Measurement Of Farm Households' Socio-Economic And Socio Psychological Variables: A Paradigm For Evolving A More Appropriate Method

Abstract

Since improper and inadequate data collection in researches could result in invalid and unreliable research results, researches from which policies and developmental programmes could emerge, demand tact and sampling adequacy. Therefore, method of collecting data on researches targeted on households, and for which only the household-heads are being sampled, excluding other members, appear inadequate and less reliable. The study was carried out in Kogi State. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select three zones from four Agricultural Development Program (ADP) delineated zones. Nine local Government Areas (LGAs) zone. Also, three communities were sampled from each selected LGA giving a total of 27 communities. In each community also, 10 households were chosen, therefore 270 households were interviewed but 253 were finally considered for the study. The paper, therefore, compared the result of the use of collective data collection strategy with that which was based only on the household heads and concluded that, the method of collective data collection, reflecting every member of the household is more valid and more reliable. It is therefore recommended that data collection should be more focused on the entire household rather than the individual household head as result obtained from it would be more reliable for researchers and policy makers.


Key words: Measurement, farm households, socio-economic and socio psychological variables


Journal Of Agriculture And Social Research Vol. 5 (1) 2005: 90-95