The General Authority for Statistics uses a unified working methodology that is consistent with the nature of each statistical product in all of its statistical work. As a result, it is dependent on the Manual of Statistical Proceedings in accordance with the international organizations' established working procedures. The statistical product has eight basic stages, plus a ninth stage known as "Comprehensive Management," as shown in the following illustration and explained below:

The first 3 stages (Scope, Design and Organization) are cooperative processes between GASTAT and its clients, represented by developmental entities data users, while stage 4 (Data Collection) is done through GASTAT’s cooperation with the providers of record data. The remaining stages are statistical stages in which data is tabulated, reviewed and published. Then, stage 8 (Assessment) is carried out with clients. However, the Management stage is an administrative and organizational procedure applied across all stages. These stages have been applied to Agricultural Statistics Publications as follows:

It serves as the foundation for the creation of the Agricultural Statistics Publication. It is also considered the first stage of collaboration between the General Authority for Statistics and its governmental partners, as such bodies were contacted as follows: The Environment, Water, and Agriculture as an official source of data, a provider of data, and a beneficiary of data all at the same time, as well as the Agricultural Development Fund “ADF”. The goal of interacting with authorities is to gain a knowledge of the demands, identify the requirements of data users, and consider their perspectives in order to assure the achievement of all of the agricultural statistics' objectives, which are as follows:

1. Support for decision makers, policy makers, backers and those interested in updated agriculture in Saudi Arabia.
2. Provision of updated statistics on: 

• The area and production of organic agriculture for the agricultural sector and livestock.
• Self-sufficiency ratio of plant and animal products.
• The movement of loans to which the ADF contributes.
• Total quantity and value of exports, imports and re-exports of agricultural crops and livestock.
• Bank credit granted according to economic activity (agriculture and fishing).

This is the design stage of statistical work as an integrated product. During this stage, the tools and methods of data collection are set forth. Clients are engaged in all these processes to take their feedback into account, so that the product would live up to their expectations.

The most important outcomes of this stage are:

1. Statistics Sources:

In its data, the Agricultural Statistics Publication relies on several record sources, which makes it available data on self-sufficiency indicators. Data can be obtained annually and on a regular basis, making it easier to calculate and publish details of agricultural indicators that are accurate, relevant and compatible with the standards of international organizations, all of which are consolidated into a single publication.

The following table shows the type of data provided by each source of agricultural statistics:

2. Terms and concepts associated with agricultural products:

Agricultural products:

It is a category of products that includes crops grown in a field area for harvesting for use as food, fodder, olives, fibers, sugar, or any other medical or industrial material, as well as livestock such as animals and birds raised on farms.

Organic agriculture:

 It is a comprehensive agricultural production management system that promotes and improves the integrity of the agro-ecosystem, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil bioactivity. It emphasizes the use of management methods rather than non-agricultural inputs, while taking regional conditions into account, which necessitate systems that are tailored to local conditions. This is accomplished by employing agricultural and mechanical methods rather than synthetic materials such as fertilizers, pesticides, veterinary drugs, genetically modified seeds and strains, preservatives, and additives.

Agricultural loans:

​​​​​These are loans that are provided to finance agricultural areas for the purpose of growing crops of all kinds, fruit farms, apiaries, fishing boats, agricultural tourism loans, veterinary clinics and pharmacies and vegetable carts.

Self-Sufficiency:

It is the dependence of the State on its capabilities to obtain investment and consumer goods.

Agricultural Exports:

According to the criteria of foreign trade statistics, these are all agricultural goods (agricultural crops and livestock) that have been fully produced or manufactured locally or on which an industrial process has changed their form and value for export outside the KSA.

Value of agricultural exports:

The value of exported goods is determined by the value of agricultural goods in addition to other costs until they are delivered on the back of the ship or include the value of the goods including all the expenses as well as the export office.

Agricultural imports:

According to the Foreign Trade Statistics Standards, it is all agricultural goods and commodities (agricultural crops and livestock) entering the country to cover local needs and under all customs procedures in place to complete the import of a commodity.

Value of agricultural imports:

The value of agricultural imports is defined as the cost of the imported product plus the costs of shipping, insurance, transportation, and other expenses incurred until the goods arrive at the port of entry.

Re-exported goods:

Agricultural goods from agricultural crops and livestock that have already been imported and all customs procedures for exporting them have been carried out without any obvious amendments being made to them.

3. Indicators:

Indicators for the Agricultural Statistics Publication include:

• Area and production of organic agriculture for the agricultural crops.
• Area and production of organic agriculture for livestock.
• Self-sufficiency ratio of plant and animal products.
• Approved loans for agricultural projects to which the ADF contributed during the fiscal year.
• The movement of loans distributed among the sectors of agricultural production, with its animal plant aspects, since the establishment of the ADF until the end of the fiscal year.
• Total quantity and value of imports, exports and re-exported agricultural crops and livestock by product groups.
• Bank credit granted according to economic activity (agriculture and fishing).

