Respondent relations challenges for obtaining agricultural data

The data collection process is becoming increasingly more challenging due to a number of factors, including: ageing of the farm population, decreasing number of farmers, increasing farm sizes, financial crises arising from BSE (mad cow disease) and the avian influenza, and from extreme climatic impacts causing drought conditions in some areas and flooding in others. There also seems to be rising levels of concern about privacy and confidentiality. This paper will describe how agriculture is an industry in transition, how difficulties faced by the agricultural sector impact data collection issues, and how our subsequent responses and actions are addressing these challenging issues.