How does gender influence person-to-person circulation of farming videos in Bihar (India)?

Last registered on April 26, 2023
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
How does gender influence person-to-person circulation of farming videos in Bihar (India)?
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011307
Initial registration date
April 19, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
April 26, 2023, 4:14 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
India
Region
Bihar

Primary Investigator

Name
Sam Coggins
Affiliation
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Paulo Santos
PI Affiliation
Monash University
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2022-10-26
End date
2023-01-09
Keywords
Agriculture, Behavior, Gender
Additional Keywords
Extension, Digital
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Farmers, agricultural scientists and other extension actors increasingly develop videos to help farmers improve their farming practices. Person-to-person video sharing (e.g. via WhatsApp groups) can facilitate scaling, trust and localization of these videos. We plan a randomized trial testing whether the gender of farmers featured in videos influences the scale and gender inclusivity of person-to-person sharing of these videos in rural Bihar. We will also analyze how these outcomes may be influenced by communication platforms and characteristics (role, age, gender, location and agricultural credibility) of video sharers.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Coggins, Sam and Paulo Santos. 2023. "How does gender influence person-to-person circulation of farming videos in Bihar (India)?." AEA RCT Registry. April 26. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11307-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We WhatsApp-messaged three wheat agronomy videos to the 319 extension actors asking them to share the videos with farmers in their communities. Extension actors were randomly allocated videos featuring expert female or male farmers for three wheat agronomy topics – planting date, irrigation and herbicides. A randomly allocated subset of extension actors also received a personalized phone call requesting them to share the irrigation video.
Intervention Start Date
2022-10-26
Intervention End Date
2023-01-09

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
• ‘Video views’ – total views for each linked video within seven days of link receipt.
• ‘Video discussions’ – the reported number of video recipients that replied to the video link sent by each extension worker.
• ‘Total women recipients’ – ‘Video views’ multiplied by the proportion of women the given extension worker reported sharing their video with.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We allocated the 319 participating extension actors one video (featuring a male expert farmer or female expert farmer) for the planting date video. These two treatments were allocated through stratified random sampling (stratifying using affiliation, and gender and above/below median age when known, randomly when unknown). Extension actors that received a video featuring a female expert farmer for planting date received a male expert farmer for the herbicide video.

The gender of the farmer in the irrigation video was randomly allocated to each extension actor without stratification (due to time pressure). Random sampling was also used to determine the subset of extension actors that received a phone call requesting them to share the irrigation video. Random sampling also determined the order in which each follow-up call recipient received the follow-up call (which was always 2-4 days after receiving the video link).
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Organizational affiliation, gender and above/below median age (all when known).
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
319 extension workers
Sample size: planned number of observations
932 video links
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Roughly half of video links featuring male farmers and the other half featuring female farmers.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Australian National University Human Research Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2022-10-11
IRB Approval Number
Protocol 2022/511
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials