Developing a Questionnaire for a Formal Survey of Rural Households

Steven Franzel, ICRAF April 1996 1 Introduction Developing a questionnaire is much more complicated than drawing up a list of questions to ask. Rather, questionnaire development starts from a careful and systematic analysis of the surveys objectives. This helps ensure that one collects all of the data that are needed to meet the surveys objectives but not one bit of data more. In this paper, six steps are presented in developing a questionnaire. It should be noted that the formulation of questions is the last step in the process, not the first! Two important points need to be made before outlining the steps. First, a thorough informal survey is needed before planning an effective formal survey. An informal survey uses semi-structured interviews and discussions with farmers and key informants to develop an understanding of the issues at hand and to develop hypotheses. The formal survey is then useful for testing these hypotheses, verifying findings, and quantifying critical parameters. Thus informal surveys help to focus a formal survey on the most important issues and also assist in understanding how to ask questions and what responses to expect. Second, a formal survey is only one among many different tools that are useful for collecting information in a research exercise. Many researchers place too much emphasis on the formal survey, without considering other tools that may be more efficient and effective for collecting certain types of information. These other methods include informal surveys, key informant surveys, market investigations, case studies, and participant observation. It is highly unlikely that a researcher will need to use only a single tool, the formal survey questionnaire, to meet his/her research objectives. The steps detailed below for developing a questionnaire are based on an example from Kenya concerning the supply of maize to the farm family. Then an example of a survey on the availability and use of wood products in western Kenya is presented. General objectives, specific objectives, hypotheses to test, and the resulting formal survey questionnaire are presented. 2. Six steps for questionnaire development The six steps of developing a questionnaire are: 1. Drawing up survey objectives: This includes outlining the overall objectives and developing specific objectives in detail. An example of an overall objective might be to plan experiments relevant to farmers problems. An example of a specific objective might be to describe the supply of food to the family at different months of the year. 2. Listing hypotheses to test: These are the hypotheses which one needs to test in order to meet the objectives of the survey. Hypotheses are propositions which one

seeks to confirm or refute in the survey. An example, based on informal discussions with farmers, is that running out of maize before harvest time is a frequent problem experienced by most upland farmers but is not a problem for lowland farmers. 3. Defining information bits needed to test hypotheses: Hypotheses are generally too complicated to be tested by obtaining a single item of information. For example, to test the above hypothesis, one would need to know when the farmer last ran out of home - produced maize, when he next harvested maize following the time he ran out, and whether running out of maize constituted a problem or not (did he then buy maize? If so, where did he get the money?) How frequently does he run out of maize? 4. Determining tables and computer analyses to be conducted. The actual tables to be included in the final report should be drawn up before you complete the questionnaire and conduct the survey. Of course, they will be empty since you have not yet collected your data but the point is to know what the title of the table will be and how the rows and column will be labled. One can envision 3 or 4 tables for the above information bits concerning maize deficits. For example, one table might be drawn up as follows: Table Time of Running Out of Home Produced Maize during 1985 March April May June July Did not run out 5. Upland farmers x x x x x x Lowland farmers x x x x x x

Developing questions: In this step, the data bits and tables are transformed into questions. The above might be divided into two questions: Did you run out of maize produced from your farm at any time during 1985? If so, during which month did you run out? 6. Organizing the questions into a questionnaire. Here, individual questions are grouped into categories and are placed in a logical order, to facilitate smooth dialogue. Other factors are also considered, for example sensitive questions are placed at the end of the interview, and very general, easy to answer questions at the beginning. If your data are to be analyzed using computer, it will be important to precode responses as much as possible.

3. Example of questionnaire development 2 2

The following example shows objectives, hypotheses, and a questionnaire for a survey on wood products. These were drawn up after a detailed informal survey was conducted and written up. Note several features of the example. First, most of the objectives concern verifying and quantifying findings already made during the informal survey. Second, after each hypothesis or specific objective, the source of the information needed is listed. These include the formal survey, key informants, participant observation, or market surveys. For the formal survey, the question number is specified of the question that will give the needed information. This process helps ensure that all hypotheses and objectives are addressed and that no questions are asked in the questionnaire that do not serve a specified purpose.

Objectives and Hypotheses: Availability and Use of Wood Products Survey, Western Kenya General Objectives 1. Estimate the number of trees and quantity of wood required to meet household needs for poles and firewood. 2. Confirm shortages of tree products (poles, and firewood). and farmer strategies in coping with shortages of tree/wood products. 3. Confirm principal purposes, species, niches and problems farmers have concerning tree planting and wood use. Verify promising areas for intervention. 4. Associate household characteristics with tree planting and use strategies. Specific objectives and hypotheses to test Objective 1: Estimate the number of trees and quantity of wood required to meet household needs (poles, fruit, and firewood). 1. Data on quantity of poles etc. used in construction is sufficient; need to confirm data with house builder (KEY INFORMANT). 2. Need to convert wood products used in construction of typical house into trees (number, type, age). Interview with house builder (KEY INFORMANT). 3. Construct fuel source calendar. Assess and confirm variability in sources, quantities used and time spent collecting between different seasons (INFORMAL SURVEY).

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4. Add one or two to sample on quantity of firewood used? Use secondary info. to convert household use per year (roughly 2500 kg) to number of trees. (PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION, literature, KEY INFORMANT). Objective 2: A. Confirm scarcity of poles for construction and farmer coping strategy: 1. Ask about source of construction wood when they built their last house. Were poles mostly bought or home-produced?). Hypothesis: At least some bought construction wood (FORMAL SURVEY Q. 21-22). 2. Verify species preferred for poles and reasons/confirm traits preferred by farmers (Q. 23) 3. Ask about when they built their last house, were there differences between what wood they wanted and what they used. Hypothesis: yes (FORMAL SURVEY Q. 23-26) 4. Confirm increasing scarcity of poles. Document farmers' responses (planting for poles, purchasing) (FORMAL SURVEY Q. 27-28, 7). 5. Find out source of poles in market. Most from local area. Hypothesis: Some local people produce poles as a cash crop. But most people are deficit. (MARKET SURVEY) 6. Poles are an important reason for planting (past and future)(FORMAL SURVEY Q.3,4,7). B. Confirm that scarcity of firewood is not serious. 1. Confirm sources of firewood (primarily own farm) (FORMAL SURVEY Q.11) 2. Confirm time and family members searching for firewood, busy and slack times (only females, time not excessive) (FORMAL SURVEY Q.14, 15) 3. Use of other fuel sources (crop residues, dung, purchased wood) is relatively low (FORMAL SURVEY Q.13). 4. Fuelwood is becoming more scarce (FORMAL SURVEY Q.18). 5. Fuelwood is not an important reason for planting (past and future) (FORMAL SURVEY Q. 3, 4). 6. Assess seasonality of fuelwood supply and demand (FORMAL SURVEY Q. 17). C. Collect information on timber demand from sawmills and traders. Where does timber come from? Seasonal price changes? Problems in local markets for timber? (MARKETING SURVEY) 4 4

Objective 3. Confirm principal purposes, species, niches and problems farmers have concerning tree planting and wood use. Confirm promising areas for intervention. 1. Confirm main purposes farmers have for trees on their farms, including product/service and whether for home consumption or sale (FORMAL SURVEY Q. 3). 2. Find out main species farmers have for meeting each priority and niche where each is planted (FORMAL SURVEY Q. 3). 3. Assess main purpose for which farmers want to plant in future, including species and niche (FORMAL SURVEY Q.7). 4. Find out main constraints to tree planting (FORMAL SURVEY Q.32). 5. Assess whether women can plant trees on farms and if not, why not (FORMAL SURVEY Q. 30-31). 6. Find out major information needs related to tree planting (FORMAL SURVEY Q. 33). Objective 4: Associate farmer tree planting (e.g., number of trees planted in last two years) and use strategies (e.g., main purpose of planting) with household and farm characteristics: Tree planting and use strategies: 3-7 Household and farm characteristics: Income level: q. 45 household size: q. 40 land/person ratio: Q. 34, 35, 40 Farm size: Q. 34, 35 Age of household head: Q.38-39 Off-farm income: Q. 43 Sex of farmer: Intro. Household type: Intro. Soil type: Secondary Info (based on location). Assistance by a project: Q. 9 Other a. Assess how many farmers have planted each of the ICRAF MPT program's five priority species (FORMAL SURVEY Q.10).

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