Estimating crop production in development projects : methods and their limitations

This booklet examines the relative merits and limitations of various methods for measuring crop production on smallholder farms in agriculture and rural development projects. It focuses in particular on measurement techniques used in estimating annual crop yields. In their detailed analysis of one of the most popular techniques, crop cutting, the authors draw on heretofore unpublished studies from northern Nigeria. The authors stress that the choice of measurement technique depends on the type of survey to be undertaken, and they offer specific, practical recommendations that are designed to help monitoring and evaluation staff make the appropriate selections.