CALAPAN CITY, Oriental Mindoro -- The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) will be conducting the 1st Quarter Crops Production Survey (CrPS) across the province of Occidental Mindoro. The PSA's authority and mandate to conduct this survey emanates from Republic Act (RA) 10625, or the Philippine Statistical Act of 2013, which authorizes the PSA to prepare and conduct statistical sample surveys on all aspects of socio-economic life and gather data from other government agencies for statistical purposes.

The CrPS is a quarterly survey which aims to generate basic production statistics for crops other than palay and corn at the national and sub- national levels. The CrPS covers crops that are sub-classified under three commodity groupings, namely: 1) Non-Food and Industrial Crops, 2) Fruit Crops, and 3) Vegetables and Root Crops.

The data collection across the province of Occidental Mindoro for the 1st quarter round will be on the last 10 days of March 2023. The list of top- producing municipalities serves as the sampling frame. This is based on the information on the volume of production of crops provided by the Provincial Agricultural Office (PAO) and validated by the Chief Statistical Specialist (CSS) or field staff in coordination with the Municipal Agriculturist and other government agencies.

For small farms of crops covered under the Farm Price Survey (FPS), the top five producing municipalities per crop in a province are selected to represent the primary sampling units. Five farmer-producers shall be interviewed in each selected municipality which will represent the secondary sampling units.

On the other hand, for small farms of all other crops not covered under the FPS, only the top two to three producing municipalities are chosen as the primary sampling units. Three farmer-producers in each municipality are enumerated as secondary sampling units.

The sample farmer-producers will be interviewed face-to-face using a paper-and-pencil interview (PAPI) by six (6) well-trained Statistical Researchers. In this regard, PSA Occidental Mindoro enjoins sample households to support the 1st quarter round of the Crops Production Survey by providing truthful and complete necessary information.

Production data generated from the CrPS are inputs to the Value of Production in Philippine Agriculture and Fisheries and accordingly to the preparation of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Moreover, the survey supports the data needs of planners, policy and decision-makers, and other stakeholders in the agriculture sector, particularly the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Department of Agriculture (DA), and its attached agencies such as the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) and Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF), and the general public.

For further information, please contact the Provincial Statistical Office of Occidental Mindoro at the official telephone number: (043) 711 982; or cellphone number, Smart: 0969 324 0428; Globe: 0945 562 4424 or send an email to occidentalmindoro@psa.gov.ph. (NRM/PSA OccMdo)