Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Agricultural statistics part 2 Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Prices Business Statistics and Registers 1

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Agricultural prices Prices of agricultural products and by-products have a significant influence on policy In many countries type and volume of agricultural production activity depend on the current market prices of various products The relative changes in prices received by the farmers for the produce and paid by them for meeting input requirements and consumer demands influence their economic activities Price data for agricultural products and by-products in a country may be available in many forms Retail prices, wholesale prices, farm-gate prices, export/import prices, procurement and support prices are forms of prices relevant for agriculture 2

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Farm gate prices Farm gate prices are agricultural producer prices Farm gate prices are in principle the prices received by farmers for their produce at the location of the farm The costs of transporting from the farm gate to the nearest market or first point of sale and market charges for selling the produce are, by definition, not included in the farm gate prices Thus the prices collected from such markets may be adjusted for these costs to arrive at farm gate prices In many developing countries, agricultural marketing is not well organized and farmers use the entire range of distributive channels Average prices should then be worked out using the output disposed of through various channels as weights 3

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Wholesale prices After an agricultural product leaves the farm-gate, it may pass through one or even two wholesale markets before reaching the retailer from whom the ultimate consumer buys it In a primary wholesale market, the wholesale price of a product may refer to the price at which the wholesale buyer makes purchases from the produce-seller or his agents 4

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Wholesale prices In a secondary wholesale market, the wholesale price of a product may refer to the price at which the wholesaler sells it to the retailers Wholesale prices of agricultural products are collected in most countries Wholesale markets are usually well organized and consequently wholesale prices are easy to record 5

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Other price data Two prominent types of prices are: Export prices Prices fixed by the government Export prices are also called terminal wholesale prices Prices fixed by government are also called support prices 6

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Support prices For various reasons prices of some of the crops at the farm gate markets are fixed by Government Normally such prices are listed annually and are applicable to the total country Different types of support prices are: Guaranteed minimum prices/intervention prices Fixed purchase prices 7

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Prices paid by farmers Prices paid by farmers is the counterpart of the prices received by farmers The price paid by a farmer is, in principle, the price paid by him at his farm site Thus the prices include all trade and transportation cost as well as the taxes, subsidies and cost for installation of the machinery Therefore, if bought off-farm, the expenses incurred for transporting it to the farm must be added to arrive at the farm-gate estimated price 8

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Prices paid by farmers Both prices received and prices paid have the farm gate as location reference Farm-gate prices received by farmers are usually derived from the average price at which they dispose their produce Prices paid by farmers are calculated from the average retail price at which they make their purchases 9

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Data collection (1) A variety of methods of agricultural data collection need to be considered Face-to-face interviews will be the standard method Direct physical measurement is used for field size and crop production Interviewers should be well-qualified and knowledgeable about agriculture Questionnaire language is a key issue 10

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Data Collection (2) Interviewers must be fluent in the languages used in the areas where they are working Data entry is currently not a serious problem area in survey taking On the other hand problems in the data coming from errors during data collection can be a major challenge Computer assisted interviewing (CAI) reduces error during data collection 11