Agricultural commercialisation pathways: teams review latest research findings
Members of the APRA Work Stream 1 team from Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe met with colleagues from the APRA Data Management Support Team met at IDS on 7-11 October. These studies are using a combination of detailed household surveys and qualitative research (focus groups, life histories, key informant interviews) to analyse individual and household ‘selection choices’ related to different agricultural commercialisation pathways and the livelihood outcomes resulting from these related to women’s empowerment; labour and employment; food and nutrition security; and poverty and inequality. All four teams completed the first round of a two-wave panel in 2016-17, during which they interviewed a total of over 4,000 households.
The IDS workshop aimed to review findings emerging from the country studies, reflect on the relevance of the original hypotheses, and prepare a detailed plan for conducting the second wave of the panel with equivalent sample size. During the workshop, the teams reviewed and refined the core survey instrument, confirmed field enumerator training and data collection procedures (using computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) technology), agreed protocols for real-time data monitoring (implementing for the first time- the APRA dashboard for data monitoring) and quality assurance, and clarified roles and responsibilities for data cleaning, analysis and the preparation of key outputs. A key focus was on identifying and planning ahead to address any gaps in technical capacity for data collection and analysis. Fieldwork for the second round of the panel will begin in late November 2019 in Ghana, with the other three countries planning to implement their surveys in early 2020.
