EXPLORATORY RESEARCH ON INCREASING COOPERATION FOR THE AGRICULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT STUDY

Purpose: Working with staff in the SMD and SSOs, determine potential alternative procedures that can be used to enhance cooperation and response rates in ARMS surveys.

The Agricultural Resource Management Study (ARMS) is an annual program which collects information on production practices, costs, revenues, and assets for a crop section of farm and ranch operations. The data that is collected is critical for understanding agriculture's economic status and its contributions to environmental quality. Congress, farm organizations, and agribusinesses rely on summaries of the data to better understand the problems and issues facing producers today. The ARMS is the only source of economic data providing a true picture of the financial well-being of all U.S. farms.

The data collected in the ARMS is quite detailed and the reporting burden placed on selected operations is relatively high in comparison to other NASS data collections.

In order to reduce overall reporting burden on NASS respondents, a pilot project has been initiated in two states to explore the possibility of collecting a greatly reduced amount of data from most of the ARMS sample and detailed longitudinal ARMS data from a small ARMS subsample. This subsample would be contacted for multiple years. This survey design would significantly reduce the reporting burden for a majority of the ARMS sample and provide data users with longitudinal data that were previously unavailable. However, in order for this design to be successful, significantly greater response rates in the subsample are necessary.

A multi-divisional team is conducting this project to achieve the high level of cooperation needed for this subsample, which will now be asked to participate in the survey for at least three years, instead of one. New procedures to be developed and tested will include customization of data collection for respondents in the subsample, and special promotion and public relations activities. In addition, special interviewer training and procedures will be developed and tested. For refusals in this pilot study, follow up efforts will also be made to gain their cooperation for succeeding years.