Operationalisation of
the Modular Approach,
and Integration of Census and Surveys
Mukesh K Srivastava
FAO Statistics Division
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WCA 2010: Why a Modular approach?
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Difficult trade off between high data demands and
limited financial and manpower resources
Fragmented and isolated efforts to collect statistics;
often duplication and resulting in coherence
Limited scope of analysis
The modular approach
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provides a “Globally Optimum Strategy” i.e. maximum
satisfaction of maximum users
Can be implemented in a phased manner or by different
agencies
Modular plan of census and surveys
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Agricultural census as the central component of the system of
agricultural sample surveys
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A series of thematic agricultural sample surveys surveys based
on the agricultural census
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Core Census (16 core data items)
Census supplementary modules.
planned as part of agricultural census plan
based on sampling frames obtained from the agricultural census
provide more detailed data on specific topics
Examples: agricultural practices, time use, cost of production,
ongoing surveys on crop and livestock production or adhoc
surveys for estimation of livestock yields
Water
Use
Crops
Yields
Crop
Production
Fish
Production
Agricultural
Inputs
Crops
Cost of
Production
Time
Use
Acquaculture
Agricultural
Census
Livestock
Population
Census
Rural
Agricultural
Labour
Rural Activities/
Income/
Infrastructure
Livestock
Production
Water
Use
Livestock Yield
Coefficients
AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
ENVIRONMENT
(SOCIAL: Livelihood, Food security, Gender)
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Outline of agricultural
census/survey programme
Household food security
Land
Irrigation
Aquaculture
POPULATION
CENSUS
CENSUS
CORE
MODULE
Themes
CENSUS SUPPLEMENTARY
MODULES
Farm
labour
Crops
THEMATIC AGRICULTURAL
SURVEYS
Agricultural practices
Livestock
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Hierarchy of data items: Livestock
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Type of
information
Questions/ data
items
Type of survey
Periodicity/
sampling fraction
List of holdings by
livestock types,
livestock population by
small administrative
unit
Is the holding engaged
in livestock
production? If so,
number of animals
Population census or
agriculture census
decadal, complete
enumeration
Livestock production
system
Rearing system, feed
system, use of vet
service
Agricultural census/
Livestock survey
decadal / 5 yearly,
sample
Livestock Production
Livestock death, birth,
acquisition, slaughter,
milk status
Special livestock
Survey
Annual/ sufficiently
large sample
Livestock Yields
yields of milk, meat,
honey
Yield survey
5 yearly, Thin sample
Acquaculture
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Complete enumeration (for frame)
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Enumeration by sampling methods.
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presence of aquaculture
area of aquaculture by type of site
area of aquaculture by type of production facility
area of aquaculture by type of water
sources of water for aquaculture
type of aquaculture organism cultivated
In some countries where most agricultural holdings are
engaged in aquaculture, there may be module along with the
agricultural census
This strategy may be used for a specific region of the country
Examples of modular approach
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Thailand: long-short form using systematic sampling
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India: Phased programme without any connection to
Population Census
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Input survey on a thin survey (1% sample based on two
stage stratified sampling)
Niger:
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Minor crops by sampling
Core module piggy backed on the Population Census
A series of thematic surveys: Food security, Vegetables,
Livestock productivity, annual Crop production
Jordan: use of PDA, logical questions
Planning a modular programme
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Assessment of ongoing statistical activities in the
country
Assessment of user demand
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A formal User Survey
A Working group of data producers and users
Structured interviews of prominent users
Regular comments received through internet
Synthesis of assessment in a User-Producer
workshop
Build partnerships in execution of survey plan
Analysis of data demands
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Specify for each data item:
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Analysis of user profile:
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interest in a project area or national
Classify the data items as suitable for:
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the degree of details with which the data is required,
the administrative level (s) at which the data is needed,
the acceptable level of precision in the estimates,
the frequency/ periodicity at which the data is needed,
the number of users a data items, and
the use of the data.
Complete Enumeration or
Sample survey
Who does what?
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NSO
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Ministry of agriculture
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Crop monitoring
Yield measurement, norms
Ministry of Rural Development
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Conducts surveys of national importance
Such surveys which do need very skilled manpower
Provides technical leadership (frame, sampling scheme, training)
to executing agency e.g. Ministry of agriculture
Income – expenditure
Credit, debt, investment
Rural/agro- tourism
Cost considerations
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Options of sampling designs
Phased programme
Restricting the coverage of census/survey to
a specified area e.g. fishing and aquaculture
survey restricted to coastal area
Sharing of cost between the agencies
Conclusions
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Survey planning is more an Art than Science
The job of a survey planner is like that of an
Architect, who uses his technical skills to
ensure optimal utilization of available
resources in a creative way.
Sampling Expert is an Engineer.
Shukran
Recommended readings:
 What is a census?
 Hand out on this topic
 WCA 2010 document in Arabic
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