Randomized survey experiments that evaluate different approaches to land area measurement in smallholder production systems have showcased systematic measurement error in farmer reporting, and have provided robust empirical evidence in support of the adoption of handheld GPS-based plot area measurement in large-scale household and farm surveys. The results from these studies have been published in working papers and peer-reviewed journal articles, and have been backstopped by our research based on LSMS-ISA data, comparing farmer-reported versus GPS-based plot area measures. The collective body of evidence in turn has fed into our Guidebook on land area measurement. Ongoing methodological research efforts are now assessing the feasibility and accuracy of farmers¡¯ identification of plots from high-resolution satellite imagery.
Resources:
- Access the
- Download the LSMS Guidebook on