DOI: 10.3886/icpsr37051
title: Sri Lankan Environmental and Agricultural Decision-making Survey (SEADS), 2015-2017
title: Archival Version

description: The Sri Lankan Environmental and Agricultural Decision-making Survey (SEADS) collected quantitative data from paddy farming households in 24
pre-selected villages in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. These data include
information about livelihoods, economic activity, household characteristics,
cultivation, and experiences with water scarcity and environmental stress. The
objective of SEADS was to collect high quality data that could be used
to: 

Understand the impacts of water scarcity on farming households throughout the dry zone, and to assess vulnerability to climate change impacts.
Document methods of coping with water scarcity utilized by farmers and communities throughout the dry zone.
Estimate the rate of adoption of agricultural adaptations promoted by governmental and non-governmental organizations and community leaders (e.g., parachute method, low flood depth irrigation, short duration seed varieties.)

Understand what programs or policies may help support farmers to cope with water scarcity in the future.

Demographic variables collected include age, gender, religion, ethnicity, district of origin, education level, and occupation.
description: The primary objective of this study was to
assess the impacts of seasonal forecast use on crop
diversification in a system with varying crop economics
(i.e. costs and returns). The specific questions the researchers aimed to answer were:


Could incorporating forecasts into planting decisions
generate higher net agricultural income for
a farmer?

How do varying crop economics moderate the
effect of different climate conditions on changes
in net agricultural income?
description: The research team met with village leaders prior to beginning data collection. Enumerators approached prospective participants at the individual's home. The enumerator explained the purpose of the visit and asked if the head farmer and head female in the household would be willing to speak. Those that agreed had the purpose of the study explained in more detail and formal consent to participate was sought. Those that did not consent were thanked for their time and were not contacted further. 

The enumerator and research participants agreed to a time and place to conduct the interview. Interviews were broken up into three sections (modules) and involved two respondents: the head farmer and head female. The head farmer was the person in the household who was identified as the person who makes most of the decisions about household farming activities. The head female was the woman in the household who is primarily responsible for managing the household. 

The interview with the head farmer was broken up into two separate sessions (modules) to avoid fatigue. The interview with the head female took place separately from the head farmer and was administered in one session. All data were collected in pencil and paper format by a team of two enumerators, one conducted the interview and the other entered the data. 

After completing the interviews, the respondents were thanked for their time and presented with a small gift. Respondents were informed that they would be approached again in 6-8 months, but were free to refuse if they did not wish to be contacted again. All respondents were contacted for a first follow-up interview. A subset of respondents were invited to participate in a second follow-up during a severe drought season in Sri Lanka.
description: The data are not weighted, however, this collection contains the weight variables DD_GPW_WT, DD_GPD_WT, and FIC_WT.
description: Response Rates: The response rate was 99%. Households that refused or were unavailable were replaced with a randomly selected alternative from the same village.
description: An initial sampling frame of all households located in the village was generated using the voter list of the Grama Nilidhari's voter list. Households were considered eligible for inclusion if the household cultivated paddy (low) land. The research team met with the farmer organization leaders and/or other village leaders to identify households on the list that did not cultivate paddy land. These households were removed from the sampling frame. The final list included all households located in a chosen village who cultivated paddy land, even if that land was rented, borrowed, fallowed, or used to grow non-paddy crops in a given season. 

After the sampling frame was generated, households were randomly selected for inclusion in the sample to meet the target sample size for a given village. Target sample sizes ranged from 35 to 80, and was proportional to the size of the size of the community. The realized sampling fraction of eligible households ranged from 10% to 100% of households.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Sri Lankan Environmental and Agricultural Decision-making Survey (SEADS), 2015-2017
description: Households located in villages in Sri Lanka who cultivated paddy land in 2015. Smallest Geographic Unit: District
description: face-to-face interview; paper and pencil interview (PAPI); on-site questionnaireFor additional information on the Sri Lankan Environmental and Agricultural Decision-making Survey (SEADS), please visit the ADAPT - Sri Lanka web site.