Abstract

The Government of Liberia and its development partners recognized agriculture as a pivotal sector in fostering economic growth, reducing poverty, and achieving food security. Since the post-war period (insert dates) , the government in collaboration with development partners, has made substantial investments to develop and expand the agriculture sector. Over the years, policymakers and data users in the agriculture sector have experienced significant challenges in obtaining the data needed to monitor and evaluate these interventions and make informed decisions on new interventions. To address these challenges, the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) conducted several ad hoc agricultural surveys. While valuable, these surveys have often been limited in scope and unable to provide the comprehensive data needed for effective policymaking and planning. To support the sector more robustly, the government decided to undertake a comprehensive agricultural census:the Liberia Agriculture Census 2024, the second agricultural census in Liberia since 1971 and the first to be conducted digitally, aimed to collect structural and reliable data on various aspects of the agricultural sector.

The main objectives of the LAC-2024 was to:

· Reduce the existing data gap in Liberia's agriculture sector.

· Provide comprehensive data on the agriculture sector for policy formulation and evaluation of existing programmes.

· Enable LISGIS to establish an agriculture master sampling frame for future agricultural surveys and research.

· Identify the structural changes in the agriculture sector over time.

· Provide information on crop, livestock, poultry, and aquaculture activities.

· Determine the size, composition, practices and related characteristics of Liberia's agricultural holdings.

· Generate disaggregated agriculture statistics.

· Provide statistics for advocacy on Liberia's agriculture sector.

· Identify agricultural practices and constraints at the community level.

To achieve these objectives, the LAC-2024 was designed to collect structural data at the household, non-household and community levels. The data provided a wealth of information on the state of agriculture in Liberia. This documentation provides information on how data was collected at the household level. The documentation also provides useful information on the household anonymized dataset.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

Households

Universe

The universe for the Liberia Agriculture Census 2024 household level data collection is all households in Liberia having at least one member engaged in agricultural activity during the 2022/2023 farming season.

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

The Liberia Agriculture Census 2024 (LAC-2024) was a sampled census conducted in all 15 counties of Liberia. The sampling frame used for the LAC-2024 is based on the 2022 National Population and Housing Census (2022-NPHC), conducted by the LISGIS. The sample design for the census was a stratified cluster sample with enumeration areas (EAs) as clusters and farming households as units of interest. In line with budget availability, a large sample of 4,800 EAs was considered for the LAC-2024. These EAs had a total of 269,652 agricultural households in the frame. The sample was allocated by strata (districts, urban/rural) proportional to the numbers of farming households in the frame. In total, about 78.8% of the sample was allocated to rural areas. The stratified sample of EAs was selected with a probability proportional to the number of farming households at EA level. A complete listing of all households (both agricultural and non-agricultural) was carried out in the selected EAs and detailed questions were addressed to all households that practiced agricultural activities during the 2022/2023 farming season. The results of the LAC-2024 are representative at the district level.

For more information on the LAC-2024 sampling methodology, see the methodology section of the Liberia Agriculture Census 2024 Household Report (available in the downloads tab).

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Research instrument

The LAC-2024 employed three questionnaires: the Household Questionnaire, the Community Questionnaire and the Non-Household Questionnaire. These three questionnaires were based on the 50x2030 Initiative standard model questionnaires. The Liberia Agriculture Census Technical Working Group (LAC-TWG), comprising technical staff from LISGIS,Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), National Fishery and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA), Cooperative Development Agency (CDA) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) worked with technicians from the 50x2030 Initiative to adapt the questionnaires to Liberia's context and realities. Suggestions and inputs were solicited from various stakeholders representing government ministries, agencies and commissions(termed MACs by LISGIS), nongovernmental and international organizations as well as academic institutions researching agricultural issues. All questionnaires were finalized in English. Some questions in the questionnaires were translated into simple Liberian English, to ease administration. The household questionnaire included type of agricultural activities practiced, household members characteristics, housing conditions, hired labour practices, agricultural parcels and plots characteristics, types of crops and methods of crop cultivation, inputs, tools and equipment used, type and number of livestock and poultry. The household questionnaire was administered to the household head or an adult member of the household with knowledge of the household and its agricultural activities. The primary respondent (i.e., the household member that provided most of the information for the questionnaire or a given module, household member, or crop) sometimes varied across modules.

Cleaning operations

The data was edited using CSpro software, version 7.7.3. The appropriate edit rules were established by programmers and subject matter specialists at LISGIS and MOA. In a few cases, manual editing was applied to recode the “other specify” category. The SPSS software was used for this purpose.

