Statistical Terms Glossary

Measures the value of agricultural products which, free of intra-branch consumption, is produced during the accounting period and, before processing, is available for export and/or consumption.

Worldwide, specific agricultural systems and landscapes have been created, shaped and maintained by generations of farmers and herders based on diverse natural resources, using locally adapted management practices. Building on local knowledge and experience, these ingenious agri-cultural systems reflect the evolution of humankind, the diversity of its knowledge, and its profound relationship with nature. These systems have resulted not only in outstanding landscapes, maintenance and adaptation of globally significant agricultural biodiversity, indigenous knowledge systems and resilient ecosystems, but, above all, in the sustained provision of multiple goods and services, food and livelihood security and quality of life.

Civil person, group of civil persons or juridical person who makes the major decisions regarding resource use and exercises management control over the agricultural holding operation.

An economic unit of agricultural production under single management comprising all kept livestock and all land used totally or partially for agricultural production purposes regardless of legal form or size. Single management may be exercised by an individual or household, jointly by two or more individuals or households, by a clan or tribe, or by a juridical person such as a corporation, cooperative, or government agency. The land of the holding may consist of one or more parcels located in one or more separate areas, or in one or more territorial or administrative divisions, providing the parcels share the same means of production such as labour, farm buildings, machinery, or draught animals.

Economic unit of agricultural production under single management comprising all livestock kept and all land used wholly or partly for agricultural production purposes, without regard to title, legal form or size.

A household whose largest source of income consists of income derived from agricultural production.

The process whereby individuals or organizations generate new, or bring existing agricultural and agri-food knowledge, products, tools, technologies, processes and forms of organization into new social and economic use, towards eliminating hunger and malnutrition, eradicating poverty and enhancing wellbeing and fostering environmental sustainability and resilience to shocks.

The total of cropland and permanent meadows and pastures.

Agricultural land and associated surface water is equivalent to the 1993 SNA category “land under cultivation” (AN.2112) except for the qualification on recreational land (see recreational land) and the exclusion of plantations. The SEEA goes beyond the 1993 SNA in identifying specific sub-categories of agricultural land: cultivated land, pasture land and other agricultural land.

Agricultural landscapes can be described in terms of the three elements: structure, which concerns the interaction between environmental features, land-use patterns and human-made objects; functions, which are the provision of environmental services for farmers and society; and the values society puts on agricultural landscapes and the costs of maintaining and enhancing landscape provisions by agriculture. Because the underlying human and natural processes are subject to change and evolution, landscapes are "dynamic systems".

The Agricultural Market Access Database (AMAD) is a co-operative effort between Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, EU Commission-Agriculture Director-General, FAO, OECD, The World Bank, UNCTAD and the United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Data in the database is obtained from countries’ schedules and notifications submitted to the WTO.