Not just counting sheep - Reinstatement of New Zealand's official statistical collection for agriculture.
by
Mieke Wensvoort
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Coauthors: David Lillis, Mieke Wensvoort

When in 1997 we ceased "counting sheep" through the official Agricultural Production Survey, the task of forecasting the contribution of agriculture and horticulture to the New Zealand economy became more problematic. The impacts of two years of drought in 1997 and 1998 were not quantified adequately and gross agricultural product was overestimated for these years. The implications of this for monetary policy caused alarm throughout the economy and the decision to cease the survey was reversed. The government approved two years of new initiative funding in 1999 Vote: Agriculture and Forestry to collect agricultural statistics. The joint contribution of agriculture, forestry and horticulture to gross domestic product is estimated at just over 7 per cent. Combined with the food processing and manufacturing industries, the sector contributes around 17 per cent to New Zealand's gross domestic product. The sector is predicted to continue growing over the next three years.

In 2001, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) was successful in obtaining ongoing funding to reinstate the collection of official agricultural statistics. A full census, collecting statistics on all livestock, horticulture and forestry, will be undertaken every five years commencing in 2002. Sample surveys will be conducted in intervening years. Resuming the collection of these statistics will be of interest to users because of the technical and statistical issues that must be addressed in undertaking a collection of this nature. The challenge for a successful reinstatement of the Agricultural Production Survey (APS) is to work towards a collection that conforms to high standards of coverage, accuracy, timeliness, consistency and frequency.

Date received: April 30, 2002