Cheaper, Faster, and More Than Good Enough : Is GPS the New Gold Standard in Land Area Measurement?
In rural societies of low- and middle-income countries, land is a major measure of wealth, a critical input in agricultural production, and a key variable for assessing agricultural performance and productivity. In the absence of cadastral informat...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/07/26588492/cheaper-faster-more-good-enough-gps-new-gold-standard-land-area-measurement http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24840 |
| Summary: | In rural societies of low- and
middle-income countries, land is a major measure of wealth,
a critical input in agricultural production, and a key
variable for assessing agricultural performance and
productivity. In the absence of cadastral information to
refer to, measures of land plots have historically been
taken with one of two approaches: traversing (accurate, but
cumbersome), and farmers' self-report (cheap, but
marred by measurement error). Recently, the advent of cheap
handheld GPS devices has held promise for balancing cost and
precision. Guided by purposely collected primary data from
Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania (Zanzibar), and with
consideration for practical household survey implementation,
the paper assesses the nature and magnitude of measurement
error under different measurement methods and proposes a set
of recommendations for plot area measurement. The results
largely point to the support of GPS measurement, with
simultaneous collection of farmer self-reported areas. |
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