By Alice McFarlane

Farmers get reprieve from filling out Census of Agriculture

May 11, 2021 | 1:00 PM

MELFORT, Sask. — It may be census day in Canada, but a lot of growers will be putting the questionnaire aside for now.

Farmers and ranchers have questioned the timing with today’s deadline being right in the middle of the busy seeding season.

It makes good economic sense to do the Census of Population and Census of Agriculture at the same time, according to Augustine Akuoko-Asibey, Director in the Agriculture Division of Statistics Canada.

“If we do the Census of Agriculture separate from the Census of Population, it will cost an additional $12 million,” Akuoko-Asibey told farmnewsNOW. “We realize it is a busy time for farmers, so we have provided some flexibility in how and when (farmers) can respond.”

Statistics Canada will give farmers and farm operators until Sept. 3 to complete and submit their census.

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“If farmers can’t provide the information by that day, that’s okay. Farmers will be getting reminders going forward,” he said.

As far as changes to the document this time around, the most significant is the definition of a farm operator has changed.

Akuoko-Asibey said the 2016 census defined an operator has someone who produces an agricultural product with the intention to sell it.

“We have moved away from that concept of intention to sell, and right now we are focusing on producing an agricultural product and you are reporting revenue to the Canada Revenue Agency,” he said.

Another change on this census is in new and emerging crops and livestock.

Akuoko-Asibey said the online questionnaire will be efficient for farm operators in several ways. It will automatically add totals and will only ask the questions that apply specifically to the operator’s farm. He said this will reduce time and Statistics Canada’s need to call farm operators to clarify their answers.

He added the 2021 version should take less time to fill out.

“We did some testing in 2019 and, on average, it took 33.4 minutes compared to 34 minutes in 2016,” he said.

The information collected in the census is important for all aspects of the value chain, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The data has benefits in terms of policies and programs to support the industry but also directly benefits farmers either in direct payments or through various programs that support the industry,” he said.

The information is also used to defend farmers’ interests in trade disputes and negotiations.

The last census counted 193,492 farms in Canada, which showed the decline in the number of farms had slowed compared with previous census data.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW