SIERRA LEONE maq 4ª.indd - agrilife - Europa

sampling techniques were employed to select
the farming households to interview. Table 18
summarises the distribution of observations per
district, chiefdom and village.
Thus the total sample size of farm
households is 604 out of which 549 benefitted
from some type of support (based on the STABEX
funded initiatives); the remaining 55 comprise
farm households which were not involved in
any aid programme. It is worthwhile to highlight
that since more farm households were targeted
under the STABEX funded project in the Northern
region (9500) than in the Eastern region (3500),
the sample size reflects this proportion.
5.1.2 Data Collection
Data was obtained from two main sources:
primary field survey data from farm households
and exploitation of existing secondary data
from reports of international organisations and
statistics from Sierra Leone Statistics Centre.
In the case of primary data, face to face
interviews were conducted using multiple choice
questionnaires. Two questionnaires (Appendices I
and II) were presented to the heads of the farming
households. The first one collected information on
demographic and social variables and the second
one on production data. These questionnaires
were pre-tested in one of the target communities
in Kenema district. In order to conduct the
survey, six interviewers (enumerators) were
selected among the students of Njala University
and received three days of specific training by the
project coordinators. The preliminary field visit
to test the questionnaires was organised on 20
farms with the duration of two weeks in March
2009, and it was followed by an expert meeting
to validate the questionnaires.
The first questionnaire (A) gathered
data concerning general socio-economic
characteristics of the household and its farming
activities. The number of households visited
per day was on average 5 per enumerator. The
number of households surveyed per village was
on average around 10 in the Eastern districts and
between 20 and 30 in the Northern districts.
Questionnaire A was administered in March
and April 2009. The duration of field visits for
investigators was 3 weeks.
Questionnaire (A) was structured in five
segments, the first three collecting sociodemographic
data, the fourth one explicitly
addressing the impact of STABEX funded
activities in the surveyed districts and the fifth one
capturing farm characteristics. The five segments
are described below.
1. Identification Information: Region, District,
Chiefdom, Section, Village and Household
Number.
2. Household demographic (per occupant):
Gender, Age, Main economic activity
(agriculture, petty trading, paid employment,
artisan, other), sources of income and ranking
of relative importance (farm output, livestock,
remittances, gifts, off-farm activities).
3. Social Capital (of household head): position
in the community (section chief, village,
chief, village headman, tribal authority,
ordinary citizen, “stranger”, other),
membership to any farmer association
(position in the association and number of
memberships), perception of benefit gained
from belonging to any organisation (great,
little, none).
4. STABEX Support: Type of support received
(among the list of cooperation activities
undertaken), Adequacy of support received,
Impact of support in terms of improvement in
production and/or income, sustainability of
support received, Perception of improvement to
the community as a whole (better, same, worse).
5. Farm Characteristics: Types of crops and
cultivated area (between January and
December 2008) and any changes in planted
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