Agriculture Census 2015
Tonga, 2015
Identification
SPC_TON_2015_AGC_v01_M
Agriculture Census 2015
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| Tonga | TON |
Agricultural Census [ag/census]
The first ever Agriculture Census of Tonga was conducted in 1985, followed by the second one in 2001, while this is the third.
Importance of Agriculture Census (AC)
Agriculture is the predominant activity in the Kingdom of Tonga's economy, contributing more than 17% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2012 - 2013. The first ever Agriculture Census of the Kingdom was conducted in 1985. The second Census was conducted in 2001, focusing on land tenure, land utilization, area and production of principal crops, livestock, agricultural implements and equipment, use of fertilizers, etc. including the various agricultural activities in which most of the households were engaged in. Although agriculture is the main factor in the economy of the Kingdom of Tonga, the database in this sector seems to be inadequate. There were quite several surveys conducted for this sector, however, an updated frame (list of holdings/parcels and its characteristics) is needed so these surveys will obtain more reliable estimates. There were important developments in agriculture within the fourteen-year period from the last census that should be captured like the use of forest trees within the farming system to enhance productivity and information on fisheries, which is becoming a very important sector of the Kingdom's economy. Considering the above issues, there is a great need to update the statistics on agriculture in order to determine its present situation and to use it for economic planning and policy-making.
Objectives.
In support of the strategic plans and programmes of the Kingdom of Tonga on agriculture, the Government has decided to conduct the Agriculture Census (AC). This census is envisioned to:
a) Provide benchmark or basic data on structure of agricultural holdings and their main characteristics;
b) Use this information to develop a regular system of agricultural statistics;
c) Build up some important village level statistics;
d) Establish a technical and organizational foundation on which to build up a comprehensive and integrated system of food and agricultural statistics; and
e) Provide a frame from which samples can be drawn to study certain aspects of agricultural activities in greater depth.
f) Provide information on community (village) statistics.
Authority for Undertaking the AC 2015
The AC 2015 is conducted jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Forests and Fisheries and the Statistic Department. Authority for the census rest with the Government Statistician who has the legal power to collect such information under the Statistics Act 1978.
Census/enumeration data [cen]
- Individuals in a private household dwelling.
- Households
- Communities like cooperatives, religious groups, companies, semi-government and joint operations
Version
v01: Finalised fully edited data, cleaned and labelled version of the Master file.
2015-04-28
The dataset has been cleaned by Statistics for Development Division (SDD) at Pacific Community (SPC), Noumea, New Caledonia. As the variable "f7_col4" (name of communities) was deleted in order to de-identify the "TON_2015_AGC_SectionF-F1-F2-F3-F4-F6_v01" dataset , the "Community_code" variable was then generated to replace it and create a unique ID.
Scope
The 2015 census covers all households and agricultural holdings as well as all villages in Tonga. Items covered include the
following:
At the Household and Organizational level:
a) Engagement of subsectors of agriculture.
b) Household membership demographic and economic information.
c) Land use under bush allotment and town allotment, area by tenure and location.
d) Area under perennial crops, annual crops, animal yard, pasture, fallow and other land use.
e) Number of trees in town allotment and home garden.
f) Food crops cultivation, including crop still growing, crops harvested.
g) Agricultural practices.
h) Engagement in farming community.
i) Livestock including number of heads, livestock disposal and veterinary services.
j) Fishery including type of fishing, main purpose of fishing, species harvested and habitat type of fishing.
k) Forestry including intended use of trees and shrubs.
l) Handicraft including proportion of raw material used from household and estimate of product value of katoanga.
m) Agricultural labour and machinery
At the Community (Village) level:
a) Village officer's information
b) Main economic activity
c) Outbreaks in the village
d) Farmers cooperative
e) Development priorities
| Topic | Vocabulary |
|---|---|
| Agriculture & Rural Development | World Bank |
| Forests & Forestry | World Bank |
| Millennium Development Goals | World Bank |
| Community Driven Development | World Bank |
| Gender | World Bank |
| Participation / Empowerment | World Bank |
| Social Development | World Bank |
Coverage
It was a National coverage, as the Agriculture Census covers the whole of the Kingdom of Tonga which includes the five districts of enumeration:
- Tongatapu
- Vavau
- Ha'apai
- Eua
- Niua
The Census covers all individuals and households.
Producers and sponsors
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Tonga Statistics Department | Government of Tonga |
| Tonga Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forestry and Fisheries | Government of Tonga |
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Statistics for Development Division | Pacific Community | Technical assistance in data processing |
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Food and Agricultural Organisation | Funding |
| Tonga Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forestry and Fisheries | Funding and Field operations |
| Tonga Statistics Department | Funding, Field operation and data processing |
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Statistics for Development Division (SDD) | Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) | Data Processing support and advice |
Sampling
The final national response rate was 89% with 16,122 households enumerated out of the 18,043 total households.
