4610.0.55.008 - Gross Value of Irrigated Agricultural Production, 2015-16 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 31/10/2017   
   Page tools: Print Print Page Print all pages in this productPrint All

QUALITY DECLARATION - SUMMARY

INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT

For information on the institutional environment of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), including the legislative obligations of the ABS, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, please see ABS Institutional Environment.

RELEVANCE

This product presents the gross value of agricultural commodities that are produced with the assistance of irrigation, The publication presents data on national, state and territory bases. Sub-state level data, including Natural Resource Management (NRM) region and the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) region, will be released in data cubes attached to the publication.

Gross Value of Irrigated Agricultural Production (GVIAP) estimates closely complement estimates contained in ABS Water Account, Australia (cat. no. 4610.0) which is produced annually.

TIMELINESS

These GVIAP estimates have been published within 16 months of the of the reference period and approximately three months after the release of the main value of agricultural production data in Value of Agricultural Commodities Produced, Australia (cat. no. 7503.0).

ACCURACY

The accuracy of price data is ensured by the collection of price data from high-quality sources. Where a statutory authority handles marketing of the whole or a portion of a product, data are usually obtained from this source. Information is also obtained from marketing reports, wholesalers, brokers, dealers and auctioneers. Production data are obtained from a range of high-quality sources, including ABS agricultural commodity collections and industry bodies. Extensive editing of production and prices data and checking of resultant value estimates against earlier years and other relevant sources are used to ensure the accuracy of the estimates produced.

All estimates in this publication are subject to sampling error. For more information about these errors, refer to the Explanatory Notes within this release.

COHERENCE

GVIAP is calculated for each irrigated 'commodity group' produced by agricultural businesses. That is, GVIAP is generally not calculated for individual commodities, but rather for groups of 'like' commodities according to irrigated commodity grouping on the ABS Agricultural Census or Rural Environment and Agricultural Commodities Survey forms. The irrigated commodity groups vary slightly on the survey form from year-to-year. See the Appendix within this release for further information about the commodity groups used for this release.

As noted in the publication Agricultural Census: Nature and Content, 2015-16 (cat. no 7100.1), the scope for the 2015-16 Agricultural Census was all agricultural businesses with an Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations (EVAO) of $40,000 or greater. This is a change from previous ABS Rural Environment and Agricultural Collections, where a scope of EVAO of $5,000 or greater was used. The change in scope better aligns this collection with contemporary definitions of an agricultural business and reduces the overall reporting load for smaller agricultural businesses. It is proposed that only agricultural businesses with an EVAO of $40,000 or greater will be in scope for ABS rural environmental and agricultural commodity collections in 2016-17 and beyond. For more information about EVAO, refer to the Explanatory Notes within Agricultural Commodities, Australia (7121.0) release.

The scope change impacts on all components of GVIAP. Where information is sourced from the Agricultural Census there will be an impact on estimates, including for crops and horticulture where production information is now only collected from businesses with a value of agricultural operations of $40,000 or greater.

As a result of the change in scope, the 2015-16 GVIAP will not be directly comparable to previously published GVIAP outputs. To address this, additional estimates will be made available on request for a number of GVIAP releases from 2010-11 to 2014-15 using an EVAO of $40,000 or greater. These estimates will be available on request in late 2017

INTERPRETABILITY

This product provides a broad range of data about the value of irrigated agricultural commodities produced in Australia. Detailed explanatory notes are provided in this publication to assist users in determining and specifying their data requirements and to understand the concepts underlying the data.

The annual agricultural collections and five-yearly agricultural censuses provide a broad range of data about Australian agricultural commodities through a suite of standard products or as data customised for individual requirements. Estimates from these surveys are published on the ABS website. Detailed explanatory notes about these estimates are available in the following publications:


ACCESSIBILITY

An extensive range of data is available from a variety of agriculture-based collections on the ABS website.

If the information you require is not available as a standard product or service, then ABS Consultancy Services can help you with customised services to suit your needs. Inquiries should be made to the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.