Adaptation of Statistical Matching in Micro-regional Analysis of Agricultural Production

Agricultural production and agricultural policy has many special dimensions. The production structure, income positions, and labour input have large regional disparities, the production intensity is not homogenous in space, and farms have different risk factors and market possibilities in the different regions of Hungary. Land use and production technology also varies largely, in many regions farming is competitive, highly specialized with big corporate farms, while other regions have small individual farms with mixed production structure and less concentration in land use. There are no direct data for spatial analysis less aggregated than NUTS 3 level. Only the data of agricultural census and administrative database for direct payments are available at settlement and microregional level, but these databases do not provide information of farm income. The income statistics either cannot be disaggregated to micro-regional level (agricultural accounts) or are not representative at this level (FADN). The administrative database of the Paying Agency contains the land use data and limited livestock numbers for all farms receiving direct payments. The FADN database contains a large accountancy dataset for a low number of farms. Statistical matching combines these two databases and provides a possibility for detailed regional analysis using estimated data.