*2.2. Data Collection*

The study operationalizes both quantitative and qualitative data. The data were collected through two approaches. Firstly, structured interviews for farmers through a structured questionnaire were conducted. For each governorate, a minimum of 100 farmers were interviewed during 2020 to establish the baseline before COVID-19. Secondly, farmer consultation workshops were conducted in each governorate to collect the information and data required but also to validate the data collected during the individual interviews. Three workshops were conducted, one at every governorate with a minimum of 20 farmers. Farmers were randomly selected from each governorate to represent smallholder farmers that have farms ranging from less than one feddan up to five feddans. Table 1 shows the number of farmers in each data collection approach.

**Table 1.** Number of forms collected and farmers attending the workshops.


The questionnaire used for data collection included both qualitative and quantitative data [25]. It included socio-economic data, farmer family structure, a detailed breakdown of all production inputs and their cost, water consumption, agricultural yields and productivity, self-consumption, market access, and selling prices.

The production input costs included:

