In the autumn of 1987 Ulf Wijkström, at the request of the Aquaculture for Local Community Development Programme, visited Zambia to design in cooperation with Programme staff a socio-economic survey of fish-farmers. The purpose of the survey was twofold: first, to report on the status of production including quantities produced, likely future production and identification of problem areas; and, second, to describe in social and economic terms the fish-farmer and his reasons for engaging in, or disengaging from, fish-culture. The assignment and its results are described in the report entitled “A Socio-Economic Survey on Fish-Farmers in Rural Communities”.
A pilot survey was proposed to test the survey design. It was carried out in the Northern Province of Zambia from 6 to 21 October 1987. The pilot survey was intended to establish whether or not the survey would give the results intended. Simultaneously, information would be provided on fish-farming in the Northern Province. The data from the pilot survey were entered on a register programme operated on a personal computer and analysed by Ulf Wijkström and Hans Aase in Lusaka during the second half of February 1988.
This report specifies modifications to procedure and questionnaires used in the pilot survey. It contains the analysis on which the modifications are based, and discusses how they can be incorporated into the full-scale survey.
Three broad questions are addressed to the pilot survey. The answers to these questions provide the basis for the formulations of the recommendations for the full-scale survey. The questions are: (i) How well did the survey plan correspond to the survey as carried out? How should the preparation and execution of a full-scale survey be modified? (ii) Were observations made in the course of the survey which contradict the results as they appear from an analysis of the collected data? Was it apparent that additional, relevant data could have been collected with little additional effort? (iii) Did the survey yield answers to the questions as was intended?
The report concludes with recommendations meant to ensure that a full-scale survey would provide more accurate results than the pilot survey.
