Our results suggest that enforcement mechanisms can actually damage cooperative behavior as players shift from cooperative harvest strategies to more self-interested ones that lead to the collapse of the shared resource.
Women who participated in the SLVC livestock transfer program experienced greater financial inclusion and empowerment compared to women who did not participate.
A deeper understanding of what causes the poor to be reluctant to plan, save and invest in their future may provide valuable insights into designing interventions that address the source of the problem, not just the symptoms, to create lasting change.
Improving index insurance products, contract design, marketing and policy can contribute to delivering on its promise of promoting independence, prosperity and resilience among these smallholder farmers.
Our results on soil variation shows an opportunity to target improved seed and other interventions based on the variation in soils within a village or larger geographic area.
Lack of well-tailored innovations such as suitable hybrid seeds to overcome pest and diseases in mid-altitude areas has been acknowledged as a major shortcoming which could further be associated with inadequate investment in research and development.
In mid-altitude regions, the option to purchase WSC maize seed unambiguously increased productivity, but most significantly among better-resourced farmers who had historically used hybrid seed.
Because the VISA Model uses savings groups to aggregate small purchases into one larger purchase, and to pass on to the insurance company, the operating costs of the company are reduced and the sales increased.
Temporary subsidies share the risk of experimentation. If these subsidies induce learning and continued use of the new technology after the subsidy expires, these are a smart public investment.
