Status so far

The field surveys are still on-going in Thailand. We are now on the 2nd to the last week and we will finish by the end of February. Simultaneous data entry is being done from filled-in questionnaires, and is a tedious process. No one is full time in doing it but come March it should really be done full-time. Of course by the local team who will be back from the field. However not all will be involved with database entry as some will be working on metadata of contacts, while others will be doing field work with others. The methodology of this research as a whole is proving to be a bit on the difficult side, for various reasons. Especially dealing not only with the technical and pedagogical aspects but also with personalities and differences in ways of doing things from various perspectives. These are issues which we have to face due to the nature of this project - interdisciplinary, multi-cultural, multi-level, and all other multi's one can think of. In the meantime, work has to be done, no matter what. I was hoping that somehow things could ease up once the field surveys are done, but there will be no chance of that. At this time, I have already started to plan ahead for the next activities. However based on experience, sometimes even the best laid plans fail. Especially if work has to be coordinated and integrated with other activities and with other people who have their own limitations, preoccupations, priorities and VIs (---censored text---). So that is project management. The key is how to keep one's head above it all, to survive being trampled upon (di gid magpalupu), to still be sane at the end of the day, and to still appreciate each day as it comes.

Stressed!!!

Since the last KII post

So between then and now we have had a few more KIIs to verify sample frame lists and revise them accordingly. The detailed sample designs for shrimp and tilapia have been uploaded to the KU-SEAT wiki page. The designs were revised based on the results of the KIIs.

And finally we were ready to start the baseline surveys in mid Dec 2010. We were 1 1/2 months behind schedule. There were so many reasons behind this but the main one was that the survey instruments were not ready way back in November. The process was such that it became a never-ending activity of commenting and revising and especially harmonising an instrument among 4 country sites as well as various work packages and interests and disciplines. But this is part of a process which had to be undergone in order to come up with an output wherein we could all say that all efforts had been done to make it as intersdisciplinary as possible, with just enough depth and breadth for a baseline survey. People had to be reminded time and again that there will be a more detailed survey following this one.

The team finished 2 provinces (5 clusters) for shrimp and 1 province (3 clusters) for tilapia before the year 2010 ended. When 2011 came, it was on to the remaining clusters (3 for shrimp in 1 province and 7 for tilapia in 2 provinces). We hope to finish the baseline survey by the end of February. We have to go back to the other previously surveyed provinces to complete the number of respondents as per sample design. The respondents were randomly chosen but some of them were not available to meet us when we called earlier. So there is a need to make a return visit and if they were indeed not available at all, we have to move down the randomised list to complete the numbers. The target is to interview 200 each for shrimp and tilapia producers.

As of 23 January 2011 we have already interviewed about 148 shrimp and 62 tilapia producers.

In the meantime that data is being gathered in the field, the Access database is being refined and after the first week of January we had the top copy of the country-specific database. So we started to input the data from the first batch of questionnaires. We were able to input 63 entries so far and at least 3 of us in the team are now familiar with it. However, as usual, changes have to be incorporated as the database needs to be harmonised among 4 country sites. So then the formatting and all others need to be revised and updated. So what do we do with the Thai database with the already 63 entries?

Right now I am in Fort Kochi with the other project counterparts from China (Wenbo),Vietnam (Lam) and Bangladesh (Ripon), and led by the Project Coordinator (Francis) from Stirling. We are having our PhD Research Retreat, with at least 4 outputs. So we are working on this database and any revisions to be made on the Thai one I have to do so that everything is in place before additional entries will be made. I just hope it's not too much revisions and work. It should be in place now before we continue with all the other remaining entries. I think that there should not be any more changes and additions after this week. Any changes each country wants to make should be added as country-specific codes or put in the comments section.

The other day each one presented the status of survey work in each country. Thailand is the slowest due to the delays and many other reasons. We hope to speed up the work but we are also dependent on potential respondents' availability mainly. But we will try. I think we have a good team, and we hope to get more local staff to double the time (if we can get them).

The reformatted database has just been given to me by Francis and now I must look at each table and check them and do the needed adjustments.

After the first KI

After the KIIs in Chachoengsao, we thought that we could already start the surveys over there by 1 Dec. However we could not get confirmations with farmers and the questionnaires and notes had to be checked again with the just received final draft, i.e. with the last item allowed to be changed/added. As these documents need to be in Thai so they can be used in the field, it was necessary to really check them that what is meant in English is captured when translated into Thai. There are many things to be considered when trying to do this, and our team had gone through a process of translating it into Thai, then translating what was translated back into English, asking what they meant, how the RAs would ask the question, how the farmers would perceive them, what terms would a lay person use so questions could be easily understood, even going to search for popular terms being used by farmers and the media today.

