Project News

Baseline survey for farmers was conducted!

A baseline survey for farmers was conducted in Homa Bay County from 20th to 23rd September, 2021. On the first day, a workshop for county officers and extension workers to explain how to conduct a baseline survey, and the next day, the extension workers actually collect information from farmers. Since the project covers two sub-counties per county, a two-day baseline survey was conducted twice, a total of four day baseline survey for Homa Bay County.

What is unique about the project's baseline survey is that it does not cover all target farmers, but rather randomly sampled farmers. Considering that the big number of target farmers in the project, 200 farmers in 10 groups per county and a large number of people cannot gather due to COVID-19, the project team discussed and decided to randomly sample the target farmers for each group. A total of four farmers, two male and two female from each group, are randomly selected and participate in the baseline survey, a total of 40 farmers per county. Random sampling enables the project to efficiently carry out the survey and measure the impact with statistical estimation without conducting a complete survey. Farmers who participated in the baseline survey will share the importance of record keeping learnt from the baseline survey with other group members later.

There are two types of information collected in the baseline survey, one is the calculation of cultivated crops, production volume, profits earned, etc., and the other is the number of applications of 20 techniques recommended for horticultural crop cultivation by the project. At the beginning, both farmers and extension workers seemed to have difficulty, but once they filled in the survey forms, they understood it, and in about two hours all the farmers completed the forms. The farmer who participated said, "it was hard for remembering the information required for the survey because I didn't record information on the crops harvested. Through filling in the forms, I learnt that I can calculate the profit for each crop by total production, unit price and cost. From now on, I would like to start recording the production, profit, etc."

Next, the project will hold a business linkage forum that connects farmers with agriculture stakeholders such as seed companies, fertilizer companies, retailers, etc.!

Baseline survey in Homa Bay

Baseline survey in Homa Bay