Agribusiness Development 2008-2012

(a) ROUND 1:
The frame for the survey is the list of all applicants. It was supplied by CNFA, the program implementer, along with the scores from the initial evaluation, various statuses assigned by CNFA, and various items of information taken from the applications. Each of the four applicant types were considered as separate strata, that is, primary producers (PPs), farm service centers (FSCs), value adders (VAs) and value chain enterprises (VCHs). For PPs, one comparison case was selected for each new treatment case. A propensity score matching (PSM) methodology was used to select the comparison cases, using binary logistic regression. The dependent variable was the event of being a treatment case. The independent variables, all available from data supplied by CNFA on the frame, were:

• the amount of matching contribution the applicant proposed to make
• the current turnover of the business when it made its application
• the number of employees of the business when it made its application
• whether the business was able to secure credit
• the year in which the business was established
• whether the business was located in a village or larger town
• the type of activity the business was proposing to be engaged in
• the round in which the applicant applied

For each PP treatment case, the comparison case with the closest PSM score was selected for inclusion in the survey sample, as long as it had not been selected for interview previously. For the other applicant types (FSCs, VAs and VCHs), stratified random sampling was used to select comparison cases. Because the populations were relatively small, two comparison cases were selected for each treatment case. Selection of comparison cases was to be made within the same strata in which the treatment cases occurred. The strata were defined in terms of the current turnover of the business when it made its application and the year in which the business was established. Type of activity was also used to define the strata for VAs and VCHs.

(b) ROUND 2:
The following sampling rules were applied:

1. Include all businesses that had been interviewed in Round 1 from ADA application waves 1 to 7.
   a) Interviewees from ADA application waves 8 and 9 were excluded because those interviews had been conducted too recently to expect significant change to have taken place in the meantime.
   b) Selections were made in terms of "businesses" rather than "applications" because some businesses had applied several times. Where a selected business had made multiple applications, the most recent application was nominally selected for inclusion in the survey, regardless of whether that application or an earlier one was the basis of interview in ADA application waves 1 to 7. The most recent one was chosen because it would have the most up-to-date contact information.
   c) 199 applications were selected on this basis.

2. Include treatments from any ADA application wave that had not yet been interviewed in Round 1. Some of these were previously non-response and some appeared to have wrongly claimed to have been previously interviewed on the basis of another application. 29 applications were selected on this basis.

3. Include applicants that scored 70+ (passing score) in ADA application waves 1-7, that have not yet been interviewed, but that are not previous nonresponse. Most appear to have wrongly claimed to have been previously interviewed on the basis of another application. 8 applications were selected on this basis.

4. PPs and VAs were not fully enumerated in Round 1, and the process used to randomly select applicants with a score less than 70 has not enabled the probability of selection to be derived. Therefore, for Round 2, select a random sample of 100 PPs and 25 VAs applications, where (i) neither they nor any related application was interviewed in ADA application waves 8 or 9, and (ii) neither they nor any related application received a score of 70+. If the selected application has not already been selected under condition 1 above, include in the Round 2 Survey.
   a) 78 PP applications were selected on this basis, that is, 22 of the 100 were already selected under condition 1 above.
   b) 18 VA applications were initially selected on this basis, that is, 7 of the 25 were already selected under condition 1 above.

However, as there were only 20 eligible VAs to be chosen under this condition, all 20 were included and so the VAs became fully enumerated. In total there were 334 applications selected for inclusion in the survey. The frame and summary information about the selections are included in the external resource "Followup frame and selections.xlsx".

(c) ROUND 3:
The sample frame was created by NORC and included all cases that were part of the sample in Round 1 and all the cases that were part of the sample in Round 2. The sample comprised of treatment and control groups with three main types of businesses in each group. Overall, 600 face-to-face interviews were planned to be conducted for Round 3. This sample frame was then put through a re-listing exercise to update it since the list of business status and contact information included many incorrect telephone numbers and addresses, there was turnover in owners/managers of agribusinesses, and some had shut down. For the relisting exercise, ACT first tried calling the phone numbers, then conducted field visits to the listed addresses. If still unable to locate the business, ACT regional coordinators contacted local authorities/representatives. Upon contacting the business, updated information about the business status, location, and contact information was collected for use during the main data collection. This updated list was the sample used for data collection.