Response rate

92.8%

Abstract

The Government of Liberia and its Development Partners recognized agriculture as a pivotal sector in fostering economic growth, reducing poverty, and achieving food security. Since post-war, the Government in collaboration with development partners, has made substantial investments to develop and expand the agriculture sector. Over the years, policymakers and data users in the agriculture sector have experienced significant challenges in obtaining the requisite data needed to monitor and evaluate these interventions and make informed decisions on new interventions. To address these challenges, the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) conducted several ad hoc agricultural surveys. While valuable, these surveys have often been limited in scope and unable to provide the comprehensive data needed for effective policymaking and planning. To support the sector more robustly, the government decided to undertake a comprehensive agricultural census. The Liberia Agriculture Census 2024, the second agricultural census in Liberia since 1971 and the first to be conducted digitally, aimed to collect structural and reliable data on various aspects of the agricultural sector.

The main objectives of the LAC-2024 was to: · Reduce the existing data gap in Liberia's agriculture sector. · Provide comprehensive data on the agriculture sector for policy formulation and evaluation of existing programs. · Enable LISGIS to establish an agriculture master sampling frame for the conduct of future agricultural surveys and research. · Identify the structural changes in the agriculture sector over time. · Provide information on crop, livestock, poultry, and aquaculture activities. · Determine the size, composition, practices and related characteristics of Liberia's agricultural holdings. · Generate disaggregated agriculture statistics. · Provide statistics for advocacy in Liberia's agriculture sector. · Identify agricultural practices and constraints at the community level.

To achieve these objectives, the LAC-2024 was designed to collect structural data at the household, non-household and community levels. The data collected at these three levels provide a wealth of information for understanding the state of agriculture in Liberia. This documentation provides a catalogue of information necessary for understanding how data was collected at the household level. The documentation also provides useful information for understanding the household anonymized dataset.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

Agricultural households

Universe

The universe for the Liberia Agriculture Census 2024 household level data collection encompasses: All households in Liberia having atleast one member engaged in agriculture activity during the 2022/2023 farming season.

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

The Liberia Agriculture Census 2024 (LAC-2024) was a sampled census conducted in all 15 counties of Liberia. The sampling frame used for the LAC-2024 is based on the 2022 National Population and Housing Census (2022-NPHC), conducted by the LISGIS. The sample design for the census was a stratified cluster sampling with enumeration areas (EAs) as clusters and farming households as units of interest. In adequacy with budget availability, a large sample of 4,800 EAs was considered for the LAC-2024. These EAs had a total of 269,652 agricultural households in the frame. The sample was allocated in strata (districts, urban/rural) proportionally to the numbers of farming households computed in the frame. In total, about 78.8% of the sample was allocated to rural areas. The stratified sample of EAs was selected with a probability proportional to the number of farming households at EA level. A complete listing of all households (both agricultural and non-agricultural) was carried out in the selected EAs and detailed questions were addressed to all households that practiced agricultural activities during the 2022/2023 farming season. The results of the LAC-2024 are representative at the district level.

For more information on the LAC-2024 sampling methodology, see the methodology section of the Liberia Agriculture Census 2024 Household Report.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Research instrument

The LAC-2024 employed three questionnaires: the Household Questionnaire, the Community Questionnaire and the Non-Household Questionnaire. These three questionnaires were based on the 50x2030 Initiative standard model questionnaires. The Liberia Agriculture Census Technical Working Group (LAC-TWG), comprising technical staff from LISGIS,Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), National Fishery and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA), Cooperative Development Agency (CDA) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) worked with technicians from the 50x2030 Initiative to adapt the questionnaires to Liberia's context and realities. Suggestions and inputs were solicited from various stakeholders representing government ministries, commissions and agencies (MACs), nongovernmental and international organizations as well as accademic institutions involved with agriculture issues. All questionnaires were finalized in English. Some questions in the questionnaires were translated into simple Liberian English, for the purpose of easy administration. The household questionnaire include type of agricultural activities practice, household members characteristics, housing conditions, hired labor practice, agricultural parcels and plots characteristics, types of crops and methods of crop cultivation, inputs, tools and equipment use, type and number of livestock and poultry. The household questionnaire was administered to the household head or an adult member of the household who had vast knowledge of the household and its agricultural activities. The primary respondent (i.e., the household member that provided most of the information for the questionnaire or a given module, household member, or crop) sometimes varies across modules.

