Rwanda - Rwanda Season Agriculture Survey 2023

The total country land was classified into five strata, of which four are agricultural, while the remaining stratum is designated for land not suitable for agriculture. The four agricultural strata are: dominant hill crop land, dominant wetland crops, dominant rangeland, and mixed stratum, all considered suitable for agriculture. The fifth stratum comprises non-agricultural land, including areas occupied by water bodies, forestry plantations, settlements, parks, and protected marshland not utilized for agriculture. The sampling frame excludes land areas covered by tea plantation farms.
In 2023 agricultural year, the total sample used was 1200 segments. At first stage,1200 segments were selected and allocated at district level based on the power allocation approach (Bankier, 1988). Sampled segments inside each district were distributed among strata with a proportional-to-size criterion.

At the second stage, 25 sample points were systematically selected, following a special distance of 60 meters between points. For every sample point, a corresponding farm or plot is identified, and the operator is interviewed. The farms therefore constitute the sampling units within each segment. Enumerators locate every sample point, delineate plots in which the sample points fall using high accurate GPS devices and then collect information on land use and other related information. Sampling weights are calculated and applied to the sample data to obtain stratum-level estimates. District estimates are then derived by aggregating the estimates from all strata within the district.

Data collection was done in 1200 segments and 345 large scale farmers holdings for Season A and B, whereas in Season C data was collected in 1769 sites potential to grow season C crops in addition to 513 segments, response rate was 100% of the sample.

During the SAS 2023 exercise, data collection covered three main agricultural seasons A, B and C and was conducted into two separate phases in each season:
A. The first phase, known as screening activity (post-planting phase), consists of visiting all sampled segments and demarcating all plots with sampled points with the aim of covering the information related to land area, planted crops and land use.

B. The second phase involves capturing of production data by visiting sampled agricultural plots identified from screening activity as well as all large-scale farmers.
To ensure the smooth completion of the SAS workload, NISR employed 137 Enumerators and 23 Team Leaders. All fieldwork staff hold a degree in agriculture sciences and were consistently trained by NISR headquarter staff before starting data collection in each season. Moreover, higher-level supervision was organized and done by staff from NISR who frequently visited the field teams during each phase of data collection to ensure the quality of collected data.
For Season A, data collection started on 4th December 2022 and ended on 16th February 2023.
For Season B, data collection started on 2nd May 2023 and ended on 30th June 2023.
For Season C, data collection started on 10th September 2023 and ended on 30th September 2023.


Sampling weights were calculated for each stratum in each district considering the total number of segments in the stratum and the sample size in the specific stratum.