Rural Economy & Agriculture Dry Zone Household Survey

The Rural Economy and Agriculture Dry Zone Survey (READZ) survey was conducted in April and May 2017 to generate a detailed picture of livelihoods, cropping systems, farming practices, irrigation access and the state of the wider rural economy in the Dry Zone - one of the country’s most important agricultural regions, and home to more than 10 million people. READZ was comprised of household and community survey components. Prior to the READZ household survey, scoping studies identified the main agro-ecologies, cropping systems and forms of irrigation access present across the three main regions of the CDZ (Mandalay, Magway and Sagaing). Four townships, containing the main sets of conditions identified during scoping were purposively selected for inclusion in the household survey. The READZ household survey was implemented in April 2017. 1578 rural households, selected at random from 100 communities (also randomly selected) were interviewed to collect data on households’ activities over the past year. The survey instrument contained modules on household composition, migration, employment, land and asset ownership, irrigation, agricultural machinery and draft animal use, input uses, changes in production practices over the last decade, and access and utilization of agricultural credit. Agriculture modules focused in particular on the crops green gram, groundnut, sesame and paddy.