Stage 3. Stage of Negative Returns
5.3 Selection of Sample
5.3.1 Selection of the study areas and Rationale
In the present study the researcher selected the study areas with care so that real results would be representative. Selection of the study area is an important step for farm management study.
The selection of an area fulfilled the particular purpose which was set for the study and also the possible cooperation from the farmer. In selecting the sample areas, the researcher has to consider the limitation of his intellectual and financial capabilities and his time limitations.
Although Pabda fish are grown all over Bangladesh, the district Pabna is one of the important districts where it is grown quite extensively.
Thus, the present study has been based on primary data that are collected from pabna district of Bangladesh purposively. The selection of the respondent has been made using the multistage
simple random sampling procedure. At first stage, three out of nine upazila under pabna district has been selected using simple random sampling. These upazilas are Atgharia upazila, Chatmohar and Bhangura upazila. There are 5 and 11 unions under Atgharia upazila, Chatmohar and Bhangura upazila, respectively. At the second stage, using random sampling technique, from each upazila two union are chosen which are Debottar union and Majhpara union of Atgharia upazila, Haripur and mulgram union of Chatmohar upazila and Dil pasar and Bhangura union of Bhangura upazila. Finally, a list of farmers of the selected union are collected from the upazila fisheries office and chosen 60 respondents for data collection.
Table: 5.1 selection of data from Pabna district.
Source: field survey 2019
The rationale behind this selection is that, Pabna district is predominantly aquaculture -based, Pabda are the dominant fish farming simultaneously with other minor fish farming. All these features confirm to the typical characteristics of Bangladesh aquaculture and these areas can be considered as area representative of the research objectives.
i. Availability of large number of Pabda fish farm in the study area;
Upazila Name of union Num of respondent Total
respondent
Atgharia Debottar 10 20
Majhpara 10
Chatmohar Mulgram 10 20
Haripur 10
Bhangura Dil pasar 10 20
Bhangura 10
Total respondent = 60
ii. These union had some identical physical characteristics like topography, soil and climate conditions for producing Pabda fish;
iii. No study of this type was conducted previously in these areas;
iv. Easy accessibility and good communication facilities in these union; and
v. Co-operation from the respondents was expected to be high so that reliable data would be obtained.
5.3.2 Sampling Technique and Sample Size
For obtaining the best outcome of the research study and therefore, in selecting samples for a study two factors need to be taken into consideration. The sample size should be as large as to allow for adequate degrees of freedom in the statistical analysis. On the other hand, administration of field research, processing and analysis of data should be manageable within the limitation imposed by physical, human and financial resources. However, because of diversity in the technical and human environment, it is necessary to sample several numbers of the population before any conclusion can be drawn. Therefore, the purpose of sampling is to select a sub set of the population that is representative of the population
It was not possible to include all the farmers of the study area due to limitation of time, money and personal. In total 60 farmers were randomly selected from Pabda fish farming. A multistage random sampling technique was followed in the present study for minimizing cost, time and to achieve the ultimate objectives of the study.
5.3.3 The questionnaire for data collection
For the collection of data, a well- organized questionnaire is needed to meet the required objective. A draft questionnaire was prepared for collecting information from the sample farmers. Keeping the objectives of the study in mind, the questionnaire was pre tested by interviewing some farmers who cultured Pabda, therefore necessary modifications, additions and alternations were made and then draft questionnaire was finalized. To meet the extreme needs of this study on the technical and allocative efficiency of Pabda production function, only primary data has been collected.
The final questionnaire contained three categories of information. The purpose of the first category was to obtain information about the socioeconomic condition of the selected farmers.
The second category contained information related to costs and returns of the two selected crops. The third category of information was related to constraints and problems faced by the farmers in producing Pabda fish.
5.3.4 Data collection method
The study was conducted for a period of 07 days from 07 February 2019 to 13 February 2019 on intermittent basis (Appendix 1). Field visits were carried out in the study areas for a period of 07 days. A combination of the participatory, qualitative and quantitative methods was used for gathering information through rapid appraisal. Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) is a group of methods to collect information on participatory basis from rural communities. The advantage of RRA over other methods is that it allows wider participation of the community, therefore the information collected is likely to be more accurate (Chambers, 1992; Chambers, 1994).
Rapid appraisal methods are used to obtain accurate information through triangulation (USAID, 2010).