commission, only a few have been put on hold (accounting for around €50 000).

This means that, all being well, the budget will be bigger than hitherto and that it will be possible to make significant changes to the national systems of agricultural statistics. Notorious shortcomings in certain supply balances and in production forecasts will be made good. Significant developments will also be made in new fields, particularly the environmental dimension of agriculture - specifically a quantitative assessment of its contribution to the community in terms of non-remunerated services, the use of plant protection products and the development of agri-environmental indicators.

Together, these represent very significant improvements, the full impact of which cannot yet be assessed. However, all being well, this TAPAS annual action plan can be expected to have a very positive outcome.

1.2.2.Agri-environmental indicators

This them was included this year, for the first time, in the list of TAPAS 2001 actions. Eight countries expressed an interest in carrying out work of this type. If all the actions are completed, the Community contribution will be € 318 000.

Once this work is finished, information that is very much in demand will be available - on the use of fertilisers (B, DK, E, P), landscape studies (D, E) and the compilation of indicators measuring the environmental impact of farming (I, NL, UK).

As regards TAPAS 2001, work will start up once the 30% Community contribution is committed or paid in advance. Delegations are asked to draw attention to possible difficulties so that the appropriate solutions can be arrived at jointly.

The Commission is keen to see work carried out during 2002, so that the relevant changes can be made as soon as possible and an assessment drawn up, this being crucial as back-up for follow-up work in improving and adapting agricultural statistical beyond.

TAPAS 2001 - Evaluation form

  1. Member State: BELGIUM
  2. Annual action plan: TAPAS 2001
  3. Name of the action: improving the quality of information available on the production and use of fertilisers
  4. Current status of the action: under way
  5. Improvement(s) made to the Community statistical system:
  • More reliable: Yes
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify): regular production of new regional statistics (NUTS2)
  1. Improvement(s) made to the national statistical system:
  • More reliable: Yes
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify): improvement to model concerning mineral flows at agricultural holding level

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TAPAS 2001 - Evaluation form

  1. Member State: DENMARK
  2. Annual action plan: TAPAS 2001
  3. Name of the action: improving knowledge of the use of mineral fertilisers by nitrogenous fertilisation plans
  4. Current status of the action: : under way
  5. Improvement(s) made to the Community statistical system:
  • More reliable: Yes
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify):
  1. Improvement(s) made to the national statistical system:
  • More reliable: Yes
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify): better understanding of nitrogenous flows in inland waters; better description of the use of fertilisers and definition of strategies to reduce the environmental effects of their use

TAPAS 2001 - Evaluation form

  1. Member State: GERMANY
  2. Annual action plan: TAPAS 2001
  3. Name of the action: landscape indicators: lengths of hedges and walls
  4. Current status of the action: : under way
  5. Improvement(s) made to the Community statistical system:
  • More reliable
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify): establishment of new indicators by conducting a survey of manmade elements (dividing walls and hedges); providing an answer to international questionnaires (FAO international report on the environment, OECD)
  1. Improvement(s) made to the national statistical system:
  • More reliable
  • Information available more quickly: Yes
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify): regular, harmonised and fast compilation of Federal report

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TAPAS 2001 - Evaluation form

  1. Member State: SPAIN (1/2)
  2. Annual action plan: TAPAS 2001
  3. Name of the action: regional use of mineral fertilisers
  4. Current status of the action: under way
  5. Improvement(s) made to the Community statistical system:
  • More reliable: Yes
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify):
  1. Improvement(s) made to the national statistical system:
  • More reliable: Yes
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify): better understanding of the conditions of agricultural production and the environmental impact of the use of mineral fertilisers

TAPAS 2001 - Evaluation form

  1. Member State: SPAIN (2/2)
  2. Annual action plan:TAPAS 2001
  3. Name of the action: Study of agricultural land
  4. Current status of the action: : under way
  5. Improvement(s) made to the Community statistical system:
  • More reliable
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify): pilot survey for landscape analysis, creation of indicators of situation and of change
  1. Improvement(s) made to the national statistical system:
  • More reliable
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify):

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TAPAS 2001 - Evaluation form

  1. Member State: ITALY
  2. Annual action plan: TAPAS 2001
  3. Name of the action: Environmental impact of agricultural holdings
  4. Current status of the action: : under way
  5. Improvement(s) made to the Community statistical system:
  • More reliable
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify): identification of effective indicators that can be actually calculated
  1. Improvement(s) made to the national statistical system:
  • More reliable
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify): improvement to the national statistical system on the environment

TAPAS 2001 - Evaluation form

  1. Member State: NETHERLANDS
  2. Annual action plan: TAPAS 2001
  3. Name of the action: improvement of statistics on animal effluent
  4. Current status of the action: : under way
  5. Improvement(s) made to the Community statistical system:
  • More reliable: Yes
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify):
  1. Improvement(s) made to the national statistical system:
  • More reliable: Yes
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify): knowledge at regional level of fodder production

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TAPAS 2001 - Evaluation form

