Developing a questionnaire for a formal survey of rural households

Developing a questionnaire is much more complicated than drawing up a list of questions to ask. Rather, questionnaire development starts from a careful and systematic analysis of the survey’s objectives. This helps ensure that one collects all of the data that are needed to meet the survey’s objectives but not one bit of data more. In this paper, six steps are presented in developing a questionnaire. It should be noted that the formulation of questions is the last step in the process, not the first! Two important points need to be made before outlining the steps. First, a thorough informal survey is needed before planning an effective formal survey. An informal survey uses semi-structured interviews and discussions with farmers and key informants to develop an understanding of the issues at hand and to develop hypotheses. The formal survey is then useful for testing these hypotheses, verifying findings, and quantifying critical parameters. Thus informal surveys help to focus a formal survey on the most important issues and also assist in understanding how to ask questions and what responses to expect.Second, a formal survey is only one among many different tools that are useful for collecting information in a research exercise. Many researchers place too much emphasis on the formal survey, without considering other tools that may be more efficient and effective for collecting certain types of information. These other methods include informal surveys, key informant surveys, market investigations, case studies, and participant observation. It is highly unlikely that a researcher will need to use only a single tool, the formal survey questionnaire, to meet his/her research objectives. The steps detailed below for developing a questionnaire are based on an example from Kenya concerning the supply of maize to the farm family. Then an example of a survey on the availability and use of wood products in western Kenya is presented. General objectives, specific objectives, hypotheses to test, and the resulting formal survey questionnaire are presented.

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