Abstract
This impact evaluation will use a randomized controlled trial approach to measure the stand-alone and complimentary impacts of two components of an international NGO's agricultural program: land-use documentation and the distribution of long-term agricultural investment bundles. The land-use documentation component formalizes land-use rights though the formalized rights may not be sold or collateralized. The land-use titles are offered to households conditional on a woman’s name on the title (either co-titled or registering it exclusively under her name). This offer will include a discussion of the benefits of land titling and co-titling to encourage uptake. The long-term investment bundle offers women a package of fruit-tree seedlings together with pesticides, fungicide, and other inputs such as cassava, sweet potato, and pumpkin cuttings designed to help farmers in the shorter-term. This portion of the study centers on randomizing 1,000 eligible households (those who farm their own land but do not have land-use titles, and are either married or female) into one of three treatment groups or a control group: the first treatment group will receive land-use titles, the second treatment group will receive the input subsidies, and the third treatment group will receive both the land-use titles and the input subsidies.
In addition to measuring the impacts of these two components, the study will also use the distribution of the long-term investment bundles to measure the short-term impacts of the land-use title on willingness to invest in agricultural inputs. Specifically, the bundles will initially be distributed through a take-it-or-leave-it offer conducted under a willingness to pay experiment, presented to the household's head woman together with her husband, if married. After detailing the bundle, the representatives presented the women with an opportunity to commit to purchasing the bundle at one of six randomly selected subsidy levels: 96\%, 87\%, 79\%, 71\%, 63\%, and 54\%. The women were only presented with one of the prices and were told that they would not have another opportunity to purchase the bundle. After confirming that the respondents understood the offer and the market value of the bundle, the representatives presented the women with the final offer and recorded the purchase decision. This portion of the study will jointly examine the impacts of the land-use demarcation and subsidy offer on the likelihood of accepting the agricultural investment opportunity.