Agroecological Statistics: Problems of Formation and Development

This article is a journal version of a brief description of the study of the problems of the formation and implementation in practice of a system of indicators of agroecological statistics, initiated and organized by the Interstate Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS Statcommittee) in 2019. The study analyzed and used many international as well as national methodological, organizational and technical materials. The authors considered a set of specific indicators, the data on which have been collected, compiled and published for several years in the Eurostat system and under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), endorsed by the UN General Assembly in 2015. In this regard, the authors of the article proposed and thoroughly substantiated their interpretation of the field of agroecology (and the corresponding system of indicators) as agricultural activity and the use of rural areas, carried out in the closest connection with the complex requirements of environmental protection, including rationalization of nature management, within the agricultural sector itself and on rural territories, taking into account some related («border») aspects.

Based on this approach, based on the foreign documentation and domestic developments, an Integrated Table of Agroecological Indicators was formed, containing 18 sections and including a total of 255 indicators (with organizational and methodological explanations for these indicators). Moreover, the article provides a brief description of each section. In addition, the issues of linking the proposed Integrated Table with the UN Sustainable Development Goals Indicators (SDGs) were considered separately and in sufficient detail.

In parallel with the above-described aspects, some problems were revealed that needed to be solved before the practical implementation of agroecological statistics in the CIS countries in general and in the Russian Federation in particular. This applies, for example, to issues such as clarification and updating of classifiers reflecting environmental protection and nature conservation activities concerning agricultural production and rural territories; the correct statistical reflection of the output of organic products in agriculture, as well as the cultivation of crop materials for processing on biofuels (based on the tenets of agroecology)ю

The article covers issues of so-called ecosystem accounting in the framework of the system of national accounts and the auxiliary System of Environmental-Economic Accounting. Specific aspects of these problems were described in detail and some suggestions were made to address them.

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