Field Test Report on Agri-environmental Indicators (AEIs): towards a Sustainable Agriculture Publication prepared in the framework of the Global Strategy to improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics December 2018 Field Test Report on Agri-environmental Indicators (AEIs): towards a Sustainable Agriculture Table of Contents Acronyms and Abbreviations .................................................................................6 Acknowledgements ...............................................................................................7 1. Background of the research ................................................................................8 2. Introduction ......................................................................................................9 3. Objectives ....................................................................................................... 11 4. Methods and Design ........................................................................................ 12 4.1. Questionnaire design .................................................................................... 12 4.2. Enumerator training and feedback ............................................................... 14 4.3. Study area and holding selection ................................................................. 17 4.4. Field data collection ...................................................................................... 19 4.5. Data analysis ................................................................................................. 21 5. Results, findings and recommendations ........................................................... 23 5.1. Survey implementation and data analysis.................................................... 23 5.1.1. The holding, agricultural activity and agricultural production ............ 23 5.1.2. Production practices ............................................................................ 28 5.1.3. Other practices .................................................................................... 39 5.1.4. Livestock .............................................................................................. 47 5.2. Lessons learned from the enumerators .................................................. 49 6. Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 51 References .......................................................................................................... 53 Annex 1. .............................................................................................................. 54 Annex 2. .............................................................................................................. 59 Annex 3. .............................................................................................................. 70 List of figures and tables LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Questionnaire designs. Column A: Screenshot of the PAPI version of the questionnaire. Column B: Screenshot of the same section viewed from the CAPI version developed using Survey Solutions. 13 Figure 2. Enumerators’ training workshop held at CATIE on 12 February 2018. A – Introductory talk on the work on environmental indicators. B – Description of survey generalities. C – Function of the CAPI version and its accompanying manual. D – Demonstration of the GPS functionality. E – Training workshop participants. ........................ 15 Figure 3. Pictures depicting fieldwork. A, B, and C: enumerators conducting interviews in the field. D: CATIE vehicle used for transportation. 20 Figure 4. Distribution of surveyed holdings across seven counties of the Cartago Province. The different colours represent the different holdings’ major agricultural focus (agriculture or livestock). Only 302 of the 307 actual locations from the surveyed holdings could be found from the location data (x,y coordinates) collected by enumerators, because of issues with GPS coverage. .................... 25 Figure 5. Percentage of holdings, within the Cartago region, reporting livestock (solid area) and crop production (dashed areas) as their main activity. .......................................................................................... 26 Figure 6. Different land uses encompassing the total UAA reported, for the corresponding reference period, in selected agricultural holdings from the Cartago Province. .................................................................. 27 Figure 7. Summary of positive feedback from enumerators during the post- field work follow-up workshop. The numbers correspond to the frequency of responses from enumerators who actively participated in data collection and in the post fieldwork workshop. ..................... 49 Figure 8. Summary of issues requiring revision and improvement grouped into broad categories. Numbers correspond to the frequency of responses from enumerators who actively participated in data collection and in the post-field work workshop. ................................ 50 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Original sample distribution provided by INEC by county and district in the Cartago province of Costa Rica. ........................................... 19 Table 2. AEIs for the assessment of the relationship between agriculture and the environment. ........................................................................... 22 Table 3. Final distribution of surveyed holdings by country and district in the Cartago province, Costa Rica. ........................................................ 24 Table 4. AEIs related to soil management, calculated on the basis of information collected through the field test. ................................ 32 Table 5. AEIs related to water use, for irrigation calculated based on information collected during the field test. ................................... 34 Table 6. AEIs related to the use of agrochemicals, calculated on the basis of information collected through the field test. ................................ 37 Table 7. AEIs at the farm level related to energy use from renewable sources and management of solid waste. ................................................... 40 Table 8. AEIs at the farm level related to management of wastewater. ...... 43 Table 9. AEIs at the farm level related to water conservation practices. ..... 45 Acronyms and Abbreviations AEI Agro-Environmental Indicator CATIE Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza) CAPI Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations GSARS Global Strategy to improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics ha hectare kg kilogram l litre INEC Institute for National Statistics and Censuses (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos) IPM Integrated Pest Management PAPI Paper-and-Pencil Interviewing SAC Scientific Advisory Committee SS Survey Solutions (software) UAA Utilized Agricultural Area 6 Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank all of the people and institutions that made the field test possible, in no particular order: the participants in the Expert Group Meeting, held at FAO headquarters, who provided us with important technical advice and suggestions for improvement; the participants in the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of the Global Strategy to improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics (GSARS), who shared useful comments and suggestions for the overall improvement of this research; the Institute for National Statistics and Censuses (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos) of Costa Rica, who provided us with an initial random sample of holdings within the Cartago province; the GSARS Research Coordinators, Flavio Bolliger and Arbab Asfandiyar Khan, and the research focal point, Monica Madrid Arroyo, who provided valuable comments and suggestions for improvement; to the senior advisor for research, Julie Hass, and Cristina Klimzsa, Lorenzo de Simone and Francesco Tubiello, who gave helpful comments and suggestions for improvement; all enumerators who helped to collect thorough and accurate data; CATIE (Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza), for its logistical support to the implementation of this pilot; CATIE’s Biostatistics Unit, particularly Eduardo Corrales, for the critical support given in the development of the survey computer-based (CAPI) version using the Survey Solutions software; and Mayra Alejandra Ospina, who provided critical support on data management and data analysis. 7 1 Background of the research The Global Strategy to improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics (GSARS) is an initiative endorsed by the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) at its Forty-first session in February 2010. GSARS provides an essential framework for meeting the current and emerging data requirements from policy makers and other data users (World Bank, UN and FAO, 2011). The GSARS research component was set up in response to country requests and is based on an assessment of data users’ needs. These assessments have led to the formulation of a conceptual framework that relates the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of agriculture to one another. The development of agri- environmental indicators (AEIs), as well as of operational guidelines for data collection and processing into statistics and indicators, were needs expressed by countries, and were thus included in the 2016 GSARS annual plan. This was particularly important as many countries,