Philippines - Costs and Returns Survey of Palay Production by Seed Type and Class 2005

Start	End	Cycle
2005-09-07	2005-09-18	N/A

Start	End	Cycle
2004-07-01		last completed normal cropping

Face-to-face [f2f]
The questionnaire was pre-tested from July 28 to 29, 2005. Afterwards, the questionnaire was finalized and a manual of operations was prepared. Before the survey operations, training was undertaken to ensure uniformity in the understanding of concepts and procedures. The first level training involved selected BAS Central Office (CO) staff who became trainors of the next level training which was participated in by the BAS- Provincial Operations Center (POC) staff and the hired data collectors. Part of the field training included the conduct of mock interview and dry-run exercises. The BAS CO Staff who acted as the trainors supervised the initial data collection activity of the enumerators together with the POC staff. Upon return to the BAS Central Office, the BAS CO trainors prepared and submitted a travel report containing the activities done in the field (province) as well as the issues/problems encountered and their recommendations.

In the selection of qualified sample farmers, a set of screening questions was used by the enumerator before proceeding to the interview using the structured Costs and Returns Survey questionnaire. Prior to the conduct of data collection, courtesy call to the barangay officials was done to get permission for the conduct of the survey in the barangay and explain the purpose of such activity.

The interview was conducted in the local dialect of the province. Problems and issues encountered in field data collection were relayed to the BAS CO Staff or management for their concern. Immediate action was provided by the management.

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. This questionnaire focused on costs and retuns structure of palay production by farm type further disaggregated by seed class/type covering the last completed normal cropping within the one year reference period (July 2004 to June 2005) and regardless of season.

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

The questionnaire consisted of 9 pages covering 12 blocks as follows:

A. GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION includes the location of the sample farmer such as the name of the region, province, city/municipality, barangay and its classification.

B. SAMPLE IDENTIFICATION includes the name, age, farming experience and educational attainment of the sample farmer and name of respondent.

C. BASIC FARM CHARACTERISTICS such as total farm area and palay area, usual number of croppings per year, type and class and variety of palay seeds planted, source of seeds, type of palay farm, tenurial status, major source of irrigation, month and area planted and harvested.

D. FARM INVESTMENTS include inventory of farm investments used, year and cost of acquisition, repairs and improvement cost, estimated life and percent of use in palay farm

E. MATERIAL INPUTS such as usage and cost of seeds, fertilizers, soil ameliorants, insecticides, herbicides/weedicides, fungicides, rodenticides and molluscicides.

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 covers cash and non-cash payments for land tax, land lease/rental, rental value of owned land, rentals of machine and animals, fuel and oil, transport costs of inputs, irrigation fee, interest payment on crop loans and other production costs.

H. PRODUCTION AND DISPOSITION such as volume of palay 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/to be used for seeds and for feeds, irrigation fee, wastage and other purposes.

I. PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED such as problems affecting production and production losses

J. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF PALAY PRODUCTION

K. OTHER INFORMATIONS ON HYBRID AND INBRED SEEDS USAGE include the years of planting hybrid seeds, variety used, area harvested, volume of production, reasons for shift from hybrid to inbred seeds

L. DATA COLLECTOR/EDITORS/PASO PARTICULARS contain the name of data collector, field supervisor, editor and PASO and CO editor and encoder.

The questionnaire is provided as External Resources

Name	Abbreviation	Affiliation
Bureau of Agricultural Statistics	BAS	Department of Agriculture

During the survey operation, data collectors were closely supervised by the POC regular staff. As an immediate supervisor, they should see to it that the survey operation ran smoothly and within the target schedule. Part of the supervisor's work was the conduct of spot checking of the data collectors and back checking of their work to ensure that errors or incompleteness committed in the survey operation were corrected immediately.

The regular POC staff were also responsible for reviewing and edting the accomplished questionnaires. These were done to check the completeness, accuracy and consistency of the answers 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 operation in all the provinces within the region. The Statistical Operations Coordination Division (SOCD) at the Central Office monitored and coordinated the field operations.