From Necessity to Opportunity : Lessons for Integrating Phone and In-Person Data Collectionfor Agricultural Statistics in a Post-Pandemic World

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted survey and data systems globally and especially in low- andmiddle-income countries. Lockdowns necessitated remote data collection as demand for data on the impacts of the pandemicsurged. Phone surveys started being implemented at a national scale in many places that previously had limitedexperience with them. As in-person data collection resumes, the experience gained provides the grounds to reflect on howphone surveys may be incorporated into survey and data systems in low- and middle-income countries. This includesagricultural and rural surveys supported by international survey programs such as the World Bank’s Living StandardsMeasurement Study—Integrated Surveys on Agriculture, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s AGRISurvey, or the50x2030 Initiative. Reviewing evidence and experiences from before and during the pandemic, the paper analyzes andprovides guidance on the scope of and considerations for using phone surveys for agricultural data collection. Itaddresses the domains of sampling and representativeness, post-survey adjustments, questionnaire design, respondentselection and behavior, interviewer effects, as well as cost considerations, all with an emphasis on the particularitiesof agricultural and rural surveys. Ultimately, the integration of phone interviews with in-person datacollection offers a promising opportunity to leverage the benefits of phone surveys while addressing theirlimitations, including the depth of content constraints and potential coverage biases, which are especially challengingfor agricultural and rural populations in low- and middle-income countries.