Root for the Tubers : Extended-Harvest Crop Production and Productivity Measurement in Surveys
To document the relative accuracy of methods for microdata collection on root and tuber crop production, an experiment was implemented in Malawi over a 12-month period, randomly assigning cassava-producing households to one of four approaches: dail...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/393581539866711478/Root-for-the-Tubers-Extended-Harvest-Crop-Production-and-Productivity-Measurement-in-Surveys http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30600 |
| Summary: | To document the relative accuracy of
methods for microdata collection on root and tuber crop
production, an experiment was implemented in Malawi over a
12-month period, randomly assigning cassava-producing
households to one of four approaches: daily diary-keeping,
with semi-weekly supervision visits; daily diary-keeping,
with semi-weekly supervisory phone calls; two six-month
recall interviews, with six months in between; and a single
12-month recall interview. Lapses in diary-keeping can
underestimate true production, albeit to a lesser degree
compared to recall. And the comparisons between the diary
variants and the variation in underestimation by recall
period are unclear ex ante. The analysis reveals that
compared to traditional diary-keeping, the household-level
annual cassava production is 295 kilograms higher, on
average, (and assumed as closer to the truth) under
diary-keeping with phone calls. This effect corresponds to
28 percent of the average traditional diary-keeping
production estimate. Although the difference between the
estimates based on six-month recall and traditional
diary-keeping is statistically insignificant, 12-month
recall underestimates annual production, on average, by 516
kilograms and 221 kilograms, respectively, compared to
diary-keeping with phone calls and traditional
diary-keeping. While the recall-based approaches both
underestimate true production, six-month recall does so to a
lesser extent. The evidence additionally demonstrates likely
gross overestimation in international and ministerial
statistics on cassava yields in Malawi. For improved
microdata on root and tuber crop production, the adoption of
(i) diary-keeping with phone calls (particularly if deployed
in a broader mobile phone–based survey) or (ii) six-month
recall, as a second-best alternative, is recommended. |
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