The purpose of the present document is to discuss and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the EU FADN database for estimating cost of production from a statistical point of view. To this end, the approach and implementation of sampling and weighting in EU FADN is summarized and size and distribution of used weights are examined in Chapter 2 and 3, respectively. Chapter 4 analyzes the coverage and representativeness of EU FADN data. Finally, the question of the representativeness of EU FADN with respect to organic farming is addressed.
The field of survey of the EU FADN is a well-defined group of farms out of the total number of farms and includes commercial farms that exceed a minimum threshold of agricultural production measured in European Size Units. This threshold varies among Member States, and some countries apply additional criteria for excluding farms from the survey. Given the great variety within the FADN field of observation, stratified sampling is applied to ensure that the sample of farms adequately reflects this heterogeneity. Stratification as well as procedures and methodology to select sample farms vary among Member States. For example, non-random sampling and voluntary participation may introduce sampling bias. The differences in selecting, stratifying and sampling between Member States can also result in differences in national and EU FADN weights and affect representativeness.