Philippines - Costs and Returns Survey of Onion Production 2006

Start	End	Cycle
2006-12-06	2006-12-18	N/A

Start	End	Cycle
2006-01-01		last completed cropping

Face-to-face [f2f]
The questionnaire on CRS of onion production was pretested from October 10-12, 2006 in Nueva Ecija. Before the pre-test, a manual of operations was prepared together with the questionnaire. These were finalized after the pre-test. Prior to the field data collection, training was conducted to ensure that the concepts and procedures were correctly understood. The first level training was attended by selected BAS Central Office (CO) staff. They became trainors at the BAS- Provincial Operations Center (POC) participated by PASO, field staffs and hired data collectors. Part of the field training was the conduct of mock interview, dry-run exercises, discussion of problems and issues and editing procedures. The BAS CO Staff who served as the trainors supervised the initial data collection activity of the data collectors together with the POC staff. Upon return to the BAS Central Office, the BAS CO trainors prepared and submitted travel reports on the activities done in the field (province) as well as the issues/problems encountered and their recommendations.

The field data collection was undertaken by hired data collectors through personal interviews of the sample farmers who passed the requirements of the survey using the set of screening questions. The interview was conducted in the local dialect of the province. Before the data collection, courtesy call to the barangay officials was done to explain the nature and purpose of the survey and to seek permission for the conduct of such activity in the barangay.

Problems and issues encountered during field data collection were reported to the BAS CO Staff or management for their information and appropriate action. The POC also submitted to the Central Office a narrative report regarding the conduct of the survey.

The questionnaire was a structured questionnaire written in English. It was designed in tabular form and some in question type format. The data items/variables in the questionnaire were based on the previous questionnaires with some modifications and additions.

The questionnaire was pre-tested and reviewed before its implementation.

The questionnaire consisted of 12 pages covering 13 blocks as follows:

A. GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION includes the location of the farm such as the name of the region, province, city/municipality and barangay.

B. SAMPLE IDENTIFICATION such as the name, age, sex, highest educational attainment, main occupation and farming experience of the sample farmer/operator in onion production and the name of the respondent.

C. FARM CHARACTERISTICS such as total farm area, number of parcels operated by the farmer, area planted and harvested to onion and other crops, number of croppings per year, variety of onion planted, tenurial status, month of planting and harvesting onion.

D. FARM INVESTMENTS such as inventory of farm investments used, year and cost of acquisition, repairs and improvement cost and estimated life and usage in the focus onion farm.

E. MATERIAL INPUTS contain the quantity and cost of planting materials, fertilizers, mulching materials, insecticides, herbicides/weedicides, fungicides and other chemicals.

F. LABOR INPUTS such as labor utilization (in terms of mandays) and labor cost by type of farming activity, by source of labor and by sex and food cost incurred.

G. OTHER PRODUCTION COSTS cover cash and non-cash payments for land tax, land lease/rental, rental value of owned land, rentals of machine, animals and tools and equipment, fuel and oil, transport costs of inputs, irrigation fee, electricity, interest payment on crop loans, storage cost and other production costs.

H. PRODUCTION AND DISPOSITION such as volume of onion production and its disposition in terms of sold, harvesters' share, threshers' share, other laborers' share, landowners' share, lease rental, for home consumption, given away, used for seeds, wastage and other purposes.

I. BUYER INFORMATION includes the major buyer of onion and the percentage of onion sold to each buyer and the perceived right price of onion.

J. PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED such as problems affecting production and marketing of onion.

K. ACCESS TO CREDIT such as the amount and source of crop loan, interest rate per annum and percentage of loan used in onion production.

L. OTHER INFORMATION such as membership in onion-related association and benefits derived, access to extension services, future plans of onion farmers and their recommendations to improve onion production

M. INTERVIEW/SURVEY PARTICULARS contain the name and signature of data collector, field supervisor/editor and PASO and date accomplished.

The questionnaire is provided as External Resources

Name	Abbreviation	Affiliation
Bureau of Agricultural Statistics	BAS	Department of Agriculture

Close supervision of field enumerators was done by the POC regular staff during data collection. As immediate supervisors, they see to it that the survey operation ran smoothly and within the target schedule. Spot checking of the data collectors and back checking of their work were also part of the field supervision to ensure that errors or incompleteness committed in the survey operation were checked and corrected immediately.

The regular POC staff were also responsible for reviewing and edting the accomplished questionnaires. These were done to check the acceptability, consistency and completeness of the information recorded in the questionnaire.

The Provincial Agricultural Statistics Officers (PASOs) and Assistant Provincial Agricultural Statistics Officers (APASOs) acted as overall supervisors in the provinces. They also conducted spot checking and backchecking, review of completed and edited questionnaires before submitting to the Central Office. A report on field data collection was prepared and sent by the POC to the Central Office.

The Regional Agricultural Statistics Officers (RASOs) were responsible for the monitoring and supervision of the survey operations in all the provinces within the region. The Statistical Operations Coordination Division (SOCD) at the Central Office monitored and coordinated the field operations.