Thus we had to follow all the time whenever there are changes in the English draft. The corresponding translation into Thai have to be done. We also showed these drafts to the social science, gender and economics experts in our team so they could also contribute and help out especially with the translation and the use of better terminologies.

So I think until last week there were still trickles of changes and additions to the questionnaire and the corresponding notes. So this week we are ready to print them out. We might need to add more sets to the picture cards if more teams will be formed. We are running out of time but what can we do? With all the delays, the earliest start of the survey is 11 Dec. That's almost 1 1/2 months late from the original target start date of 1 Nov. Having more people in the team may or may not help, because it all depends on farmer availability. We have the randomised list of respondents and we could not just interview anyone we meet along the way who has a farm. We are following the statistically derived list to maintain randomness and avoid biases. Although the other way could have made our lives easier. But we are researchers and our work should be robust statistically and based on the agreed methodology of the project.

As key informant interviews are an important part of the research process we are also spending considerable time on them. Next up will be the KI visits to Chantaburi, Nakhon Pathom, Suphanburi and Petchburi. We had done preliminary contacts with them by phone. For Surat Thani, due to distance and time constraint, we have conducted the KIIs by phone and email.

Key informant interviews

Bangpakong River

Last 25-26 November our team went to Chachoengsao to conduct key information interviews in the three subdistricts which were randomly chosen as clusters for our survey. The objectives of the KIIs were:

1. to obtain information on the shrimp farming profile of the area, esp according to the scales drawn up by SEAT (business ownership, labour relations, management, no. of ponds)
2. to match the randomly selected farms (which only have the following info: location at subdistrict level, no. of ponds, total area and the like) with the existing farms in the area (to know farmer names and contact info)
3. to obtain names and contact info of shrimp farmers in the area if they could not be matched with the list in #2

There were 9 of us and we divided ourselves into 3 teams. Each team was assigned a subdistrict to visit. A couple of days before going the field, we contacted the KIs especially the fisheries officers and the heads of the subdistricts to make appointments with them. Thus on Thursday, we went to our respective subdistricts to meet with the KIs.

With the kamnan of the subdistrict

Our team went to the Provincial Fisheries Office but unfortunately they could not give us the list of farmer names as per regulation regarding confidentiality. The KI there gave us several pointers on what to consider when conducting a survey. He then directed us to the District Fisheries Office (next door), but he was also not sure if we can get information from there. The DFO was in a meeting but fortunately the meeting was over when we passed by the city hall and so we were able to meet him, and obtained some valuable information. He was also so kind to drive us to our next appointment (with the Subdistrict Office staff), which was in the subdistrict itself, about 15 km from the city center. We appreciated his kindness as there were no public transport available going to that place.

With the subdistrict office staff

The Subdistrict Office staff was so helpful as well. We spent the whole afternoon in her office. For the subdistrict, we were able to match the randomised list with farmer names available in the office. However according to the KI, those selected under medium scale are not hiring any labour so we have to consider them now as small scale. We then asked the KI to tell us which of the farms in the area are hiring labour and she came up with 19 farms. She said farms with more than 10 ponds will usually hire workers, while those with less than 10 ponds can manage the farm by themselves. We will randomize the new lists to come up with names to be interviewed.

After the visit, we were wondering how we could get back to town. Fortunately another staff was driving to town to pick up his daughter from school which is near our hotel. So we hitched a ride with him and he dropped us off our hotel. We are thankful to the kindness of strangers.

The other two teams were not able to match their lists so they asked the KIs and went to the village heads to ask about the farms and move around the villages to come up with new lists. These will be subjected again to randomization to come up with the list of farmers to be interviewed.

