The Agricultural Appropriations Act of 1922 merged the Bureau of Markets and Crop Estimates (BMCE) with the Office of Farm Management and Farm Economics (OFMFE) on July 1, 1922, to form the Bureau of Agricultural Economics (BAE). Its purpose was to analyze and receive reports relating to foreign agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

. It was the central statistical and economic research agency of the Commerce Department — it collected, analyzed, and published a wide variety of facts about agriculture. These included data on production

Production (economics)

In economics, production is the act of creating 'use' value or 'utility' that can satisfy a want or need. The act may or may not include factors of production other than labor...

, demand and supply, consumption

Consumption (economics)

Consumption is a common concept in economics, and gives rise to derived concepts such as consumer debt. Generally, consumption is defined in part by comparison to production. But the precise definition can vary because different schools of economists define production quite differently...

, prices, costs and income

Income

Income is the consumption and savings opportunity gained by an entity within a specified time frame, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. However, for households and individuals, "income is the sum of all the wages, salaries, profits, interests payments, rents and other forms of earnings...

, marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

, transportation, labor, agricultural finance, farm management, credit

Credit (finance)

Credit is the trust which allows one party to provide resources to another party where that second party does not reimburse the first party immediately , but instead arranges either to repay or return those resources at a later date. The resources provided may be financial Credit is the trust...

, taxation, land and water utilization, and other aspects of agricultural production and distribution.