Philippines - Costs and Returns Survey of Milkfish Production 2006

Start	End	Cycle
2006-11-15	2006-11-30	N/A

Start	End	Cycle
2006-01-01		last completed production cycle

Face-to-face [f2f]
The questionnaire on CRS of milkfish production was pretested on October 10-12, 2006 in Bulacan. A manual of operations was prepared together with the questionnaire. After the pre-test, the questionnaire and the manual of operations were reviewed and finalized. 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 encountered during the dry-run.

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 interview of the sample pond owner/operator 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.

A structured questionnaire written in English was used. It was designed in tabular form and other parts were in question type format. The data items/variables in the questionnaire were based on the previous (2001) questionnaires with some modifications and additions.

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

The questionnaire consisted of 9 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 number of years engaged in milkfish production, name of the respondent and relationship of respondent to owner/operator.

C. AQUAFARM CHARACTERISTICS include the name of aquafarm, physical area of aquafarm, number of ponds and its size, tenurial status, aquafarm environment and culture method adopted.

D. FARM INVESTMENTS cover data on inventory of farm investments used, year and cost of acquisition, repairs and improvement cost, estimated life and percent of use in the focus pond.

E. MATERIAL INPUTS contain data on the quantity and cost of stocking materials, fertilizers, lime, pesticides, disease prevention and pollution control and other chemicals.

F. LABOR INPUTS cover data on 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 include data on cash and non-cash payments for land tax, salaries and wages, lease/rental, rental value of owned land, rentals of machine and tools, fuel and oil, transport costs of inputs, license/permits, electricity, and interest payment on loans.

H. PRODUCTION AND DISPOSITION contain data on volume of milkfish production and its disposition in terms of sold, harvesters' share, caretakers' share, other laborers' share, landowners' share, lease/rental, for home consumption, given away, and other dispositions.

I. BUYER INFORMATION contain data on the major buyer of milkfish.

J. PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED include problems affecting production and marketing of milkfish.

K. ACCESS TO CREDIT covers data on the amount and source of loan, and interest rate per annum.

L. OTHER INFORMATION include daata on the membership in fishery related association, access to extension services, future plans of fishpond operators and their recommendations to improve milkfish production

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

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 saw 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 editing 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 Officer (RASO) is 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.