Increased Production

The indicator assesses the percentage of target households who increased their production of specific crops / animals because of the provided assistance. It is suitable only in contexts where the households already grew the given crops / raised animals when the assistance was provided.

Conduct interviews with the heads of a representative sample of households, asking them about the following information:

RECOMMENDED SURVEY QUESTION (Q) AND POSSIBLE ANSWERS (A)

Q1: In the past [specify the time frame], would you say that your household’s production of [specify the crop grown / animals raised] has increased, remained about the same or has decreased?

A1: increased / remained the same / decreased

(ask the following question only if the previous answer is “increased”)

Q2: Can you please tell me what were all the reasons why your household’s production of [specify the crop / animals] has increased? (keep probing by asking: “Were there any other reasons? Did anything else help you?”)

A2: the assistance provided by the project was stated / the assistance provided by the project was NOT stated

To calculate the indicator’s value, divide the number of household representatives who reported an increase in their produce thanks to (among other) the provided assistance by the total number of interviewed respondents. Multiply the result by 100 to convert it to percentages. 

Disaggregate the data by location, wealth category and the type of produced crops / animals.

1) Q2 is trying to assess whether it is possible to say that any improvements in the household’s production of specific crops / animals happened as a result of the provided assistance. As the following two examples illustrate, this might not be always easy:

- Imagine that a respondent says that she had a higher harvest of specific vegetables because it was less affected by diseases and pests. In such a case, the data collector might record that the respondent did not mention anything about the project’s assistance. However, if the data collector asked an additional question: “What were all the things that helped you protect the vegetables against diseases and pests?”, the respondent might say that advice provided by (project-supported) agricultural extension workers was very useful.

- On the other hand, if a data collector keeps asking about what else helped the respondent to increase her/his production, the respondent might sense that she/he is increase her/his production, the respondent might sense that s/he is expected to respond that the project assistance helped and say it even if she does not think so.

It is very important that the data collectors are able to ask questions helping them to find out the real reasons of an increased production without making the respondent feel like s/he should say that it was because of the project’s assistance. Ensure that during the training (and subsequent piloting) the data collectors are able to gain these skills and supervise whether they use them throughout the survey.

2) If you supported the production of several types of crops / animals, you can use questions Q1 and Q2 separately for each type of crops / animals. In such a case, it is recommended that you:

- Focus on a limited number of the most important types of crops / animal (2-4)

- Decide when a household can be considered as “increased its production as a result of the provided assistance” – for example, if it increased (thanks to the assistance) the production of at least 2 out of 4 crops (it should not happen that, for example, the project helps increase the production of only one out of many crops and the household is still reported as having increased production – there should be a minimum benchmark).

3) If a household reports that it managed to improve its production as a result of the provided assistance, consider assessing also the approximate extent to which it increased the production.