Participatory Baseline Survey

Methods of Implementation
Type the name of your
organization here.

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WHERE ARE WE?: Participatory Baseline Survey in
SHEP’s 4 Steps
4 Steps Activities

1. Share goal with farmers. Sensitization Workshop

Participatory Baseline Survey

Baseline Survey as a way to
2. Farmers’ awareness is raised. raise farmers’ awareness.
(optional) Stakeholder Forum
Market Survey
Target Crop Selection
3 . Farmers make decisions. Crop Calendar Making

4. Farmers acquire skills. In-field trainings

Follow-up and monitoring (including Participatory Endline Survey)

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PART 1: CONCEPT

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WHY?: Objectives of Participatory Baseline Survey
• Baseline Survey has dual purposes.
1. For the farmers
• Understanding their current situations to identify areas for
improvement
• Understanding the importance of record keeping

2. For the implementers

• Gathering data on the target farmers’ situations in order to
assess improvements after SHEP activities (Comparison
between “before” and “after”)
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WHAT?: Outline of Participatory Baseline Survey
• Ask the farmers to fill out two kinds of survey sheets
(1) Baseline Survey Part 1- Production, Income and Cost
(2) Baseline Survey Part 2- Agricultural Techniques
• The farmers themselves fill out the forms (Offer help
where necessary)
• Data is collected and analyzed by the implementers
• Feedback is given to the farmers at a later day

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FORMAT: Baseline Survey Questionnaire Forms
• Baseline Survey Part 1- Production, Income and Cost

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FORMAT: Baseline Survey Questionnaire Forms
• Baseline Survey Part 2- Agricultural Techniques

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FORMAT: Baseline Survey Questionnaire Forms

• The two forms are just examples. Questions can be

modified (deleted, added, changed, etc.) in
accordance with local situations.
• When modifying, especially when adding questions,
carefully consider farmers’ capacity levels (their
memory, literacy skills, etc.) and required time. Do not
make it too demanding.

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HOW?: Key Implementation Tips
• The survey should be more for farmers’ benefit than
for implementers’ benefit

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 HOW?: Key Implementation Tips
• The target farmers should be the main actors of the
survey, rather than the extension staff.
Raising Motivation

• The extension staff help farmers calculate basic figures

such as crop yield, cost, profit, etc. which are
important for farm management.
Raising Motivation

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PART 2: PRACTICE

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STEP: Implementation
Procedures
1. Prepare a conversion table (local
units into kilograms).
Malawi’s conversion table with pictures
2. Organize a meeting and instruct
the farmers how to fill out the
two forms.
3. Let the farmers fill out the forms
by themselves. Let them take the
forms home and complete them
with their family members if
necessary. [Tip!] Ask literate
farmers to assist illiterate farmers. 12
 STEP: Implementation Procedures
4. After completing the forms, discuss new findings.
✓How can record keeping help us (farmers) manage our farming
business?
✓Are we making enough profits as we have hoped?
✓Do we have sufficient cultivation skills? What are our weaknesses?
5. Submit the completed forms to the designated office. (Change
this to an appropriate section -e.g. Project Unit, central ministry
office, etc. where analysis will be made) [Note] Make sure to
correct obvious mistakes and errors before submitting.
6. Give feedback to the farmers when analyzed data is sent back
to the extension staff.
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Completing Production, Income & Cost Sheet
Basic information
of the farmer

Production,
income &
cost

Unit
conversion
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 Completing Production, Income & Cost Sheet

1 Crop Name and Variety

→Indicate name of the horticultural crop and variety grown
in the last cropping season.
2 (2a. & 2b.) Area under the Crop in meter X meter (m2) or ha
→Pacing can be used to estimate area under the crop 15
 Completing Production, Income & Cost Sheet

3 Production sold at market in various unit (e.g. bags, crates,

bundles, bushels, etc.)
→Total quantity sold at markets.
4 [Automatic calculation- no need to write in this column as long as
conversion is indicated] Production sold at market in kg
→Farmers can write in kg in this column instead of writing in
column 3. 16
 Completing Production, Income & Cost Sheet

