FAO under the project “Strengthening Agricultural Market Information Systems in India Using Innovative Methods and Digital Technology (AMIS)” is providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) and has organized a training workshop on the application of Advance Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) for agricultural surveys and price reporting in New Delhi, on 13 February 2017. Under the Project, a key activity is capacity development of MoA&FW in the areas of application of CAPI technology for data collection using modern software tools. It is meant to assist governments, statistical offices and non-governmental organisations in conducting surveys as well as census using Android based tablet devices with the facility of data validation at the time of capturing data. It provides a system of real-time availability of data through its Web interface and automated survey management tool.

The Workshop, inaugurated by Mrs. Sudha Rao, Principal Advisor, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, New Delhi (MOAFW), was attended by 26 Statisticians, Economists from MOAFW and other officers from their Marketing Intelligence Units (MIUs) located across various State.   Mr. Ashok Vishandass, Chief Technical Advisor, AMIS  India, FAO and Mr. UC Sud, Director, Indian Agricultural Statistical Research Institute (IASRI) delivered ‘Vote of Thanks’ and Valedictory Speeches respectively. The Workshop was steered by Mr. Samiran Mallick, Consultant, AMIS India Project.

The use of CAPI software in the workshop aimed at putting in place a system of rigorous data validation of the prices reported from the selected Centers by the supervisors at the MIUs. The Survey Solutions (SuSo) software provides a framework of data flow from the interviewers in the Field to supervisors in the Office and then to the Headquarters, with formal system of scrutiny, approval and progress monitoring at each level.  The SuSo uses the latest software technology and is capable of running both on ‘tablets’ and mobiles. Since price data is relatively simpler as compared to other survey data, a simulated experiment of price reporting was carried out in this Workshop using both types of handsets. 

It is expected that the workshop will facilitate a decision on using appropriate type of handsets for price reporting, apart from testing effectiveness of the CAPI software developed for the purpose. This initiative will bring in improvement over the existing system of price data collection.