Exploring alternative crops with tobacco-growing families

What is shaping tobacco

Tobacco research sits at the meeting point of regulation, public health and farm livelihoods. Every study we take on in this sector follows strict ethical guidelines and focuses on compliance, awareness, livelihoods and cessation.

• Point-of-sale and packaging rules are tightly regulated
• Public-health programmes track awareness and cessation
• Farm households weigh alternative crops and livelihoods

An agricultural research foundation, working in Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

An agricultural research foundation

Sector

Tobacco

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Quantitative research, Qualitative research, Research consultancy

The foundation was designing a programme to help tobacco farmers shift to other crops and needed to understand farm economics, risks and what farmers would need to make a change.

• Deliver on the brief: exploring alternative crops with tobacco-growing families.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of households.
• Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
• Give the client evidence it can act on within 9 weeks.

The work focused on 1,200 households.

• households1,200

Audiences we typically reach in tobacco

Retailers and point-of-sale ownersTobacco farmersPublic-health programme teamsAdults trying to quitRegulators and enforcement officials

Coverage: Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka. Market: India.

• India

A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Household survey
3. 3Farmer group discussions
4. 4Insight

We surveyed households on income sources, costs, buyer arrangements and debts, and held group discussions on the risks of switching. Questions explored which alternatives farmers had tried and why they had succeeded or failed.

Quantitative researchQualitative researchResearch consultancy

households

1,200

• Respondents were selected across Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka using quotas set in advance for each location and respondent type, so no single area or group dominated.
• Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.

group discussions

18

• Trained local-language interviewers conducted interviews in person, supervised in the field.
• Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.

• Back-checks on a share of completed interviews
• Time and location checks on field interviews
• Supervisor accompaniment in the field
• Recordings and transcripts for every session
• Re-screening of qualitative recruits
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
• Significance testing on the differences that mattered
• Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
• Journey and decision mapping

• Assured buyers and access to credit mattered more than crop yields in farmers’ decisions.

Livelihood transitions succeed when the market risk is shared.

• Build on the core insight: livelihood transitions succeed when the market risk is shared.
• Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: assured buyers and access to credit mattered more than crop yields in farmers’ decisions.
• Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.

• The foundation built buy-back arrangements and credit linkages into its pilot rather than focusing on agronomy alone.

What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Interview summaries and key verbatims

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: what helps adults quit successfully?