This paper demonstrates that a contract based on satellite data combined with a second-stage conditional audit has the potential to improve index insurance quality.
A Randomized Control Trial introduced sorghum farmers in Burkina Faso to a technology for applying small amounts of fertilizer at the time of planting, and provided a randomly assigned subset of farmers with free kits comprised of mineral fertilizer and improved seed. Results show that a targeted approach is much more effective in encouraging broader adoption in the longterm.
This study evaluated a large-scale agricultural extension program's impacts on women's technology adoption and food security in Uganda. The program led to better basic cultivation methods and improved food security. Farmers also modified how they coped with shocks.
A set of RCTs in Tanzania tested the impact of a telephone directory on business and agricultural households. Enterprises saw large increases in calls and mobile money. Households increased search activities and the use of mobile phones for business, with some evidence of improved farming outcomes.
This article attempts to fill an important knowledge gap by studying conservation agriculture (CA) adoption in southern Malawi. The results show that farmers view adoption of CA as a series of separate decisions, rather than a single decision, and that mulching residues and intercropping or rotating with legumes introduces a multiplier effect on the adoption of zero tillage.
This study used ethnographic interviews and machine learning to explore how farmers decide to adopt specific activities on CA in Malawi. The results show that adoption by neighbors (i.e., peer effects) matters most, with possible implications for the overall cost of encouraging CA (e.g., through subsidies) as it is taken up across a landscape.
This study used longitudinal household data to determine which factors affected demand for index based livestock insurance (IBLI). While both price and the non-price factors studied previously are indeed important, the findings indicate that basis risk and spatiotemporal adverse selection also play a major role in determining demand for IBLI.
Small-scale fisheries in developing countries employ the majority of the world's fishers and are a critical source of income and nutrition for billions of people, yet they frequently suffer from overfishing. The team explores the mechanisms by which this undesirable outcome arises and argue that institutional reform should consider that resource users make jointly determined decisions about gear choice, including illegal ones, and harvest rates.
Behavioral poverty traps and shortsightedness reinforce each other. By using a model with long-term planning horizon, this tool can help improve economic decisions and prospects based on a randomized controlled trial in Mozambique providing agro-input subsidies.