  1. Member State: PORTUGAL
  2. Annual action plan: TAPAS 2001
  3. Name of the action: Use of fertilisers
  4. Current status of the action: : under way
  5. Improvement(s) made to the Community statistical system:
  • More reliable
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify):
  1. Improvement(s) made to the national statistical system:
  • More reliable
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify): estimation of regional use of fertilisers, for a better evaluation of certain AEIs such as greenhouse gas emission

TAPAS 2001 - Evaluation form

  1. Member State: UNITED KINGDOM
  2. Annual action plan: TAPAS 2001
  3. Name of the action: Crop practices and sustainable agriculture
  4. Current status of the action: : under way
  5. Improvement(s) made to the Community statistical system:
  • More reliable
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify):
  1. Improvement(s) made to the national statistical system:
  • More reliable: Yes
  • Information available more quickly
  • Better coverage
  • Other improvements (please specify): creation of a survey on crop practices

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TECHNICAL ACTION PLAN

Community contribution to expenditure incurred

(€ 1000)

2001

COUNTRY / B / DK / D / EL / E / F / IRL / I / L / NL / OS / P / FIN / S / UK / TOTAL / TOTAL COMMITMENT
Balances / 10 / 30 / 20 / 50[1] / 13 / 45 / 15 / 25 / 45 / 253 / 200
Animal production forecats / 12 / 12 / 20 / 44 / 44
Use of pesticides / 16 / 14 / 44 / 30 / 22 / 16 / 17 / 17 / 17 / 16 / 209 / 209
Agri-environmental indicators / 24 / 25[2] / 60 / 40 / 50 / 30 / 34 / 75 / 338 / 318
Environmental aspects of agricultural accounting / 19 / 10
/ 25 / 6 / 8 / 10 / 25 / 12
/ 115 / 75
TOTAL
TOTAL COMMITMENT / 69
69 / 79
19 / 104
104 / 30
30 / 119
119 / 6
6 / 0
0 / 124
93 / 0
0 / 82
72 / 70
70 / 66
66 / 17
17 / 41
41 / 152
140 / 959
846 / 846
(88,2%)

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  1. TAPAS 2002: status report

2.1.Explanatory memorandum

  1. The purpose of Council Decision 96/411/EC[3] of 25 June 1996 as last amended by Decision No2000/2298/EC[4] of the European Parliament and of the Council is to ensure that Community agricultural statistics are better geared to meeting the information requirements arising from the reform of the common agricultural policy. To this end, the Member States are taking all the necessary steps to make the appropriate changes to their systems of agricultural statistics, due account being taken of the fields mentioned in Annex I and II of the decision in question and of the objectives, characteristics and criteria set out in Annex III. The actions to be taken each year by the Member States in order to achieve these objectives are defined annually in technical action plans. These are drawn up by the Commission after the Standing Committee on Agricultural Statistics has delivered its opinion.

2.The Community makes a financial contribution to the expenditure incurred by each Member State in making changes to national systems or for preparatory work to meet new or growing needs to be carried out as part of the annual technical action plan. This contribution, which is of limited duration, aims to facilitate experimentation with, the introduction of, or the consolidation of, collection methods and systems that meet the statistical information requirements set out in the technical action plan. Once the plan has been carried out, the Member States must be in a position to continue sending the Commission regular reports on the methods and systems introduced as part of the said plan.

3.The current decision to be adopted by the Commission is for the 2002 technical action plan. This is designed to build on certain TAPAS measures taken in the past, such as work on improving physical data and on the environmental aspects of agriculture, and to start new actions in the field of rural development.

2.2OUTLINE OF THE ACTIONS TO BE IMPLEMENTED UNDER THE TAPAS 2002 ACTION PLAN

2.2.1.Physical data

2.2.2.Environmental aspects of agricultural accounting

2.2.3.Environmental aspects of agriculture

2.2.4Agri-environmental indicators (AEI)

Under this topic, the Commission is continuing to support the Member State proposals to improve calculations of certain existing AEIs and create new ones.

As regards existing indicators, the proposed 2002 actions concern charting regional yields of the main crops, stocking density and sales or consumption data for mineral fertilisers at regional level.

Consideration has also been given to characteristics that will allow new indicators to be constructed, such as the length of hedges or separating walls at regional level as well as land used for farming but not included in the utilised agricultural area of holdings, such as common grazing, alpine pastures and semi-natural areas.

The bulk of work concerns the use of fertilisers. There are also plans to improve understanding of the good practices used in the more natural farming techniques (biological farming, rational farming, integrated crop protection, etc.). Indicators on changes in farmland are also included.

2.2.5.Use of pesticides

The EU's Fifth Environmental Action Programme has been decided on and is designed to reduce the impact of pesticides in order to maintain natural resources and ensure the sustainable development of agriculture. CAP agri-environmental measures, pursuant to Council Regulation 2078/92[5], are designed to help bring about such a reduction by compensating farmers for the loss of revenue that may arise from the reduction of inputs, particularly pesticides. In order to ensure that these measures are effective and the goals are met, it is essential to have detailed information on the use of pesticides.

The work to be financed under the TAPAS 2002 action plan will allow the Member States to consolidate the collection of information or extend it to other active materials, other crops or the use of other sources. The planned funding should also allow other Member States to broach these new topics. The various actions cover methodological work and information collection work for individual countries at regional level.

2.2.6.Rural development

The integrated development of rural areas is increasingly becoming a major concern of sectoral policy, including agricultural policy. After the regulation of markets in agricultural products, rural development is the second most important aspect of the CAP. This generates new needs in terms of statistical data, and particularly the availability of information on aspects of farming that were previously less prominent.

These new requirements are for more detail in terms of the territorial breakdown of data normally collected at national level. They also concern territorial divisions that are often different from the administrative divisions used for most regional statistics. Requirements also extend to information on the non-farming component of the income of holdings and families, particularly activities that supplement farming activity and the community services provided by farmers.

This new area of development of agricultural statistics has been spread this year across a number of TAPAS proposals. The work done by the Member States has a pioneering aspect that should be emphasised and encouraged. Work covers a large number of topics, from information on income to the quantification of community services and studies aimed at enhancing the use of existing structural information.

ANNEXE TAPAS 2002

THEME: Environmental aspects of agriculture,Agri-environmental indicators

Belgium – impact of agriculture on the environment

Improving pressure indicators (the P in DPSIR) in agriculture, in particular improving the knowledge of animal waste (improving the quality of indicators and the speed at which they are obtained). There will also be a set of indicators for the use of water and energy, the emission of sulphide and nitrogen compounds and the emission of greenhouse gases. Other indicators will cover the impact of agriculture on the landscape.

Denmark – use of fertilisers

Charting the use of fertilisers purchased, at holding level; trials in various regions and on various crops.

Germany - hedges and walls separating parcels of land

Improving the description of landscape elements by means of indicators (to be created), with testing of regularity and speed of supply.

Germany – characterisation of the biodiversity of agricultural landscape

Improving knowledge, in terms of biodiversity, of agricultural landscape as a whole, and charting the impact of the environment on agricultural activity.

Greece - territorial agri-environmental indicators

Creating a set of territorial agri-environmental indicators as part of a reorganisation of statistical information, including data from structural surveys and geo-referenced data.

Netherlands – regional balances and mineral fertilisers

Using the method developed for animal effluent (TAPAS 2001), compile regional balances for mineral fertilisers.

Austria – farmers as environmental managers

Draw up an inventory of indicators on types of agricultural production and their impact on the environment.

Portugal - agri-environmental indicators and farming practices

Create a set of agri-environmental indicators on farming practices and their impact on the environment. Define ways of collecting these indicators.

Finland - agri-environmental indicators and farming practices

Create a set of agri-environmental indicators on farming practices and their impact on the environment. Define ways of collecting these indicators.

Sweden - agri-environmental landscape indicators

Preparing a pilot survey of landscape structures likely to be supported under environmental programmes.

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Table A

2002 TECHNICAL ACTION PLAN

maximum financial contribution by the Community to expenditure incurred

by Member State (€ 1 000)

COUNTRY / B / DK / D / EL / E / F / IRL / I / L / NL / OS / P / FIN / S / UK / TOTAL
Crop products / 10,0 / 9,0 / 37,5 / 56,5
Animal products / 6,0 / 24,0 / 10,0 / 40,0
Feed balances / 12,0 / 15,0 / 50,0 / 77,0
Other work / 60,0 / 20,0 / 80,0
Environmental aspects of agricultural accounting / 20,0 / 3,0 / 29,0 / 52,0
Agri-environmental indicators / 30,0 / 15,0 / 60,0 / 45,0 / 27,5 / 15,0 / 45,0 / 35,0 / 10,0 / 282,5
Use of pesticiedes / 15,0 / 25,0 / 30,0 / 20,0 / 20,0 / 20,0 / 15,0 / 145,0
Rural development / 15,0 / 30,0 / 90,0 / 47,5 / 10,0 / 10,0 / 202,5
TOTAL / 98,0 / 15,0 / 85,0 / 105,0 / 44,0 / 3,0 / 0,0 / 160,0 / 0,0 / 104,0 / 116,5 / 65,0 / 55,0 / 85,0 / 0,0 / 935,5
COUNTRY / B / DK / D / EL / E / F / IRL / I / L / NL / O.S / P / FIN / S / UK / TOTAL
Physical data / 18,0 / 24,0 / 70,0 / 9,0 / 62,5 / 20,0 / 50,0 / 253,5
Environmental aspects of agricultural accounting / 20,0 / 3,0 / 29,0 / 52,0
Agri-environmental indicators / 30,0 / 15,0 / 60,0 / 45,0 / 27,5 / 15,0 / 45,0 / 35,0 / 10,0 / 282,5
Use of pesticides / 15,0 / 25,0 / 30,0 / 20,0 / 20,0 / 20,0 / 15,0 / 145,0
Rural development / 15,0 / 30,0 / 90,0 / 47,5 / 10,0 / 10,0 / 202,5
TOTAL / 98,0 / 15,0 / 85,0 / 105,0 / 44,0 / 3,0 / 0,0 / 160,0 / 0,0 / 104,0 / 116,5 / 65,0 / 55,0 / 85,0 / 0,0 / 935,5

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