Vegetable acreage and production survey underway

Vegetable acreage and production survey underway

The New York Field Office of the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will conduct a Vegetable Acreage and Production survey during October and November. This survey will gather information on vegetable acreage planted and harvested and amount of vegetables produced in New York during 2007.

Results from last year's survey established New York's rank as fifth in the nation for product of fresh market vegetables and seventh in the nation for production of processing vegetables. NASS data is used by the USDA Farm Service Agency and crop insurance companies to determine payments to producers in the event of a disaster, and crop advisors look at NASS data to determine their recommendations. Agricultural experiment stations use the information to help with research into new and better varieties of vegetables and new and better ways of controlling pests.

Response to this survey is voluntary; however, every response is important for New York's vegetable production to be accurately represented. "We safeguard the confidentiality of all survey responses," said Stephen Ropel, director of the New York Field Office. "Data about individual operations are used only in conjunction with information from other producers." The National Agricultural Statistics Service is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, so producers can be guaranteed that individual data will not be released to any person or any other agency.

All agricultural statistics published by NASS are available free of charge at www.usda.gov/nass/. For information, call 1-800-821-1276.