Eurostat proposes to organise a session in the World Statistics Congress. The proposal relates to finding innovative ways to measuring agricultural total factor productivity and sustainability, which are key topics of the current policy agenda. Reliable and objective statistics on the topic are necessary as a solid basis for decisions, for example, for politicians and policy makers.
This session aims to present statistical measurements of sustainable agriculture productivity using existing data sources. Sustainability has become the focus of economic development. The priority of a secure food system is to ensure the long-term viability of agriculture. The session will analyse and provide answers measurement to questions such as:
• how to measure agricultural total factor productivity growth in the most comprehensive way
• how to measure negative externalities like greenhouse gas emissions, soil pollution, associated biodiversity loss or even poverty
• how to expand the typical productivity indicators to include non-market services and outcomes
• how to complement it with indicators that reflect on environmental and social dimensions
• how to develop a harmonised measurement that makes the cross-country comparisons possible
If accepted, the session will provide a balanced geographical perspective. Namely, there will be speakers from Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU; the US Department of Agriculture (USDA); and the Joint Research Centre; as well as a global overview thanks to the participation of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In addition to the geographical balance, the proposal has gender and age diversity both in speakers and discussants.
Following the statistical presentations, the discussants will provide a data user perspective both from the policy-making and scientific/research sides.
The proposal consists in a 100 minutes session including 5 minutes introduction, 4 presentations of 15 minutes, and 35 minutes of discussion including a short reaction of the discussants to each of the 4 presentations.
Four leading international organisations will take part in the session:
• A speaker from the OECD (Mr Anton), who will provide a global overview of the agricultural total factor productivity measurements.
• A speaker from Eurostat (Ms Anwar), who will present the statistical developments on the topic at EU level.
• A speaker from the United States Department of Agriculture (Ms Golan), who will present the state of play of the project in the United States of America.
• A speaker from the Joint Research Centre (Mr Pieralli), who will show modelling options to produce sound statistical indicators on agricultural total factor productivity.
The team leader responsible for the project (Mr Martínez Solano) at Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, will chair the session.
Two discussants will take part in the session providing data user points of view. One from the policy-making side (Mr Heidelbach, European Commission Directorate for Agriculture and Rural Development) and other from the scientific / resercher point of view (Ms Vrachioli, University of Munich).