This paper presents evidence from a large-scale experiment designed to reduce search costs in randomly selected sub-counties in Uganda by introducing a mobile phone-based marketplace for agricultural commodities.
In Ghana, insured loans increased farmers' likelihood of receiving credit by between 15 and 21 percentage points. There was no impact on the likelihood that farmers apply for credit but there was an increase in the likelihood of loan approvals of between 17 and 25 percentage points.
This study from Ghana found that index insurance lowers overall demand for agricultural loans while farmers appear to prefer micro-level insurance over meso‐level insurance. The study also shows that farmers are willing to pay to avoid basis risk.
This study tests whether a new financial product that offers guaranteed credit access after a shock allows households to insure themselves against risk with a large-scale RCT involving 300,000 subjects in Bangladesh with one of the country’s largest microcredit institutions.
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 research analyzes the motivations and dynamics of small farmer participation in supermarket supply chains in developing countries. Results suggest that farmers delay entry to observe their neighbors’ outcomes.
Increasing agricultural efficiency via technology adoption remains a high priority among development practitioners. One potential tool for furthering this objective is using drought index insurance to increase access to credit.
Observations of smallholder farmer inefficiency often reflect failure to control for nature. An example would be Ivorien rice farmers effected on their production frontier once inconsistent control for soils, rain, and pests are involved. So perhaps a non-uptake adoption is optimal as well? This presentation is based on the AMA Innovation Lab projects for the Mind the Gap Workshop.
