Does feedback matter? Evidence from agricultural services

Jones, Maria Ruth; Kondylis, Florence

doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2017.10.013

Cited by 20 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Rather, our results demonstrate that although liquidity is an issue, households are still able to take advantage of extension advice if it has been adapted to their context. This result is surprising, because the agricultural development literature frequently argues for the primacy of liquidity constraints and finds little evidence for the effectiveness of information‐only interventions (Holden and Lunduka 2013; Jones and Kondylis 2018). Two important factors should be considered when comparing our results to those in the literature.…”

Section: Results For Primary Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

One Size Fits All? Experimental Evidence on the Digital Delivery of Personalized Extension Advice in Nigeria

Arouna¹,

Michler²,

Yergo³

et al. 2020

American J Agri Economics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Blanket advice on optimal fertilizer application rates has failed to achieve potential yield gains for crop production in much of Sub‐Saharan Africa. However, digital technology now makes it possible to deliver personalized extension services to farmers at a much lower cost. We present results from a randomized control trial designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile application that provides personalized advice on rice nutrient management. We find that households who were just given the personalized advice increase their yield by 7% and increase their profit by 10%. On average, personalized advice increases yields without increasing the overall quantity of fertilizer used. We conclude that the scaling of personalized extension services could improve productivity and livelihoods in Sub‐Saharan Africa without necessarily increasing the total amount of fertilizer in use.

show abstract

Section: Results For Primary Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

One Size Fits All? Experimental Evidence on the Digital Delivery of Personalized Extension Advice in Nigeria

Arouna¹,

Michler²,

Yergo³

et al. 2020

American J Agri Economics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is well-known that new technological information is transmitted from farmers to farmers (see Conley and Udry [2010] for a recent study). Although efficiency of a public-sector extension system may be improved by eliciting feedback from farmers about the quality and content of agricultural extension services (Jones and Kondylis 2018), a great deal of attention has been paid to the effectiveness of farmer-to-farmer extension and a number of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been conducted. Although Kondylis, Mueller, and Zhu (2017) find that training provided by extension agents to selected contact farmers for technology diffusion to other farmers does not work, BenYishay and Mobarak (2018) find that providing reward to contact farmers, who are ordinary farmers, for their successful technology dissemination leads to wider adoption of new technology.…”

Section: Failure Of the Green Revolution In Africa South Of The Saharamentioning

confidence: 99%

Transformation of the rural economy

Otsuka¹,

Zhang²

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…That extension training was ineffective in our study is disappointing but not abnormal. Both Feder et al (2010) and Jones and Kondylis (2018) provide evidence that extension services received by farmers in developing countries often prove ineffective in producing positive and significant outcomes for smallholder farmers. 10 Furthermore, in many developing countries, extension services focus more on cash crops (cotton, cocoa, peanut, palm oil, etc.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contract Farming and Rural Transformation: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Benin

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent decades contract farming has emerged as a popular mechanism to encourage vertical coordination in developing country agriculture. The goal of such coordination is to better integrate smallholder farmers into the modern agricultural food system, fostering rural transformation. We use panel data from a randomized control trial to quantify the impact of different contract attributes on rural transformation and welfare of smallholder rice farmers in Benin. We vary the terms of contract, with some farmers being offered a contract that only guarantees a price, while other contracts add extension training or input loans. While all three types of contracts had positive and significant effects, we find that contracts which only included an agreement on price had nearly as large of an impact as did contracts with additional attributes. This suggests that once price uncertainty is resolved, farmers are able to address other constraints on their own.

show abstract

Does feedback matter? Evidence from agricultural services

Abstract: published by Elsevier. It is posted here by agreement between them. Changes resulting from the publishing process-such as editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms-may not be reflected in this version of the text.

Cited by 20 publications

References 13 publications

One Size Fits All? Experimental Evidence on the Digital Delivery of Personalized Extension Advice in Nigeria

One Size Fits All? Experimental Evidence on the Digital Delivery of Personalized Extension Advice in Nigeria

Transformation of the rural economy

Contract Farming and Rural Transformation: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Benin

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About