The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Agricultural Statistics Program is moving to new data sources to meet the demand for more timely agricultural statistics with greater regional detail.
The growing use of technology and data in the agricultural sector means data generation through existing farming and agricultural business processes is now more common than before.
Rob Walter, ABS head of agricultural statistics, says these new data sources are often faster to access and include more detail than traditional survey data.
“This means we can improve the timeliness and regional detail of agricultural statistics which is important to support good decision-making about things like biosecurity or natural disaster response, which are often quite localised,”
“We are working with industry experts to help identify which data sources are best to use, and to co-design methods to produce statistics from these. This collaborative approach helps to build trust in the resulting statistics because they make sense with other data sources used within the industry."