Section 6. Questionnaire on Metadata relating to agriculture price statistics.
(National Methods of collecting, processing and disseminating Agricultural Price Statistics)

Introduction

Improvement of knowledge of food and agricultural statistics is a major objective by FAO. In this regard, the knowledge of methods used by countries in the collection of agricultural price statistics is essential.

The Statistics Division of FAO is developing an Agriculture Data Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board on the Web site to guide users on national practice on the collection, compilation and dissemination of data. Information available on the bulletin board will, thus, include national agriculture metadata relating to national statistical methods used for collection of data, information on contact persons, dissemination formats, coverage, periodicity, access by the public, etc. If documents describing such details or part there of are available, they could be sent to the FAO Statistics Division and need not include such details in the reply.

Questionnaire description

To the extent possible, questionnaire itself is designed in a ‘tick out’ format to minimise the respondent burden. The first part of the questionnaire covers Sources of basic data, Coverage of basic data, Frequency of data collection and Dissemination tools for each item in our lists. For each question one can choose between a set of pre-defined and pre-coded answers. The second part of the questionnaire is open. It covers Contact names, Methods for calculating averages (annual averages and national averages), availability of Sub-national data. Answers can be written in pre-set spaces for primary crops and livestock.

Countries who replied to this section of the questionnaire in 2002 will find copy of their reply attached herewith. They will not need to fill this section again but only amend it, if necessary.

Codes to be used in part 2 of the questionnaire

Sources of basic data: (A) administrative records, (S) sample surveys, (P) purposive selection, (O) others (please specify).
Coverage of basic data: (P) producer price, (W) wholesale price, (C) consumer price, (O) Others (please specify).
Frequency of data collection: (D) every day, (W) Selected day of the week round the year, (S) Selected day of the week for specific period, (M) Monthly, (O) Other (please specify).
Disseminated data: (PR) absolute prices, (IND) price index numbers.
Dissemination method: (NR) news release, (BU) bulletin, (PU) publication, (CD) CD-Rom, (DB) on-line database.
Frequency of publication: (A) annual, (M) monthly, (Q) quarterly, (W) weekly.
Timeliness of dissemination: give time-lag between data collection and dissemination (e.g. 4M for a 4-months lag).