4. Coverage:

Spatial coverage:

  The Agricultural Statistics Publication covers all administrative regions of Saudi Arabia, where it covers the following regions: (Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Qassim, Eastern Region, Asir, Tabuk, Hail, Northern Borders, Jazan, Najran, Al-Baha, and Al-Jouf)

Temporal Coverage:

Annual record data received from the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, the Agricultural Development Fund, as well as data from the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority and Saudi Central Bank.

It is the final stage of preparation, during which the procedures for the work required for the preparation of agricultural statistics have been developed, which will begin in the next stage "collection" and end with the "evaluation," the organization and collection of such procedures, and the determination of their most appropriate sequence in order to realize a methodology that achieves the agricultural statistics' objectives. These procedures have also been described and implemented in order to make future cycles easier to update. The statistical work procedures have been tried and tested to ensure that they meet the needs of preparing the final version of the agricultural statistics. In addition, a procedure for carrying out statistical work has been adopted, and a road map for implementation has been developed.

The General Authority for Statistics coordinated with the concerned government entities to obtain data on agricultural statistics from the administrative records data available to those entities, through official communications to the data owner. The data were delivered via various modes of transportation and uploaded and maintained on the GASTST database, which was audited and reviewed in accordance with the scientific statistical index and standard quality standards. Agricultural export and import data were also provided based on information obtained from the Zakat, tax, and Customs Authority.

During this stage, the GASTAT’s specialists undertook a data processing and analysis process that was based on several procedures, as follows:

• Sort and arrange data in a sequence or in different groups or categories.
• Summarizing detailed data into key points or data.
• Combining many data segments and make them interconnected.
• Process missing or incomplete data.
• Processing irrational data.
• Converting data into statistically significant data.
• Organizing and presenting data.

Agricultural statistics data are presented in right tables in order to summarize, understand, as well as extract their results. Moreover, to compare them with other data, and to obtain statistical significances about the selected community.

As a result of the confidentiality of personal data, GASTAT removed the identifiers from the data set used.

First: Data outputs validation:

In addition to the revision process applied to the collected data in the fourth stage to check their accuracy, all the outputs are stored and uploaded to the database after being calculated by GASTAT to be reviewed and processed through modern technologies and software designed for this purpose.

Second: Dealing with confidential data:

According to the Royal Decree No. 23 dated 07/12/1397, data must always be kept confidential, and must be used by GASTAT only for statistical purposes. Therefore, the data are protected in the data servers of GASTAT.

First: Preparation and Process of the Results Designed for Publishing:

During this stage, GASTAT coordinated, organized and reviewed the data of the publication. Then, publishing tables and charts of data and indicators, metadata, and methodology were all prepared and processed to be published in both languages English and Arabic.

Second: Preparing Media Kit and Announcing the Date of the Release:

During this period, the Authority is preparing the media kits to announce the date of releasing the bulletin through media, in addition to its various platforms in social networking sites. The bulletin will be published firstly on GASTAT’s official website in different formats, such as Excel format

to be easily reached for all clients and those who are interested in agricultural statistics in KSA, and to be listed in the Statistical Library at GASTAT’s website.

Third: Communication with and Providing Clients with the Publication: 

GASTAT believed in the importance of communication with the clients, therefore, once the publication is released, GASTAT will communicate with the clients and provide them with the publication. GASTAT will receive the questions and enquiries about the publication and its results through its various channels as follows: 

• GASTAT’s website:   www.stats.gov.sa
• GASTAT’s email: info@stats.gov.sa
• Client support’s email  cs@stats.gov.sa
• Visiting GASTAT head office in Riyadh or in one of its branches in Saudi Arabia.
• Official letters.
• Statistical help line (920020081).

All GASTAT’s clients who used the results of the Publication will be contacted again in order to assess the entire statistical process. This is done for improvement purposes in order to obtain high-quality data. The improvements include: methodologies, procedures and systems, statisticians’ skill level, as well as statistical work frameworks. This phase is carried out with data users and GASTAT clients according to the following steps:

First: Collecting measurable evaluation inputs:

The most important comments are collected and documented from their sources at various stages, such as those made by specialists concerned with the review, verification and analysis of data collected from administrative records. Comments submitted by users of the data after publication are also collected, followed up and monitored through the media or the observations of clients received by GASTAT through its main channels.

Second: evaluation:

It is done by analyzing the collected assessment inputs, and comparing the results of this analysis with the ones predicted previously. Therefore, a number of possible improvements and solutions are identified and discussed with specialists, experts, and concerned partners. During this step, clients' performances and satisfaction levels of using the results of Saudi Arabia’s agricultural statistics are measured. Based on these procedures, the recommendations for obtaining high quality data for the next KSA agricultural statistics are all agreed upon.

It is a comprehensive stage that is required to carry out each stage of the agricultural statistics production. During this stage, the plan was set, which includes the feasibility study, risk management, financing methods, in addition to expenditure mechanisms. The plan also covered the development of performance indicators, quality criteria, and manpower map required for production. Through this plan, the implementation process of the tasks assigned to different departments at each stage will be followed up and reported, and the publication will be uploaded to ensure that GASTAT meets its clients’ requirements.