National practices on data collection methods for statistics on structural aspects of agriculture

1. Regional Roundtable on
World Programme for the Census of Agriculture 2020
Nairobi, Kenya, 18-22 September 2017
National practices on data
collection methods for statistics
on structural aspects of
agriculture
Technical Session 19
1
Brian Kaseke
Agriculture Statistics Manager
Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat)
bkaseke@zimstat.co.zw

2. Contents
• Introduction
• Overview of Agriculture Statistics Sector
• Introduction to NSO Agriculture Survey
• Survey Modules
• Uses of survey data
• Sector Coverage and Sampling
• Training
• Data Collection Methodology
• Data Processing and Dissemination
• Challenges
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3. Introduction
 Zimbabwe is a country situated in Southern Africa
with a population of about 13 million as at the last
census of 2012.
 Contribution of agriculture to GDP is about 12
percent
 Population dependent on agriculture is about 65
percent
 The agriculture sector in Zimbabwe is divided into
six sectors namely: the Communal, A1 Farms, A2
Farms, Large Scale Commercial Farms, Small Scale
Commercial Farms, Old Resettlement Schemes
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4. Introduction cont’
 Zimbabwe as a Country has never conducted an
agricultural census but has been conducting
sample surveys.
 The agriculture year starts from 1 October to 30
September of the following year
 The main producers of agriculture statistics are
the National Statistical Office and the Ministry
of Agriculture Mechanization and Irrigation
Development.
 Both institutions conduct sample surveys which
are harmonized through the crop and livestock
forecasting committees.
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5. Ministry of Agriculture,
Mechanization and Irrigation
Development
 Is responsible for implementing agriculture
policy on crops and livestock production in the
Country
 Provides extensions services to farmers
 Conducts the Crop and Livestock assessment
annually which focuses on rainfall season
quality and crop & livestock production
 Crop production focuses on production
estimates, area under crop, pests and diseases
 Livestock production focuses on livestock
population as well as animal diseases 5

6. Zimbabwe National Statistics
Agency
Was established through an Act of parliament
Census and Statistics Act [Chapter 10:29].
Some of the functions of the Agency include the
following
1. Conduct the national census or any other
censuses and surveys.
2. Co-ordinate and supervise the National
Statistical System
3. Advise the Government on all matters related
to statistics
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7. Zimstat Agriculture Survey
 In fulfilling its mandate of conducting censuses
and surveys as stated in the Act, the Agency
conducts an Agriculture Survey
 The survey is conducted annually and consists
of nine modules
 The Modules are administered at different times
of the year in line with the agriculture season.
 Data collected through this survey is
disaggregated by sex and geographical level i.e.
province and district.
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8. Survey Modules
 Employment – employees and earnings,
household members living and contributing to
agriculture labour
 Access to loans
 Crop Inputs – amount and value of fertiliser,
seed, pesticides, herbicides
 Livestock Population and Inputs – livestock
inputs include veterinary costs, vaccines, feed
 Crop forecasting – area under crop, fallow land
production estimates
 Post Harvest – actual crop output
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9. Survey Modules Cont’
 Inventory of agriculture implements and
machinery
 Capital formation
 Transport and energy use
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10. Uses of Survey data
 Intake planning of crops and livestock by the
marketing boards and companies
 Formulation of Government’s agricultural policy
on subsidies, prices, marketing etc.
 Assessing the food security position of the
country
 Forecasting of agricultural inputs by farmers
 Compilation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
figures
 Provision of baseline data for research
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11. Sector Coverage and Sampling
 Large Scale Commercial Farms
 Small Scale Commercial Farms
 Old Resettlement Schemes (Model A, B1, B2,
E)
 A1 Farms
 A2 Farms
 Communal Lands
The difference in the sector is on the size of the
agriculture holdings, tenure, model used for
resettlement and time
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12. Sampling Cont’
 Sampling frame for Communal sector is
constructed from the household population
census and consists of all enumeration areas
(EA) whose land use sector code is for
communal as provided during mapping exercise.
 Frames for the other sector are administrative
register obtained from the Ministry of
Agriculture, Mechanization and Irrigation
Development as well as the Ministry of Lands
and Rural Resettlement which consists of all
plots and farms within the country.
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13. Sampling Cont’
Sample selection varies by sector and the sampling
units for the sectors are as follows:
 Communal lands - Households
 Old Resettlement Schemes (Models, A, B1, B2
and E) - Plots
 A1 Farms - Plots
 A2 Farms - Plots
 Large Scale Commercial Farming Areas - Farms
 Small Scale Commercial Farming Areas - Farms
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14. Sampling Cont’
 The sample size for the ALS is 28 239 sampling
units and provides estimates up to district level.
 Sampling units are selected using Probability
Proportional to Size (PPS) and Systematic
Random Sampling.
 Depending on the sector, sampling is done using
two stage or three stage sampling.
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15. Sample Size by Sector
Sector Population Sample
Communal 1,896,803 14,310
Large Scale Commercial Farms 1,440 380
Small Scale Commercial Farms 10,400 1,141
Old Resettlement Schemes 33,047 6,530
A1 Farms 102,326 8,320
A2 Farms 8,099 2,642
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16. Training
 Training of trainers and training of enumerators
are conducted when need arises. Trainings are
normally conducted when there has been
significant changes to the questionnaires.
 The training of trainers is to equip the trainers
on training skills to use during the training of
enumerators and supervision skills during the
data collection process.
 Training of enumerators is meant to train
enumerators on the objectives of the survey, and
how to conduct the interviews.
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17. Data Collection Methodology
 Data collection is done through personal interviews
with enumerators visiting the selected sampling
units to interview the respondents.
 Interviews are conducted using paper based
questionnaires.
 The reference period of the survey differs with the
module to be administered, e.g. the employment
module is administered on a quarterly basis.
 A total of 560 enumerators are involved in the data
collection exercise of which 306 are permanent
ZIMSTAT staff with the rest being contract staff.
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18. Data Processing and Dissemination
 After data collection, the questionnaires are
transported to the head office for processing. All
the data processing stages such as editing, data
capturing and cleaning are centralized.
 Dissemination of the agriculture statistics is
done electronically
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19. Challenges
 Lack of finance to conduct an agriculture census as
the country has always been conducting agriculture
sample surveys.
 Increase in target population in some sampling units
as a result of parceling out part of the land to others.
Because the target sampling unit will be a plot or
farm, enumerators are forced to enumerate all the
farming households within the target sampling unit.
 Respondent fatigue as the sample is changed after
every ten years after conducting the population
census.
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20. Future Plans
 To conduct an agriculture census in the
near future given the changes that have
taken place in the agriculture sector with
regards to the following:
1. Land size
2. Land tenure
3. Crop and Livestock production
4. Agriculture employment
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21. Thank you
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