Here are some of my current research projects.
Here are some of my current research projects.
Female subsistence farmers in developing countries often have lower adoption rates of agricultural technologies. Women smallholder farmers in low-income countries often have lower adoption rates of profitable agricultural technologies, in part due to unequal access to information about these technologies. In this experiment, we test variations of a female-led peer extension model, which provides training and free seeds, to promote the adoption of improved cassava and bean varieties among female farmers. We cross-randomize two components of the extension model in a 2x2 factorial design: 1) Household agricultural extension visits conducted by female (rather than male) trainers, and 2) community election of these trainers (rather than selection by local authorities). We also compare the results with a pure control group (receiving no extension at all) and a group that receives the seeds, but without training. We explore the impact each treatment has on adoption of the promoted technologies in the subsequent season.
Investments in R&D are often made under ambiguity about the potential impacts of various projects. High-quality, systematic market research could help reduce that ambiguity, including in investments in agricultural research-for-development, such as plant breeding. Using an online framed artefactual experiment with a diverse sample of breeding experts working in various disciplines across the world, we ask how market information and information quality influences breeding experts’ investments in prospects with ambiguous returns, and how the quality and source of information affect willingness to pay for market information. We find that providing market information leads participants to make more prioritized (rather than diversified) decisions. However, participants do not consider differences in information quality, instead over extrapolating from noisy and biased information signals. Finally, while most participants are willing to use experimental funds to purchase market information, around half prefer lower quality information even if higher quality information is available at the same price. We conclude that prioritizing R&D projects with greater impact opportunities will require better awareness among decision-makers of quality issues in various types of market research.
Smallholder producers throughout the developing world commonly grow old seed varieties, despite the availability of newer alternatives. One common explanation is that it can be risky for farmers to experiment with new varieties, as newer varieties are often more expensive, and farmers may be unsure of how such varieties will perform on their land. However, smallholder farmers are also often the main consumers of their production, and hence they might face additional consumption-related risks when choosing to grow a new variety (i.e. the risk that they dislike the taste/cooking quality of the new variety). In this project we compare interventions that address production-side risks (free seed trial packs) and consumption-side risks (free samples of crops produced) to adoption of new varieties. Specifically, we compare the effects of these interventions using a randomized control trial with a 2x2 matrix treatment design, where farmers either receive the seed trial packs, the sample crops, both or neither. We carry-out this design across five different countries (Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda) considering different crops in each setting.
Climate Information Services (CIS), which provide weather forecasts and planting recommendations, may help smallholder-farming households adapt their agricultural investment decisions to increasingly erratic climatic patterns. CIS may be especially impactful in households with multiple agricultural decision-makers, as forecasts can help to harmonize decision-makers' beliefs around the seasonal conditions that are likely to manifest. However, quantifying the welfare benefits of CIS is empirically challenging, given that farmers' agricultural investment may increase or decrease depending on the forecast's content as well as farmers' risk aversion levels, and we generally do not observe intrahousehold decision-making processes. To understand how CIS provision affects agricultural investment decisions, welfare, and intrahousehold bargaining outcomes, we conduct a framed lab-in-the-field experiment with 224 participants from 112 married couples in the Eastern Province of Zambia. Participants make a series of simulated, incentivized agricultural investment decisions over which we vary the CIS provided. We find that farmers indeed use weather forecasts and investment advice to improve their welfare. Moreover, we find that providing forecasts may help couples to make agricultural investment decisions that are more preferred by both spouses.