participant, and ultimately will be the ones who coalesce the survey, a questionnaire is administered by enumerators to a
product into the final form. It is perhaps not essential that random sample of farmers. Formal surveys may involve single
they have prior experience in a Sondeo, but it would certainly visits to farmers or frequent visits over a period of a growing
improve their efficiency if they had. season, a calendar year, or longer. Since questioning is
standardized and sampling is random, data are subject to
SELECTEDl REFERENCES statistical testing procedures.
Most farming systems researchers use a combination of the
Chinchilla, two types of surveys; a few use one type exclusively. Wat
onahil ierMaria E. Condiciones agro-socioeconemicas de una appears clear, however, is that the role of the informal survey
zona maicera-horticola de Guatemala. Trabajo presentado en in farming systems and farm management investigations in
la XXV Reunion Anual del P Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 19- developing countries has increased in importance in recent years,
23 de Matzo, 1979. relative to the formal survey. In the past, the informal survey
Hildebrand, P. was generally considered to be a "pre-survey," that is, a
er P e fMotivating small farmers to accept change. preliminary task to complete before starting a formal survey. In
Paper prepared for presentation at thei Conference on fact, its primary function was to contribute to more effective
Integrated Crop and Animal Production to optimize Resource planning and execution of the formal surveys. In recent years,
Utilization on Small Farms in Developing Countries. The however, sane farming systems researchers have begun to place
Rockefeller Foundation Conference Center, Bellagio, Italy, greater emphasis on the informal survey. For example, Collinson
18-23 October, 1978, ICTA, Guatemala. (1982) calls the informal survey the "pivotal" procedure in the
diagnosis of farming systems. Hildebrand (1981) claims that
Hildebrand, P.E. Summary of the Sondeo methodology used by well-managed informal surveys can generate the information
ICTA, ICTA, Guatemala, 1979. necessary for identifying principal farmer problems and planning
experimentation to solve these problems.
Indeed, many FSR/E practitioners have found the informal
COMPARING INFORMAL AND FORMAL SURVEYS survey to be an extremely useful tool for diagnosing farming
Steven C. Franzel systems (Hildebrand 1991; Rhoades, 1982; Byerlee and Collinson
1980). The principal advantages are (1) its low cost and rapid
turnaround, (2) the emphasis placed on direct researcher-farmer
Farming systems practitioners makerause ofketwoteamwork, (3) its sequential, iterative data collection procedure
types iof sureystems pra and generallytwo in which data are evaluated and data needs are reformulated on a
types Of surveys -- informal and formal. The objectives of daily basis, (4) its facilition of interdisciplinary interaction,
informal surveys, also called sondeos, rapid-reconnaissance and (5) its conduciveness to collection of data concerning
surveys, or exploratory surveys, are to develop a rapid farmers' values, opinions, and objectives.
understanding of farmer circumstances through direct, informal However, informal surveys have important disadvantages as
interaction between researchers and farmers. Informal surveys well, which may render data inaccurate. First, the sample of
have four distinguishing characteristics. First, farmer inter- farmers interviewed may not be representative of the group
views are conducted by researchers themselves, not by researchers wish to characterize. Second, since questioning is
enumerators, as in formal surveys. Second, interviews are not standardized, it may not be possible to generalize across the
essentially unstructured and semidirected, with emphasis on farmers interviewed. Thus Shaner, Philipp, and Schmehl (1982)
dialogue and probing for information. Questionnaires are never warn that in analysis of results from informal surveys, staused; however some researchers use topic guidelines so as to tistical testing is not possible, summarization is difficult, and
ensure that they cover all relevant topics on a given subject the reliability of conclusions is subject to question.
(Collinson 1982). Third, informal random and purposive sampling
procedures are used instead of formal random sampling from a
sample frame. Fourth, in an informal survey, the data collection RESEARCH PROBLEM
process is dynamic, that is, researchers evaluate the data
collected and reformulate data needs on a daily basis (Honadle Because both informal and formal surveys have particular
1982). In a formal survey, reformulating data needs requires strengths and weaknesses, many researchers use both approaches in
changing the questionnaire or adding a new questionnaire; this their investigations. For example, CIMMYT advocates a two-stage
cannot be done on a frequent basis. Informal surveys are procedure an informal survey followed by a formal survey. The
generally conducted over a period of one week to two months principal objective of the formal survey is to verify, using
during the growing season. appropriate statistical tests, the impressions developed during
The objectives of a formal survey may be quite diverse to the informal survey.
verify hypotheses developed during an informal survey, to However, given the acute scarcity of research resources in
quantify parameters critical to developing the understanding of developing countries, the formal survey is too expensive and
the system, or to measure resource stocks and flows. In a formal time-consuming an exercise if it serves only to confirm informal
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