5 (4/2b.) [Automatic calculation- no need to write in this column]

Production sold at market in kg per ha
→Analyzing productivity. Farmers do not need to write in this
column.
6 Average Price per various unit (local currency per unit)
→ Marketed price per unit 17
 Completing Production, Income & Cost Sheet

7 (6/unit conversion in box) [Automatic calculation- no need to

write in this column] Average Price per kg in local currency
→Farmers do not need to write in this column if they do not know
the price per kg.
8 (3X6) or (4X7) [Automatic calculation- no need to write in this
column] Total Income in local currency
→ This is the total income from the crop. 18
 Completing Production, Income & Cost Sheet

9 Total Cost of Production in local currency

→Cost of seed, planting materials, fertilizers/manures, pesticides,
posts/stakes, labor costs, transportation & marketing costs,etc.
10 (8-9) [Automatic calculation- no need to write in this column] Net
income (profit) in local currency
→ This is the total profit from the crop. 19
 Completing Production, Income & Cost Sheet

In the box, indicate unit conversions

<example>
1 bag of Irish Potato 110kg A conversion table
1 head of cabbage = 2kg like this will be
useful.
1 crate of tomatoes = 20kg
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 Completing Production, Income & Cost Sheet
Let’s Exercise !
• Calculate cabbage production, income & cost for this farmer.
Last cropping season, we grew cabbages. The name of the variety
was Gloria. We set aside about 40 meters x 5 meters near here and
12 meters x 10 meters over the other side for cabbage production.
We harvested 160 heads. Our family ate 10 heads and sold the rest of
the cabbages to a middleman. Our cabbages were fairly big and each
head weighed around 1.5kg. The middleman bought the cabbages
for 40 cents per head. The total cost of production was around $20
which included costs of tomato production. The amount of tomato
production was about the same as that of cabbages. 21
 Useful Data: Productivity Comparison
(Cabbages and other brassicas – Year 2014)
Country kg/ha
South Africa 56,808
Japan 42,651
U.S.A. 39,824
Namibia 33,282
Kenya 30,917
Niger 27,914
Madagascar 21,437
D.R. Congo 17,057
Zimbabwe 12,800
Rwanda 12,134
Souｒce: UN Data
(http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d= Ethiopia 9,900
FAO&f=itemCode%3A358) World 29,082 22
Completing Agricultural Techniques Sheet
Basic information
of the farmer

Questions to
assess farmer’s
agricultural
techniques

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Completing Agricultural Techniques Sheet
• If the answer is “Yes”, simply check (✓) the left box
marked “Yes”.
• If the answer is “No”, simply check (✓) the left box
marked “No”.

• We expect that the number of “Yes” will increase after

the farmers’ participation in SHEP activities.
• During In-field Training, try to emphasize the techniques
which had many “No” answers.
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 CHECKLIST: Points to be Confirmed after
Participatory Baseline Survey
✓The target farmers understand their current production and sales
situation and identify gaps that need to be filled.
✓The target farmers understand their current technical levels in
terms of production and marketing and identify gaps that need to
be filled.
✓The target farmers understand the importance of farm record
keeping, both in terms of bookkeeping and farm activity records
and become willing to start keeping records.
✓The male-female ratio of the participants is balanced.
✓Gender-disaggregated data is collected and analyzed.
✓(optional) The members’ spouses are involved. 25
Participatory Baseline Survey in Action

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 TROUBLESHOOTING
✓What if farmers do not have written records on income &
expenditure? → Encourage farmers to make is a habit to
keep a record from now on.
✓Can illiterate farmers do it? → Yes. Assist them or ask
literate farmers or family members to help them.
✓What if data is not so reliable? → Usually it is difficult to
obtain data accurate enough for statistical purpose. Still,
encourage farmers to provide as accurate data as possible
(Such data will still be a powerful tool to inform policy and decision-
makers).
✓What if farmers do not want to disclose/submit data? →Do
no force them. Try to find someone who is willing to do so. 27
Way Forward: Implementation Schedule,
Reporting, add any other necessary info. here

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