To ensure that U.S. agricultural policies are well informed, data collection programs must be periodically revisited to reflect the current realities of the agricultural sector, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine (NASEM).

Better measurements of the large, often complex farms responsible for the majority of contemporary agricultural production in the U.S. would yield important information relevant to agricultural policy issues, but such measurement requires that specific definitions be applied accurately and consistently, NASEM said.

The new NASEM report provides recommendations to help the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and Economic Research Service (ERS) identify new approaches for effectively collecting data and reporting information about American agriculture, given the increased complexity of farm businesses in recent decades, according to an announcement.

The report places an emphasis on understanding farm structures at the conceptual level, with guidance on reflecting the diversity of agriculture, the need to reduce the burden for respondents, the urgency of addressing root causes of declining response rates and the need to create operational efficiencies and better processes within the agencies, NASEM said. This report should prove timely, as USDA is aiming to have a revised system of data and statistical programs by 2022.

NASS and ERS publish statistics and reports that regularly and extensively detail the number of farms in the U.S., the quantities and types of commodities they produce, the incomes of both farm businesses and the households that run these businesses and the status and conditions of the agricultural economy broadly.

NASEM said beyond the value of agricultural statistics in creating a complete economic profile of the country, their role in informing policies on the environment, climate change, biodiversity, food security and safety, population health, land use planning and natural resource management is crucial. The safety and the quality of the nation’s food supply and the health and environmental impacts of production processes are among the most important policy areas that agricultural data and statistics help inform.

As large, complex farms have become commonplace, the traditional portrayal of farms as self-contained, family-operated businesses is no longer an accurate characterization, according to the NASEM report. However, there is no set definition of a “complex farm.” Rather, multiple factors place farms along a spectrum of complexity, including the operational and management organization of a farm business, the number and diversity of commodities produced and the amount of vertical integration in the business, NASEM said.

To better track these complexities, the report recommends that NASS create a "Farm Register" that provides an ongoing enumeration of all farm businesses. This register would include information such as size indicators, geolocation indicators and North American Industry Classification System codes for the farm establishment and would be regularly updated as new information becomes available.

The report also recommends that NASS and ERS continue to explore use of administrative and other non-survey data sources to increase the accuracy of their statistics and to reduce burden on farmers, NASEM said. How effectively the federal statistical system can meet future data demands will largely depend on the extent to which data sources — survey and non-survey; national and local, and public and private — can be combined in synergistic ways.

The report says the current surveys conducted by NASS and ERS programs can no longer account for all the variables and levels of geographical detail necessary to meet agricultural research and policy-making demands and recommends that USDA explore opportunities for record linkage through participation in the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers program. This program is a partnership between federal statistical agencies and leading research institutions that provides secure access to restricted-use micro-data for statistical purposes.

The study was sponsored by USDA. NASEM is composed of private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology and medicine. The National Academies operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Abraham Lincoln.