Methodology and Quality Update

Methodology and Quality last update 

27/11/2024

Statistical Presentation

Data description  

The agricultural statistics publication presents recent data on agricultural (plant) production, providing information on cultivated areas according to each crop group, as well as data on organic farming for agricultural crops, total quantity and value of imports and exports of agricultural crops, and the value of loans granted to the agricultural sector at the level of administrative regions in the kingdom, in addition to a number of important data.
Agricultural Statistics are statistics that based on comprehensive agricultural census data and registry data collected on the main characteristics as follows:
•    Cultivated area of grains, fodder, and open vegetables.
•    Cultivated area, number of greenhouses, and quantity of protected vegetable production.
•    Planted area and amount of cut flowers production.
•    Numbers of permanent trees and palm trees.
•    Area and production of organic agriculture.
•    Development loans to the agricultural sector.
•    Value of exports and imports of agricultural products.
•    Bank credit granted by banks and finance companies.
Data is also used to estimates:
•    Quantity of production, sold production, and its value for field crops (grains and fodder), open vegetables, and cut flowers.
•    Production sold and its value for protected vegetable crops, by crop type.
•    Production quantities of palm trees, production sold and value by category.
•    Production quantities, production sold and value for permanent trees other than palm trees, by type.

Classification system

The following classifications are applied in Agricultural Statistics:
The National Classification for Economic Activities (ISIC4):
 The statistical classification based on the International Standard of Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC4) is used to describe productive activities of an establishment. 

Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (H.S.2017):
The merchandise exports and imports statistics are based on classification issued by the World
Customs Organization (WCO), which is a table for describing and classifying merchandise that
includes sub-items and their numeric codes, sections, and chapters, in accordance with the
International Convention on Nomenclature for the Classification of Goods in Customs Tariffs,
done at Brussels.
Central Product Classification (CPC 2.1):
It is a classification of products, goods and services issued by the United Nations Statistical Commission. It is intended to be an international standard for organizing and analyzing data on industrial production, national accounts, trade, prices, etc.
Methodology and Quality are collected through interviews, so that outputs can be produces in accordance with all relevant classifications.
The classifications are available on the GASTAT’s website: www.stats.gov.sa

Sector coverage

Agricultural Statistics cover the agricultural economic sectors.

