1. The main results of the Pesticides Survey
on Wheat in Hungary
Hungarian Central Statistical Office
Environment Statistics Section
by Pál AUJESZKY
3rd Joint Workshop on Pesticides Indicators
(Valletta, Malta January 2008)

2. Background information 1/2.
Projekt participants:
Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO) – coordination
Agricultural Office Deputy Directorate Responsible for Authorization of Plant Protection Products/ Plant Protection Department – fieldwork
Expert from Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)

3. Background information 2/2.
Sales data are collected on annual basis by the Research Institute for Agricultural Economics
Statistical data collection on pesticides use not carried out except for the pilot project in 2005
Information on area treated with pesticide by main crops are included in FSS 2007
Number of farms in Hungary
8000 agricultural enterprises
private farmers
Average farm size (agricultural area)
380 hectares – enterprises
3 hectares – private holdings

4. Type of the survey TF2005
Representative survey on pesticide use concerning winter wheat
Carried out on voluntary basis
Reference period (crop season)
The sample frame of the survey based on Farm Register derives from Agricultural Census The register is actualized according to interval agricultural surveys (FSS 2003, 2005)
Sample frame included agricultural enterprises and private holdings with wheat production
Three size classes for 20 counties (NUTS 3)
Stratification criteria is the harvested area of wheat < 5ha ha >100ha

5. Selected farms for the survey

6. Electronic data collection
All questionnaires are filled out in electronic way
Personal interview (Info Path 2003)
Holdings <100 hectares are visited by inspectors
Number of farms: 520
Response rate: ~99%
Field interviews were performed by 25 PPP inspectors in August 2007.
They recorded data on their laptops
By downloadable questionnaire
In order to reduce the cost of the survey questionnaires were collected from the bigger holdings per Windows Server (hosting)
Number of farms: 260
Response rate: ~50%
Data collection was performed in August-September 2007.

9. Problems encountered during the data evaluation
Some pesticides were missing from „pull down” pesticide list of the questionnaire, and „other” category was not given
Not take into account that case, when farmer did not use pesticides at all. In this case inspectors had to select a pesticide and make a note about this at the end of the questionnaire: (1-2% of questionnaires)
Many times inspectors had to use the substitute list of farms because the original farm list was not up-to date (e.g. included farms not interested in wheat production, address was not suitable)
The database is made by MS-Access to avoid the mystery of IT or/and the subordination to IT (e.g. Oracle)

10. The Access database behind the Survey 1/2.

11. Connections of the tables of the Access database, queries

12. Problems to be solved Further evaluation and validation of survey data
Imputation
Elaboration of the meta data informations
Grossing-up to the national level
Calculation of indicators
Compilation of the Final Report
Not take into account that case, when farmer did not use pesticides at all. In this case inspectors had to select a pesticide and make a note about this at the end of the questionnaire: (1-2% of questionnaires)
Many times inspectors had to use the substitute list of farms because the original farm list was not up-to date (e.g. included farms not interested in wheat production, address was not suitable)
We organised the data in a MS Access database to avoid the informatical mistifications (Oracle etc.)

13. Thank you for your Attention!