Survey instrument
The questionnaire was designed in collaboration between FAO, Ministry of Agriculture and the TNSO. It was designed in such a way that data items were efficiently encoded and processed using the software package CSPro.
The questionnaire was developed in English, but enumerators were specifically trained to be able to clearly translate these questions to other languages and dialect used in the country.
The questionnaires were designed in 13 sub-sections which are:
A. Identification particulars
B. Household demographic and economic information
C. Household engagement in agricultural subsectors
D. Usage of land
E. Food crops
F. Agricultural practices
G. Livestock
H. Fisheries
I. Forestry
J. Handicrafts
K. Labour
L. Machinery and equipment
M. Agricultural income and loan for all subsectors
Information collected for each sub-sections:
Section A:
This section basically include the IDs for the households and include:
- Village number
- Census block
- Household number
- Sample
- Type of holding
Section B:
- name
- relationship
- sex
- age
- economic activity
- educational attainment
Section D:
- Bush allotment
- Town allotment
Section E:
- Exisiting crops
- Crops harvested
Section F:
- Fertilizer
- Pesticides
- Irrigation
- Community farming
Section G:
- Beef cattle
- Dairy cattle
- Pig
- Horse
- Sheep
- Goat
- Chicken
- Duck
- Dog / Cat
- Veterinary services
Section H:
- Fishing type
- Fish income / sales
- Purpose of fishing
Section I:
- Number of trees
- uses of trees
Section J:
- Handicraft materials
- Handicrafts sold
- Value of handicrafts
Section K / L
- Number of laborers
- Days worked
- Hours worked
- Machinery used
Section M:
- Income from agriculture
- Loans
- Drawbacks
Data collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 2015-04-07 | 2015-06-30 |
| Start date |
|---|
| 2015 |
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forestry and Fisheries | Government of Tonga |
| Tonga Statistics Department | Government of Tonga |
Each census supervisor was assigned to handle several enumerators. He/she was tasked to guide the enumerators during the first week of the census taking. Then a follow-up supervision was also required from him/her. Then he/she was also expected to do some field checking/editing to facilitate the data processing in the headquarters.
Trainers/Supervisors are identified and selected from the staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Forests and Fisheries and Statistics Department. All supervisors were trained in Tongatapu by the members of the Agriculture Census Working Committee. The supervisors trained the enumerators in the second level.
On the other hand, 90 enumerators were recruited in February 2015, with minimum qualifications at the National Tonga School Certificate, to cover the household interviewing operations. These 90 enumerators were supervised by 18 supervisors, making a team of 18, consists of 5 enumerators per supervisor. All districts in the main island groups are divided into census blocks, as in the last 2011 population census, and all households within every census blocks were interviewed. The main island group census block divisions and estimated number of enumerators allocating to cover these are as follows:
Number of Census Blocks:
- Tongatapu - 287
- Vava'u - 78
- Ha'apai - 49
- 'Eua - 22
- Niuas - 15
- TOTAL - 451
Number of Enumerators:
- Tongatapu - 55
- Vava'u - 15
- Ha'apai - 10
- 'Eua - 5
- Niuas - 5
- TOTAL - 90
In average, it was estimated for each enumerator to cover 5 census blocks at this regard and the estimate time to carry out these enumerating operations was 30 working days.
There were two levels of training for the Agriculture Census (AC) 2015: the first for the trainers/supervisors and was held in first week of March 2015 until the second week of March 2015 and the second for the enumerators. The training for the enumerators was on the third week until fourth week of March 2015. All supervisors were trained in Tongatapu by the members of the Agriculture Census Working Committee. The supervisors trained the enumerators in the second level.
The AC 2015 enumerators were recruited between first week of January until second week of February 2015. Recruited enumerators in each island collected the information and were supervised by their designated census supervisors. Supervisors assigned in other islands were asked to help in the supervision of the census enumeration in Tongatapu. For census purpose, each major island was divided into districts. Each district is further sub-divided into different villages which composed of different enumeration blocks. Each enumerator was assigned to handle 3 (three) to 5 (five) blocks and were provided with Household and Institutional list, map, codes of districts and villages, census questionnaires, and instruction manual.
Each enumerator was responsible for completing the work in his/her assigned block(s) and he/she made every effort to do the work at his/her best ability.
To test the logistic organization and administration as well as the questionnaire and the interviews, a pilot test was done in February/March where some selected blocks were used. This began with the training of some enumerators who then went out to the households and test the questionnaire by interviewing the household members. Logistic arrangements were also tested to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of field operations during the actual census.
Data processing
VERIFICATION AND CODING
The data editing process begins when the completed questionnaires were returned to the national statistics office (NSO) for checking by the coders. This include checking that all fields are correctly filled, skipped pattern are properly followed, missing fields and so forth. Once the questionnaires are verified to be correct, then coding begins where certain variables are coded to their respective codes for capturing in the data entry screen - codes include Village code, Crops and Tress codes.
