World Bank
This Guidebook presents a module template for integrating information on trees on farms and agroforestry practices into multi-topic and agricultural household surveys in low- and middle-income countries (L&MICs). It provides a toolbox for survey practitioners—national statistical organizations, government ministries and agencies relevant to agricultural and environmental issues, non-government and civil society organizations, research institutions, private sector actors, and other stakeholders—to improve understanding of the contribution of trees on farms to household welfare and livelihoods.The guidebook also provides insights into data collection that can be used in relation to assessing agroforestry and climate smart agriculture practices and impacts. Implementation of the module presented here will generate information that decision makers, researchers, and others can use to understand the stock of trees on farms and links between on-farm trees and household welfare.
Trees on farms are widespread across the developing world and provide a range of socio-economic and environmental benefits. Half of agricultural land in L&MICs is estimated to have at least 10 percent tree cover, representing nearly a billion hectares of land and more than 800 million people. These on-farm trees range from sporadically occurring trees to areas dominated by a single tree crop, through large forest-like stands.These trees on farms perform important ecological functions that deliver environmental benefits such as erosion control, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation. Trees on farms are also key to many rural livelihoods. They have been shown to support increased agricultural yields, boost incomes, and improve dietary diversity, among other benefits. As such, trees on farms are key to advancing multiple international development goals.
The role and contribution of trees on farms underscores the importance of reliable information on their prevalence and management as well as their links to livelihoods and broader economies. Yet such knowledge remains lacking, particularly at the national scale where many policy decisions relating to land use are made. As a result, trees on farms are often left out of forest-related and agricultural statistics, natural resource assessments, policy, and legislation.
This guidebook is designed to help address this knowledge gap. It presents a questionnaire template to collect information on trees on farms and describes how to use it. The questionnaire module gathers together in one place relevant questions from existing multi-topic household survey questionnaires, other topical modules (e.g. on forestry) and other resources related to agroforestry and on-farm trees. It integrates lessons learned from the implementation of tree- and forest-related questions in the context of multi-topic household surveys in countries across Africa, including Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. This specific module was field- tested in Mali in early 2018.
This trees on farms (ToF) module is designed to complement existing modules on agriculture, forestry, and livestock, among others. Questions fºrom the ToF module can be directly inserted into these existing modules or adapted according to need and context. This guidebook provides information on how the module may be used in these different ways.
The ToF module has two main objectives:
The module can be used to collect information in the following domains:
Information on the stock of trees on farms, the inputs needed to grow them, and associated values enables calculation of a measure of income from trees on farms.Together with information from a full socio-economic household survey, this measure makes it possible to quantify the contribution of trees on farms to the household economy.
Gender is a cross-cutting topic in the module. Ownership, management, and production and sale of products derived from trees on farms often varies according to gender. Questions aimed at capturing these distinctions are throughout the module.
The questionnaire presented here is adaptable to different stakeholder interests and capacities. It includes three main formats. The first is a short version with 23 questions that can be implemented as part of an already existing survey, where users want to have a general overview of the presence and contribution of trees on farms. The second is a standard version, comprising just under 100 questions. It adds to the short version by allowing for collection of more comprehensive data on the management and uses of on-farm tree products and services.This version enables a more complete understanding of the role of trees on farms in the household economy. Finally, an extended version provides a full set of questions that can be tailored to capture detailed data on additional dimensions of the prevalence, management, use, and benefits of both trees on farms and forestry.
Users should consider all three questionnaires as templates that can be expanded, reduced, and adapted to meet specific data and statistical needs. This is essential for developing survey questionnaires that effectively respond to the information needs of stakeholders and decision maker