While in town, we also were able to look around for another hotel where we would stay during the survey itself. We also asked around for information on local transport to be used during the survey, which we target to start on 1 Dec.

update 6-21 nov 2010

Our team had been busy with the survey preparation and instruments, specifically on:

1. understanding the questions more
2. deliberating on the correct terms from English to Thai as well as the approaches in asking questions so that they will be understood by our respondents; one of the experts commented that it seems the survey is for foreign farmers not Thai farmers with the questions being asked
3. going through the survey notes, again and again and ... also translating the codes esp.
4. refining sample design and randomization of samples from tambon to farms
5. conducting key informant interviews on the selected tambons to get an overview of the area in relation to our survey (esp regarding farm scales as per SEAT definition)
6. generating randomized farmer lists for shrimp and referring them to respective KIs
7. meetings (face to face, virtual by skype)
8. continuous training of field staff, soon and very soon they will be masters of this (hope hope)
9. we have also been busy getting confused with some issues related to the above
10. still waiting for the ACCESS database file so concerned staff can start getting familiar with it
11. this am finally received the final draft of the questionnaire and notes ... ooooppppss hold it ... tonight when I opened my email, some additional stuff on the final draft due to comments from another country team...so when is the final final really? will there be more once the other teams get to read the final draft?(how can it be final when it is still a draft?)

I think this me blog here will suffice for updates about our work here.

SEAT-KU this week

I missed to blog about SEAT-KU activities in October. It just shows that we have been so busy working on project activities including staff recruitment, which took a lot of our time. Now it is November. And this week, 1-5 Nov have also been hectic. In fact the week is not finished yet because we are still gonna work  tomorrow, Saturday. And Sunday even if there are still things we need to do. This week the team from U of Stirling and the WP8 Coordinator from U of Bergen are here with us. We are still at the stage of preparing for the baseline survey which should have started on 3rd Nov. However since the survey instruments were not finalised yet, we could not start the survey. The schedule for this week looked like this:

1 Nov - meeting at KU-Fish among UoS (Francis, Lynn, Lynne, Richard), UiB (Matthias) and KU teams regarding latest draft of questionnaire and survey notes, introduction of team members, preparation of picture cards on values and of common tilapia and shrimp diseases in Thailand. Before the European team arrived in the morning, the Thai team had a meeting together with our faculty experts in Social Science, Gender and Economics. The major thing we talked about was the type of pictures to use for the values question. The experts helped a lot in giving inputs and ideas so the staff can work on them as we only had 1 day to prepare. Two staff were assigned to work on them and show the results in the afternoon. Also we discussed about the diseases picture cards. Again another 2 staff were assigned to work on them, summarizing the info and scanning the pictures from posters and books, to be presented in the afternoon.

It was a heavy day of discussions about the survey, questionnaire and codings. The meeting finished late and we still had to rush for the printing of materials. It is good that we know of a big printing shop at Future Park which closes at 9pm. So it was nearly 630 pm when we finally had all the files to be printed - draft 6 of questionnaires and survey notes, and the powerpoint files of the pictures. These materials would be used for the following day's piloting work among tilapia farmers. There were 14 of us for piloting so we made 14 sets of questionnaires and survey notes. For the pictures, 4 sets of coloured pictures were printed to be used by 4 teams. So one can imagine how much paper was used to print them all, and to think they are just drafts. Well as a consolation we can use the back side for another printing. We reached the shop at around 730pm and thankfully we were able to print them all ...

2 Nov - we went to Chachoengsao to pilot test the questionnaire among tilapia farmers. Three farmers were interviewed. One group took a long time to finish and by the time we left the area it was already past 4pm. We arrived back to KU at nearly 7pm.

3 Nov - at the office to discuss piloting results, observations and suggestions to improve the questionnaire and notes. Another long day of meetings. Added more pictures for the production system question. Again we had to wait for the revised survey draft and the production system questions to be finished, and as the other day, rushed down to the mall to print a new set of revised questionnaires and the pictures to be used the following day for piloting of shrimp farms.

4 Nov - we went to Chachoengsao to pilot test the questionnaire among shrimp farmers. Four farmers were interviewed.  This time we were better at time management. We left earlier than the other day and arrived back at KU at around 6pm. Jesper from UCPH and Dr Kulapa from Fac of Econ-KU joined today.

5 Nov - at the office to discuss piloting results and more suggestions to improve the questionnaire and notes, and additional codings. As well, we talked about the Access database which is being developed by UoS team. We will use this to enter all the data collected from the field.

Sample frame, design, sizes and related topics will be discussed tomorrow, Saturday, including the codes/notes and finalisation of questionnaire (hope hope hope!). We hope to be able to finalise this part so we can start to verify our information and know who to interview during the actual surveys. As it stands, our survey schedule has been pushed to 2 weeks later. Maybe more if more things need to be done prior to survey.