IN-BUILT EDITING
The data entry application for the 2015 Agriculture Census was designed using the software package CSPro where all necessary checks were incorporated to allow the Data Entry Operators (DEO) to verify data while doing data entry. With all the in-built checks, this ensures capturing good quality data efficiently and effectively. The in-built checks include range checks, skip and filtering questions and consistent and logic checks. Withe these in-built checks ensures good quality data is captured while entering and this greatly helps in the final batch editing.
SECONDARY EDITING
After the completion of the data entry, the final editing process was done. This include verification of questionnaires that all are captured and the actual running of the batch editing program on the whole data.
Since most of the checks were done during the data entry phase, the batch editing process mostly involves verifying
those errors that were missed or could not be solved during data entry, checking on those responses which have been
coded 'missing' and trying to impute or verify by referring to the respective questionnaire and fixing 'outliers' responses.
Frequencies on each variable were also checked to verify any inconsistencies between variables.
The batch editing logic program was ren twice when it was decided to finalize the data. Some missing values were not fixed as they were not able to be verified, examples of these are mostly on money values and number of crops/trees.
Data appraisal
A Pilot Census was conducted which the questionnaires received were used to test the data entry application. This allowed to redefine the questionnaires as well as the data entry application to ensure that it everything was efficiently designed to capture reliable data.
Like any other census, the 2015 Agriculture Census (AGC) has its own limitations. These are summarized as follows:
- The 2015 AGC only covered 89% of the total households in Tonga; 11% of the households were not enumerated.
- The 2015 AGC took place at the aftermath of Cyclone Ian which had destroyed a large part of the agriculture sector and the infrastructure for the Ha'apai Region.
- The 2015 AGC Questionnaire design meant that some of the data was not comparable to 2001. For example, the levels of agriculture activities (subsistence, semi-subsistence and commercial) and the way they were described.
- The 2015 AGC took place between April and June 2015 whereas the 2001 AGC took place between October and December 2001, therefore there is variation in the data due to seasonality of some of the agriculture activities, such as cropping and fishing.
- In the 2001 AGC the size of agricultural holding, to be considered as an agricultural holder was more than 1/8 of an acre. The 2015 AGC included town allotments below 1/8 of an acre. This was done so that agriculture activities in the town allotment could be accounted for.
- Questions on the use of fertilizers were answerable only by "Yes" or "No" and questions on agricultural chemicals asked only for the name of the chemical and the crops they were used on. Quantities of these agricultural inputs were not gathered.
- In the 2015 AGC, the question on the level of agriculture activities was only asked for the fisheries sub-sector and not for the other sub-sectors. Therefore, these were determined by the size of the land cultivated, the numbers of livestock kept, the number of forest trees grown, and the amount of handicrafts made and sold.
- The time allowed for data processing, editing and verification was rather limited and did not allow sufficient time for thorough and in-depth checking of the data.
Data Access
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government Statistician | Tonga Statistics Department | www.spc.int/prism/tonga/ | dept@stats.gov.to |
| Is signing of a confidentiality declaration required? | Confidentiality declaration text |
|---|---|
| yes | All information with regards to a respondent or individual are kept confidential under the Census and Statistical Act. All information are coded in such a manner that no household or individual would be easily identified. All users of the data will have to sign an agreement or undertaking that: 1. Refrain from making copies or reproduce the data he or she is granted with. 2. Refrain from attempting to identify any person or household from the data he or she is granted with. 3. Refrain from revealing the identification of any individual or household in the data he or she is granted with |
The Data is made available under the following conditions:
- The data will be specifically used for statistical and scientific research purpose ONLY
- The data is not sold or re-distributed to any other individual, institution or organization
- Adhering to the confidentiality clause in the Act as well as the Agreement.
- The source has to be acknowledged in all modes of presentation, books, articles, papers, theses, reports or any other publication
- A copy of all reports, publications and presentations are to be forwarded to the owner of the data.
"National Statistics Office of Tonga, Agriculture Census 2015 (AGC 2015), Version 01 of the Licensed datasets (April 2015), provided by the Pacific Microdata Library. http://pdl.spc.int/index.php/home"
Disclaimer and copyrights
All users of data should acknowledge that the Tonga Statistics Department and Tonga Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFFF) bear no responsibility in the interpretation of the data or any inferences done by the users on the data.
(c) 2015, Tonga Statistics Department
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government Statistician | Tonga Statistics Department | dept@stats.gov.to | www.tonga.prism.spc.int |
Metadata production
DDI_SPC_TON_2015_AGC_v01_M
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Tonga Statistics Department | Government of Tonga | Documentation of the study |
| Statistics for Development | Pacific Community | Review of the documentation |
2019-01-28
Metadata version
Version 01 (January 2019): This is the first attempt at documenting the Tongan Agriculture Census of 2015. Done by the Tonga Statistics Department at Nuku'alofa, Tonga.
Version 02 (March 2019): This is the review of the existing documentation. Done by the Statistics for Development Division at Noumea, New Caledonia.