Statistical concepts and definitions

 Terms and concepts of Agricultural Statistics:
•    Holding: 
It is an economic unit of agricultural production, in both crops and livestock, under single management, comprising all kept livestock and all land used totally or partially for agricultural production purposes regardless of ownership, legal form or area. The holding may be run by one single person or by a household. It also may be run jointly by two or more individuals or households. Such management may be undertaken by a juridical person such as a corporation, cooperative, government agency, etc. The land of the holding may consist of one or more parcels under one name, on the condition that the parcels shall share the same means of production, such as workforce or agricultural machinery and equipment. The association may be obvious and visible to be considered one economic unit.
•    Holding Type: 
There are two types of holdings: 
- Traditional (unregulated):
It is the most common type of agricultural holding in the Kingdom. Traditional holdings do not require previous approval or licenses from concerned authorities, and their production activities may be crops based, livestock based, or both (Mixed).
- Specialized (regulated):
This type of holding includes the preapproved holdings (projects) that have acquired licenses from the concerned authorities after submitting technical and economic studies for the establishment of such holdings, whether they are holdings specialized in crops, livestock, poultry or fishery production, or projects that mainly adopt modern unconventional irrigation methods, the use of agricultural mechanization and modern technology in agricultural production and specialization in production with regard to open or protected agriculture, raising cows to produce milk or fattening calves, sheep and poultry.
•    Main activity of holding:
The main activity of a holding is the prevailing activity carried out by the holding, which is consistent with its economic revenues, such that it represents more than 50% of the annual income of that holding.
For the purposes of this agricultural census, the main activities of holdings have been divided into five categories: 
- Crop Holding:
A holding in which the agricultural activity represents more than 50% of its annual income during an agricultural year, depending on various permanent and temporary winter and summer crops.
- Livestock Holding:
A holding in which the livestock activity represents more than 50% of its annual income during an agricultural year, depending on various types of animal resources and livestock farmed on the holding (lamb, sheep, camel, cow, riding, and draught animals) and on beehives.
- Poultry Holding:
A holding in which the poultry production activity represents more than 50% of its annual income during an agricultural year, depending on various types of poultry (boiler chicken, laying chicken, parent chicken, grandparent chicken, free range chicken, other birds such as ostrich, duck, goose, or quail). Rabbits are also considered poultry.
- Fish Holding:
A holding in which fish production activity represents more than 50% of its annual income during an agricultural year, depending on the farming and aquaculture of fish in internal ponds such as farms dedicated to fish or shrimp production.
- Mixed Holding:
When the activity at the holding is mixed and none of its components represent more than 50% of the holding’s annual income during an agricultural year, provided that the holding practices three or more different activities from the following: (crops, livestock, poultry, or fish activities) and that each component represents less than 50% of the holding’s activity.
•    Agricultural year:
- For the purposes of agricultural surveys, the crop production agricultural year starts on (1st March) and ends on (28th February) of the following year.
- As for livestock and poultry numbers, (December 31st) is considered the reference date for enumerating the various types of animals and poultry on the holding.    
•    Harvested Area:
The actual area of crop production. In the case of sequential cropping on the same land within the same year, the area is recorded as many times as it is cultivated to yield the total harvested area.
•    Opened agriculture:
It is the lands directly cultivated with various agricultural crops, with no barrier between them and various weather conditions.
•    Protected agriculture:
The cultivation of crops in greenhouses areas covered in glass, plastic, or another material to protect them from weather conditions, such as: (light, temperatures, air, and relative humidity). This creates a favorable environment for different kinds of plants to grow throughout the year. This method is usually used for cultivating vegetables and protected cut flowers.
Greenhouses have several types:
- Regular plastic:
They are houses made of several materials, such as (polyethylene) covers, which do not last more than a year. They are the most common type of greenhouses, and one of the regular types of double-sided (polyethylene) greenhouses covered with two layers of (polyethylene) covers and separated by a layer of air. 
- Air-conditioned plastic:
The only difference between this type and the regular plastic greenhouses is that it is equipped with artificial air-conditioning.
- Glass:
As a covering material, glass allows good light transmission (88%) and lasts the longest among greenhouse types. 
- Fiberglass:
Also called glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), it is made from plastic, glass fibers and a binding material. This type withstands impacts better than glass houses and it is more durable and lasts longer than plastic houses.
- Other types:
Greenhouses made from other materials.
•    Agricultural production: 
The plant production of an agricultural holding, such as crops, vegetables, and evergreen trees; as well as all animal and livestock production. It includes grains, fodder, open-field and protected vegetables, cut flowers, fruits (including dates), as well as sheep, goat, cow and camel count; milk and dairy products, number of boiler chicken, table eggs, chicks, hatchery eggs, fish, ostrich and quail eggs and meat, and amount of rabbit meat and honey, in addition to secondary products, such as organic fertilizers and ostrich feathers and skin.
•    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 agroecosystem, 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.
•    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 Saudi Arabia.
•    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 using a shipment method 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.

Statistical unit

Statistical Unit in Agricultural Statistics - Agricultural holdings.

Statistical population

The Statistical Society for Agricultural Statistics – consists of all agricultural holdings at the level of the 13 administrative regions in Saudi Arabia.

Reference area

A comprehensive inventory of 13 administrative regions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Time coverage

The data covers the years from 2016 to 2023.

Base period

Not applicable. 

Unit of measure

•    Some indicators are measured in tons (such as: Organic agriculture production and the quantity of exports and imports).
•    Some of them are measured in dunams (such as: The cultivated area).
•    Some indicators are calculated in riyals (such as: Value of exports and imports).

Reference period

References period to the variables or dataset as following:
Agricultural statistics data are based as follows:
•    For a comprehensive inventory of plant production starts from (1st March) and ends on (28th February) of the following year.
•    Annual registry data is provided by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, the Agricultural Development Fund, as well as data from the Central Bank of Saudi Arabia. 

Confidentiality 

Confidentiality - policy

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 the Authority.

Confidentiality - data treatment

Data are displayed in appropriate tables to facilitate its summarization, comprehension, results extraction, comparison with other data and coming up with statistical connotations for the study community. It is also easier to check tables without the need to see the original questionnaire, which usually include data like names and addresses of individuals, names of data providers, which violates the confidentiality of statistical data.
“Anonymity of data” is one of the most important procedures. To keep data confidential, GASTAT removed personal information of individuals, households, or business entities in a way that does not allow the identification of the respondent either directly (by name, address, contact number, identity number etc.) or indirectly (by combining different - especially rare - characteristics of respondents: age, occupation, education etc.).

