Producers Focus Group Discussion Guide
Instructions: This FGD will be conducted with 6 to 12 participants who are members of a
producers group targeted for WV intervention.
Introduction: We are from World Vision and we implement xxx program in this area and we
would like to learn what the impact of our project is making in this area, and specifically for you.
We assure you that all the information that you provide to us will be used exclusively for our
research and analysis. We will make note of the session but all responses will appear
anonymously. This is not a test, and there are no right or wrong answers. The most important
thing is that you should feel comfortable and contribute as much as you can. You can express
opinions and discuss issues freely.
Background information on participants
For each participant of the FGD, please take down the following information in your notebook
• Name
• Age
• How long member of producers group
• Ever grown xxxxx (insert crops) [Y or N]
• Grew xxxx in the last cropping season OR currently preparing xxxxx [Y or N]
• If growing xxxxx, for how long?
• Household head [Y or N]
Module 1: Agricultural decision making (Output 1.2, 1.3)
1. Generally speaking, how do households in this community access land for agricultural
purposes?
2. For most of the households in this community, is it common for men and women to use
the same plots for agricultural activities or separate plots?
3. For a given plot used by a household for agricultural activities, who makes decisions
regarding what type of crop to grow on a plot?
4. Generally speaking, what factors do men take into consideration when deciding what
type of crop to grow on a plot? [for example, marketability of crop, soil type, yield,
maturity, security, taste preference, size of plot in relation to quantity and so on]
5. Generally speaking, what factors do women take into consideration when deciding what
type of crop to grow on a plot? [for example, marketability of crop, soil type, maturity,
security, taste preference, size of plot in relation to quantity and so on]
6. In a household, for crops mainly operated by men, who makes the decision regarding
what quantity of crops to grow on a household plot.
7. In a household, for crops mainly operated by women who makes the decision regarding
what quantity of crops to grow on a household plot.
8. In a household, for crops jointly operated by men and women who makes the decision
regarding what quantity of crops to grow on a household plot.
9. What factors do men take into consideration when deciding what quantity of a crop to
grow on a plot?
10. What factors do women take into consideration when deciding what quantity of a crop
to grow on a plot?
11. For a given crop, who in the household makes the decision regarding how the produce
will be used? [For example, will the crop be sold for profit, consumed, stored,
given away and so on.]
12. For a given crop, what factors do men consider when deciding how produce will be
used?
13. For a given crop, what factors do women consider when deciding how produce will be
used?
Module 2: Feeding and nutrition (program goal)
1. In your opinion, what types of food are good for children to eat?
2. For each type of food mentioned, why is this type of food good for children?
3. Do you make any special efforts to feed your children any of the good foods you just
mentioned? [Probe to find out why or why not].
4. In your opinion, who in the household is most knowledgeable about what foods are
good for children? [Probe to find out why]
5. What role do women play in determining what children eat?
6. What role do men play in determining what children eat?
7. Who in a household makes decisions about what quantity of food children eat? [Probe
to find out why people mentioned make these decisions]
8. Who in a household makes decisions about how many times children eat in a day? [Probe to find out why people mentioned make these decisions]
9. Who in a household makes decisions about the variety of food children eat? [Probe to
find out why people mentioned make these decisions]
10. In your opinion, do men and women have different opinions about what type of food
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children should eat? [probe to find out why or why not]
Module 3: Adoption of General Agriculture Practices (GAP), Access to Finance (A2F),
Uptake of micro-insurance (or other practice promoted by WV) (outputs 1,2, 3)
1. What services or products (Financial, insurance etc) are available to you?
2. Which organization promoted the delivery of those services / products
3. What do you know about the service/product (please insert)1?
4. In this producers group, why did people initially decide to adopt or use the service/product
(please insert)?
5. Are there people in your producers group who did not initially adopt the service/product
(please insert)? If yes, why did people decide NOT to adopt it?
