Measurement of the Supply of Agricultural Pproducts: An International Comparison

Knowing this, it is the aim of this paper to provide an international comparison of the state of development of various methods to aggregate agricultural production.This comparison provides an overview of a rarely tackled research topic, helps to identify communalities and differences between various approaches and, thus, best practices, and supports the verifi cation of useful suggestions for further development of the agricultural accounts.Although the calculation of the supply of food is the central goal of food balances, feed balances also have to be taken into account.Livestock production plays a majorand in some countries even dominant -role in agriculture.Since agricultural products can be used for food or feed, feed balances are a core element of each agricultural accounting system.Therefore, feed balances also have to be taken into account.In some countries, the agricultural accounting system even mainly focuses on feed balances due to their outstanding role for the availability of nutrients for human consumption.The paper is mainly of interest for readers from the food and human nutrition area.Recent research has repeatedly highlighted the challenges of feeding a growing world population [FAO, 2009].In this context, meat consumption has been identifi ed as a key challenge to food security [Breustedt & Qaim, 2012;Foley et al., 2012; IFPRI, 2012].Therefore, an overview over alternative methods for accounting agricultural products (including feed balances) is of growing relevance.The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: We will fi rst introduce the concept of food and feed balances and then provide an overview of various systems of agricultural accounting currently used.The paper ends with a brief conclusion and an outlook.The paper is based on an in-depth scientifi c study on food and feed balances for the German Measurement of the Supply of Agricultural