Cleaning operations

The data was edited using CSpro programs, version 7.7.3. The appropriate edit rules were established by programmers and subject matter specialists at LISGIS and MOA. In few cases, manual editing techniques were applied to recode responses generated from other specify options. The SPSS software was used for this purpose.

Response rate

92.8%.

Abstract

The Government of Liberia and its Development Partners recognized agriculture as a pivotal sector in fostering economic growth, reducing poverty, and achieving food security. Since post-war, the Government in collaboration with development partners, has made substantial investments to develop and expand the agriculture sector. Over the years, policymakers and data users in the agriculture sector have experienced significant challenges in obtaining the requisite data needed to monitor and evaluate these interventions and make informed decisions on new interventions. To address these challenges, the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) conducted several ad hoc agricultural surveys. While valuable, these surveys have often been limited in scope and unable to provide the comprehensive data needed for effective policymaking and planning. To support the sector more robustly, the government decided to undertake a comprehensive agricultural census. The Liberia Agriculture Census 2024, the second agricultural census in Liberia since 1971 and the first to be conducted digitally, aimed to collect structural and reliable data on various aspects of the agricultural sector.

The main objectives of the LAC-2024 was to: · Reduce the existing data gap in Liberia's agriculture sector. · Provide comprehensive data on the agriculture sector for policy formulation and evaluation of existing programs. · Enable LISGIS to establish an agriculture master sampling frame for the conduct of future agricultural surveys and research. · Identify the structural changes in the agriculture sector over time. · Provide information on crop, livestock, poultry, and aquaculture activities. · Determine the size, composition, practices and related characteristics of Liberia's agricultural holdings. · Generate disaggregated agriculture statistics. · Provide statistics for advocacy in Liberia's agriculture sector. · Identify agricultural practices and constraints at the community level.

To achieve these objectives, the LAC-2024 was designed to collect structural data at the household, non-household and community levels. The data collected at these three levels provide a wealth of information for understanding the state of agriculture in Liberia. This documentation provides a catalogue of information necessary for understanding how data was collected at the community level. The documentation also provides useful information for understanding the community anonymized dataset.

Geographic coverage

National Coverage

Analysis unit

Agricultural Communities:

Universe

The universe for the Liberia Agriculture Census 2024 community operations is: All communities (localities) in Liberia that are located within an agricultural enumeration area.

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

Focus group interviews were conducted in communities attached to the EAs selected for the sample census of farming households. A sampled community had the same probability of selection and sample weight of the EA to which it was attached. In case a community was linked to many EAs in the sampling frame of EAs, additional adjustment for multiplicity would be performed. The LAC-2024 community operations engaged 61,600 respondents across 7,193 sampled communities. Nationally, the distribution of respondents shows that males represented 66.1% of the total 61,600 participants, while females accounted for 33.9%. For more details on the sampling procedure, please see the Liberia Agriculture Census 2024 Community Report.

Mode of data collection

Focus Group [foc]

Research instrument

The LAC-2024 employed three questionnaires: the Household Questionnaire, the Community Questionnaire and the Non-Household Questionnaire. These three questionnaires were based on the 50x2030 Initiative standard model questionnaires. The Liberia Agriculture Census Technical Working Group (LAC-TWG), comprising technical staff from LISGIS,Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), National Fishery and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA), Cooperative Development Agency (CDA) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) worked with technicians from the 50x2030 Initiative to adapt the questionnaires to Liberia's context and realities. Suggestions and inputs were solicited from various stakeholders representing government ministries, commissions and agencies (MACs), nongovernmental and international organizations as well as accademic institutions involved with agriculture issues. All questionnaires were finalized in English. Some questions in the questionnaires were translated into simple Liberian English, for the purpose of easy administration. The community questionnaire include the following sections: 1-respondents characteristics; 2- production and processing activities in the community; 3- land characteristics and irrigation in the community; 4- markets to sell agriculture products; 5- access to agricultural inputs, services and credits in the community; 6- social cohesion; 7- difficulties in agricultural activities; 8- livestock and Poultry Production; 9- environment; 10- disasters and Shocks; 11- community infrastructure and transportation; 12- community organizations; 13- community resource management; 14- land prices and credit; 15- community key events; 16- labor and producer prices.

Cleaning operations

The data was edited using CSpro programs, version 7.7.3. The appropriate edit rules were established by programmers and subject matter specialists at LISGIS and MOA. In few cases, manual editing techniques were applied to recode responses generated from "Other specify" options. The SPSS software was used for this purpose.

Response rate

100%.