Rwanda agricultural survey and analysis

The MOAL will implement the project with help from the U.S. Census Bureau. The project will provide 5-6 ASAU staff members with 1 year of U.S. academic training and will provide other ASAU staff with short-term and on-the-job training in survey design, execution, and analysis. In a related effort, the project will provide U.S. training (for two) and short courses to the Ministry of Planning. To prepare for the national agricultural survey, methodologies will be pretested and revised, questionnaires developed, and reference guides, coding procedures, tabulation plans drafted, and an ASAU office building built and equipped. In addition, 10 prefectural-level ASAU technicians will be trained to enable them to provide training in census techniques to the 143 Rwandan commune-level agronomes who will actually conduct the survey. To allow more personalized training, agronomes will be training in groups of 10-20 divided by prefecture. Special precautions, such as the preparation of verbatim training guides, will be taken to ensure that all the agronomes are trained alike. All instruments to be used in the full survey will be tested during a pilot phase. Interviewers will administer a household questionnaire, measure the size of farms, and set up a production measurement system in the field. The ensuing data will be computerized, and analysis of the results, together with an evaluation of the survey program, will be completed by 6/82. In the final months of the pilot phase, the prefectural technicians and commune agronomes will receive a second period of training. Data collection for the full survey will be completed in 1 year. The next 2 years will be spent in analyzing and updating the data, culminating in publication of survey results. Survey experience will be used to rework survey instruments (e.g., training guides, interview manuals) for future use by ASAU.