Release policy

Release calendar

The Agricultural Statistics publication has been included in the statistical calendar.

Release calendar access

The release calendar is available at:

https://www.stats.gov.sa/statistical-calendar-releases

User access

One of GASTAT’s objectives is to better meet its clients' needs, so it immediately provides them with the publication's results once the Agricultural Statistics Publication is published.
 It also receives questions and inquiries of the clients about the Publication and its results through various communication channels, such as:
•    GASTAT official website:  www.stats.gov.sa
•    GASTAT official e-mail address:  info@stats.gov.sa
•    Client support e-mail:  info@stats.gov.sa
•    Official visits to GASTAT’s official head office in Riyadh or one of its branches in Saudi Arabia.
•    Official letters.
•    Statistical telephone: (199009).

Frequency of dissemination

Annual. 

Accessibility and clarity

News release

The announcements for each publication are available on the statistical calendar as mentioned in 7.2. The press releases can be viewed on the website of GASTAT on the link:
https://stats.gov.sa/news

Publications

The General Authority for Statistics issues agricultural statistics publications and reports. On a regular basis within a pre-prepared publishing plan, which is published on the Authority’s website. GASTAT is keen to publish its publications in a way that serves all users of different types, including publications in different formats that contain (publication tables, data graphs, indicators, methodology and quality report, and questionnaires) in both English and Arabic.
The results of agricultural statistics are available at:
https://www.stats.gov.sa/statistics

On-line database

Not available.

Micro-data access 

Microdata are unit-level datasets derived from surveys, censuses, and administrative records. These datasets provide detailed insights into individuals, households, businesses, and geographic areas, supporting the development of statistical indicators and in-depth research. The different types of microdata files to meet different information needs: • Public use: It consists sets of records containing information on individual persons, households, or business entities anonymized in such a way that the respondent cannot be identified either directly (by 11 name, address, contact number, identity number etc.) or indirectly (by combining different - especially rare - characteristics of respondents: age, occupation, education etc.). • Scientific use: These files established based on specific methodology asked by data requester to extract the datasets with specific characteristics used for strategic studies and decision making as well scientific research purposes on individuals, households and enterprises with no direct identifiers, which have been subject to control methods to protect confidentiality. Access to Scientific Use Files (SUF) is restricted to authorized researchers who comply with ethical and confidentiality standards. Representative samples of SUF can be obtained through GASTAT's secure platform, "Etaha," while more sensitive datasets are accessible only through secure physical lab environments managed by GASTAT.

Other

Not available.

Documentation on methodology

Framework of Agricultural Statistics: The tabulations of raw data for agricultural statistics were based on classification and coding inputs made during the data collection process and were classified according to the World Program for Agricultural Statistics 2020 of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
https://www.fao.org/3/cb1213t/cb1213t.pdf

Quality documentation

Quality documentation covers the documentation of methods and standards for evaluating, measuring, and controlling the quality of statistical processes and outputs, which are based on quality principles and standards such as: Relevance, accuracy, reliability, timeliness, punctuality, accessibility, clarity, comparability, and consistency.

Quality management

Quality assurance

GASTAT takes the following principles into consideration: Impartiality, user-oriented, quality of processes and outputs, effectiveness of statistical processes, and reducing the workload of respondents. 
The validity of data is verified through procedures and quality controls that are implemented during the process at different stages such as: (data entry, data collection, and other final controls).

Quality assessment

GASTAT performs all statistical activities according to a national model (Generic Statistical Business Process Model – GSBPM). According to the GSBPM, the final phase of statistical activities is overall evaluation using information gathered in each phase or sub-process. This information is used to prepare the evaluation report which outlines all the quality issues related to the specific statistical activity and serves as input for improvement actions.

Relevance 

User needs 

Internal users in the GASTAT for Agricultural Statistics data:
Statistics of national accounts.

External users and major beneficiaries for Agricultural Statistics data, include:
•    Government entities.
•    Regional and international organizations.
•    Research institutions.
•    Media.
•    Individuals.

