Fruits and Vegetables Survey (FV)

Detailed information for 2016

This survey collects data to provide estimates of the total cultivated area, harvested area, total production, marketed production and farm gate value of selected fruits and vegetables grown in Canada.

Data release - February 1, 2017

• Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)
• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy

Description

This survey collects data to provide estimates of the total cultivated area, harvested area, total production, marketed production and farm gate value of selected fruits and vegetables grown in Canada. The data are used by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, other federal departments, provincial organizations and related industries for production and price analysis, and for development of agricultural policies and programs.

Reference period: One year

Collection period: Mid November to early December

Subjects

• Agriculture and food (formerly Agriculture)
• Crops and horticulture
• Food and nutrition

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The target population is all farms in the ten provinces of Canada that grow fruit and/or vegetables for sale. The Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are excluded from the survey.

The survey frame excludes farms producing only mushrooms, farms producing only greenhouse vegetables, and farms producing only potatoes, as well as institutional farms, community pastures or farms that are on Indian reserves.

Instrument design

This methodology does not apply.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: 2016-11-10 to 2016-12-04

Responding to this survey is mandatory.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

The data are collected by telephone interview in Statistics Canada regional offices, using a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) application.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .

Error detection

There are edits built into the data capture application to compare the entered yield and price data against provincial averages, as well as to check for possible inconsistencies. Whenever an edit fails, the interviewers are prompted to correct the information (with the help of the respondents when necessary). For most edit failures the interviewers have the ability to override the edit failure if they cannot resolve the apparent discrepancy.

Once the data are received back at head office an extensive series of processing steps are undertaken to thoroughly verify each record received. All data failing these edits are subject to manual inspection and possible corrective action.

Imputation

Partially completed questionnaires are imputed using a combination of automated and manual approaches. The automated imputation is done by Statistics Canada's AG2000 software using ratio imputation: a trend analysis of the fully completed questionnaires generates averages, which are used to impute missing values. The manual imputation uses various methods such as historical imputation and imputation using provincial averages for yield and price.

Estimation

The survey data collected are weighted within each stratum in order to produce estimates representative of the population. The weights of respondents are adjusted to account for non-response. Analyses of the top contributors and historical comparisons as well as consultations with the Provincial Departments of Agriculture are performed before a final estimate is published. The jackknife variance estimation method is used.

Quality evaluation

Disseminated data are subject to a certain degree of error such as incorrect information from respondents or mistakes introduced during processing. Reasonable efforts are made to ensure such errors are kept within acceptable limits through careful questionnaire design, editing of data for inconsistencies and subsequent follow-up and quality control of manual processing operations. Extensive consultation with provincial agricultural experts combined with data from various marketing boards assists in the verification of the level estimates obtained through the survey.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

Sensitive cells are suppressed, and complementary suppression of non-sensitive cells is also done to avoid disclosure of the sensitive cells.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Data accuracy

The statistics from the Fall Survey of Fruits and Vegetables are based on a random sample of agricultural operations and, as such, are subject to sampling and non-sampling errors. The overall quality of the estimates depends on the combined effect of these two types of errors.

Sampling errors arise because estimates are derived from sample data and not from the entire population. These errors depend on factors such as sample size, sampling design and the method of estimation. Sampling error can be measured by the standard error (or standard deviation) of the estimate. The coefficient of variation (CV) is the estimated standard error percentage of the survey estimate. Estimates with smaller CVs are more reliable than estimates with larger CVs. Coefficients of variation values for the published data are available upon request and are not included in this publication due to space limitations.