An Economic Assessment of Banana Genetic Improvement and ...

180 APPENDIX D
[(n i /N i ) × (1/M p ) × (20/H s )]. For descriptive
analysis, survey weights (w) were calculated
for each household as the inverse PSH.
Survey Instruments
A set of 10 structured, pretested questionnaires
(schedules) were used as instruments
for data collection, each designed to address
a different aspect of the study. Six of the
instruments were single-visit: household,
banana plot, banana cultivar, labor, expenditure,
and income. Data for the general plot
schedule (the seventh schedule) were collected
three times, to capture production
seasonality. Expenditure, labor, and production
and income data (the remaining three
schedules) were collected monthly.
The format and structure of the banana
plot and banana cultivar instruments, as
well as the banana management and social
capital instruments, depart in some ways
from the more typical household and plot
surveys often conducted in studies of technology
use by smallholder farmers. These
are described briefly below.
Banana Plot and Cultivar
Schedules
The banana plot schedule records
1. the primary decisionmaker for banana
production, consumption and sales,
disaggregated by gender and category
of responsibility, with frequency
of exposure to extension and radio
information;
2. an inventory of all banana varieties on
the plot, with mat counts and average
number of plants per mat, by genomic
group and clone set (recorded later);
and
3. perceptions of incidence and severity
of disease (black Sigatoka and Fusarium
wilt) and pest (weevils) pressure.
Nematodes were omitted because they
were not observable by farmers. Farmers
were asked the frequency of occurrence of
the disease or pest in all years growing bananas
on the plot, along with the age of the
plot. Triangular yield distributions in the
presence and absence of the disease or pest
were elicited by cultivar (Hardaker, Huirne,
and Anderson 1997).
This cultivar schedule records selected
phenotypic or morphological characteristics
1 (as identified by farmers) for each banana
cultivar recorded in the banana plot
schedule. Production and consumption attributes
identified as important to farmers in
previous field research in Uganda were
listed. Banana production and consumption
decisionmakers were then asked to rate the
importance of each attribute and the extent
to which each cultivar provides the attribute.
Color photographs and drawings were employed
to assist respondents. The same information
was elicited for banana varieties
that farmers had previously grown or that
were grown in their village but not by them.
This schedule also records information
about farmer-to-farmer transfers of banana
planting material and acquisition, by cultivar,
with questions on willingness to pay or
willingness to accept compensation for
planting material. Characteristics of market
sales of banana bunches (amount, farm-gate
and market prices, and distance) were
entered.
Banana Management Schedules
The banana management schedules elicited
information on the farmer’s management of
the natural resources in their banana plantations,
as well as sanitation practices (mat
management) for pest and disease control,
including use and awareness of recommended
practices and sources of information
about management practice. The extent
1
Morphological characteristics are the observable physical features that help farmers distinguish one banana
cultivar from another, such as bunch size and position, finger size and position, maturation period, and color of
the stem of the banana plant.