Alternative strategies for the collection of farm management data in Nigeria

Accurate, up-to-date information on current production costs and returns is a vital prerequisite for the further development of medium/large-scale commercial agriculture in Nigeria as in many other developing countries. However, present farm management data collection tends to be both inefficient and inadequate because it is carried out on an ad hoc basis. This paper argues for a more systematic approach to the design of farm management data collection procedures in Nigeria. The approach involves careful experimentation and the comparison of alternative methods on the basis of cost, accuracy and timeliness. A pilot study in Bendel State using this approach is described and findings presented on alternative data collection strategies. It is concluded that a combination of traditional self-completion methods and ‘consensus surveys’ constitutes the most cost-effective strategy.