6. In your experience, generally speaking are men or women more likely to adopt the
service/product (please insert) if it is introduced to their community? [Probe to find
out why]
7. Please rank the following traits in order of importance with respect to members of the
producer’s group’s decision to adopt service/product (please insert) in the first place.
[Probe to find out why certain traits are ranked as more important than others].
(WV to insert options on key qualities for the service or product: could be price,
accessibility, has been used before, etc.)
8. Are there any additional traits of the service/product that influenced people to continue using
it?
(WV to insert options on key qualities for the service or product: could be price,
accessibility, has been used before, etc.)
9. For those members of your producer’s groups who stopped using it, please rank the following
traits in order of importance with respect to people’s decision to stop it. [Probe to find
out why certain traits are ranked as more important than others].
(WV to insert options depending on the service in discussion)
10.
Are there any additional traits of the service/product that influenced people to stop
using it?
11.
In your opinion, generally speaking are men or women more likely to continue to use it?
[Probe to find out why].
12.
From your experience, do members of this producer’s group make their decision about
continuing to use service/product based on what other members of the producers group
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could be GAP/A2F or micro-insurance, or extension services provided by Extension officers or other providers
(NGOs etc)
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do or do they make their decision independent of others? [Probe to find out why].
13.
In your opinion, what benefits has the service/product brought to this community?
14.
In your opinion, what challenges has the service/product brought to this community?
Module 4: Spread of information (output 1, 2, 3)
1. What information is available about the service/product?
2. To whom in this community can producers go to for information on the
service/product? [For example, an extension agent, community leader, NGO,
friend, family member and so on]
3. If someone outside of this producer’s group wants access to the service/product, who
can they go to in order to gain access? [For example, an extension agent, community
leader, NGO, friend, family member and so on]
4. To whom in this community can producers go to for information on where to sell their
produce? [For example, an extension agent, community leader, NGO, friend,
family member and so on]
5. Have you found new buyers or markets because of this information?
6. Who are these new buyers?
Module 5: Production information (outcome 1, project goal)
In this section we would like to learn more about the actual cultivation and production that took place in the last
season. This will tell us what crops you cultivated, how much inputs you used and what the yield was for each plot.
“Now, we would like you to tell us about your (insert crop) production over the last season.
1. Did the household plant any (insert crop) during the most recent season? (yes=1 no=2)
2. If 'NO' “What was the main reason you didn’t plant anything?”
Use the following codes to record the answer
1. No rains
2. Rains came too late
3. No money
4. Do not farm
5. Illness/Social problems
6. Other
7. How much have you produced in this season?________
8. Was it more or less than last season?
9. Do you have any particular reason for producing (insert more or less)?
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10. Have you processed any of these crops?
11. Is it easy to find labour here to help with your farming activities?
12. How can you find it?
13. Do you usually pay them in cash or in crops?
14. Have you sold some of your crops? Yes No
15. If you sold some, was it more than half or less half of your crops?
16. What did you do with the money you earned?
17. If you 'did not sell' “What was the main reason for not selling?”
18. What was the total income you earned last season?
19. Do you think next season you can earn more, a bit less or the same?
20. Any particular reason on why you think you will do so?
21. How much of this income goes to children education? (%)
22. How much do you spend on medical treatment for your children or yourself? (%)
23. How much do you spend on buying food? (%)
Module 6: Children wellbeing (program goa1)
1. In the past year, did one or more children from your family discontinue school?
2. What was the main reason for that?
3. Who makes decisions regarding stopping children go to school?
4. In the past year did one or more children from your family fail to attend medical
treatment
5. What was the main reason for that?
6. In the past year, did your family borrow money from relatives, friends or neighbors, in
order to have enough to eat?
7. What was the reason for going to that person to lend you money?
8. Was it difficult to find him/her?
9. Have you borrowed money before?
10. Do you think you would need to borrow money again this year?
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11. Would it be less, the same or more?
12. Is your family standard of living in the last couple of years getting better, worse or
remain the same?
13. What can you do to change this?
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