EU publications

Area sampling frames for agricultural and environmental surveys

Study

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Agricultural statistics in many developing countries are based on expert opinions (subjective reports) for small administrative units, often Enumeration Areas (EA) of agricultural or popularion censuses. Other countries use list-frame surveys built on censuses or administrative registers. List frames are efficient if they are updated and quality-checked with a sufficient frequency. This is very difficult to achieve in developing countries, where the population of farms or agricultural households is generally very dynamic. If list frames are not sufficiently updated or have completeness... problems, area frames provide a very useful alternative. The completeness of the frame can be guaranteed by just specifying the geographic boundaries of the country.