How was the content of the 2006 Census of Agriculture determined?
Census of Agriculture staff consulted with data users at a series of workshops held across Canada in 2002. Agricultural producer groups, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada analysts, other public and private sector analysts and academics suggested new topics for the 2006 Census of Agriculture during these consultations. The workshop participants were also surveyed by mail and asked to rate the importance of proposed new census questions. New or changed questions were developed in Head Office and tested a number of times with farm operators who reflected regional diversity — in types of agriculture, production techniques, language and terminology, and in policies or issues that could affect the sensitivity of questions. This testing proved that some questions would not perform well on the census, and that the wording of other questions would require fine-tuning. Based on the test results, Statistics Canada finalized the content and design of the 2006 questionnaire in the fall of 2004. The