The disseminated key variables that mostly used by key users:

User satisfaction

Not available.

Completeness 

Agricultural Statistics data are based on comprehensive agricultural inventory and administrative records data to provide comprehensive information on livestock data in Saudi Arabia and data in complete status.

Accuracy and reliability 

Overall accuracy

•    The data collected is improved through the researchers, that have been selected according to a set of practical and objective criteria and training program related to the field of work.
•    Alert, prevention, and correction rules are applied during the data collection process on the electronic questionnaire for Agricultural Statistics to improve data quality.
•    Data is checked with previous years to identify any significant changes in the data.
•    The internal consistency of the data is checked before it is finalized.
•    The links between variables are checked and coherence between different data series is confirmed.

Timeliness and punctuality 

Timeliness 

GASTAT uses the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) issued by the International Monetary Fund. According to this Standard, all statistics agencies are required to publish data on an annual basis, and with a delay of not more than mid of year (180 days) after the end of the reference period. If the data are from different source, they may be published in a different frequency.

Punctuality

The publication is done according to the publication dates in the statistical calendar published for Agricultural Statistics on the website page of the General Authority for Statistics. The data are available at the expected time, as scheduled in the statistical release calendar, If the publication is delayed, reasons shall be provided.

Coherence and comparability

Comparability - geographical

Data are geographically comparable.

Comparability - over time 

Data is fully comparable.

Coherence- cross domain 

Not applicable. 

Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics 

Not applicable. 

Coherence- National Accounts 

Not applicable. 

Coherence - internal 

The agricultural statistics for the reference period have complete internal consistency, as they are all based on the same set of accurate data and are calculated using the same estimation methods.

Resources used 

Data revision

Data revision - policy

Not applicable, only final results will be published.

Data revision - practice

Not applicable, only final results will be published.

Statistical processing

Source data

Agricultural statistics data are based on two sources:
First source: Comprehensive inventory survey of agricultural holdings.
Second source: Registry data from government agencies:
•    Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture.
•    Agricultural Development Fund.
•    General Authority for statistics
•    Saudi Central Bank.

Frequency of data collection 

Annual.

Data collection

Data collection from survey:
Data for the agricultural statistics is collected through Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI), Computer-Assisted Web Interviews (CAWI), and Computer-Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI).
Data collection from administrative records:
In coordination with the relevant departments of the Authority for the implementation of the survey and the data collection department, the data on the agricultural statistics publication are obtained from the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, the Agricultural Development Fund, and Saudi Central Bank
The data is stored in the authority's databases after undergoing auditing and review processes following approved statistical methods and recognized quality standards. If errors or discrepancies are discovered, the data is cross-referenced with the data source for correction or clarification.

Data validation

Data are reviewed and matched to ensure their accuracy and precision in a way that suits their nature with the aim of giving the presented statistics quality and accuracy. 
The data of the current year publication are compared with the data of the previous year to ensure their integrity and consistency in preparation for processing data and extracting and reviewing results.
In addition to the data processing and tabulation to check their accuracy, all the outputs are stored and uploaded to the database after being calculated by GASTAT to be reviewed and processed by specialists in Environment, Agriculture, and Energy Statistics Department through modern technologies and software designed for this purpose.

Data compilation

Data Coding:
In agricultural statistics, statisticians collect detailed field descriptions from respondents. This information is then coded in-house by an automated process, which is reviewed by a small-dedicated team of coding experts using a series of consistency checks.
Data editing:
Specialists of Environment, Agriculture, and Energy Statistics Department have processed and analyzed data in this stage, and this step was based on the following measures:
•    Sorting and arranging data in groups or different categories in a serial order.
•    Summarizing detailed data into key points or data.
•    Combining many data segments and ensuring their interconnection.
•    Processing incomplete or missing data.
•    Processing illogical data.
•    Converting data into statistically significant data.
•    Arranging, presenting, and interpreting data.
Compensation (for non-response cases or incomplete datasets): 
The statistical inference method is used to compensate for lost values by using some simple mathematical operations such as "averages".
Extrapolation and weighting: 
After processing the data collected from respondents, survey weights were generated to produce indicator tables by following two main steps in creating survey weights: 
•    Adjustment of non-response.
•    Calibration weight

Adjustment

Not applicable, only final results will be published.