The Impact of Behaviorally Informed Mailers on Uptake of a Cover Crop Cost-share Program

Last registered on May 16, 2024

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The Impact of Behaviorally Informed Mailers on Uptake of a Cover Crop Cost-share Program
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011778
Initial registration date
August 04, 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
August 10, 2023, 1:25 PM EDT

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

Last updated
May 16, 2024, 12:15 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
ideas42

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Colleague

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2023-06-05
End date
2024-01-26
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We plan to run three randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to help increase enrollment in a cover crop cost share program for soybean and corn farmers in the Midwest. In the first two tests, we will distribute informative mailers to eligible farmers, which will be sent from a large agricultural cooperative, which is a familiar and trusted source of information for its member farmers. We will test the impact of a behaviorally-informed mailer (letter in one test, postcard in another) on enrollment in the cost-share program, and will also test whether offering a lottery incentive impacts enrollment timing. In the third test, we will investigate whether a farmer-to-farmer referral email campaign impacts enrollment in the cover crop cost-share program.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Li, Jessica and Cecilia Shang. 2024. "The Impact of Behaviorally Informed Mailers on Uptake of a Cover Crop Cost-share Program." AEA RCT Registry. May 16. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11778-2.1
Sponsors & Partners

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention 1: Timely mailers from a trusted messenger

We are testing the impact of behaviorally informed mailers on enrollment in a cover crop cost share program among members of a large agricultural cooperative. These member farmers make up a very small proportion of cost-share enrollees and we seek to leverage the familiarity and trust they have with their local Agricultural Cooperative to boost enrollment in the Practical Farmers of Iowa cover crop cost-share program.

Intervention 2: Farmer Network Referrals

The Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) has a large network of cover cropping farmers already engaged in their cover crop cost-share program. We designed a campaign to encourage farmers that enroll in the PFI cover crop cost-share program to refer their farmer neighbors and friends to the program. This intervention leverages existing farmer social networks and provides a friendly introduction to PFI’s programs from a trusted and relatable peer messenger.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention 1: Timely mailers from a trusted messenger

We are testing the impact of behaviorally informed mailers on enrollment in a cover crop cost share program among members of a large agricultural cooperative. These member farmers make up a very small proportion of cost-share enrollees and we seek to leverage the familiarity and trust they have with their local Agricultural Cooperative to boost enrollment in the Practical Farmers of Iowa cover crop cost-share program. The interventions being tested are as follows:

Mailers: We designed a postcard and letter. Both mailers have the cooperative logo saliently displayed, contain a greeting personalized with the farmer’s name, and end with a signature personalized with the cooperative agronomist assigned to their region. The language in each mailer is nearly identical and leverages several well-researched behavioral science principles such as present bias (i.e.,re-frame the cost-benefit analysis), hassle-reduction (i.e., emphasizing one-step hassle-free enrollment and providing easy links and QR codes), and social norms (i.e., emphasizing increasing adoption of cover crops). The mailer intervention will have the following components:
- Postcard [RCT 1]: The postcard has a bright, attractive image of healthy crops to catch the farmers attention. The format will make the text easy to review.
- Letter [RCT 2]: The letter includes the cooperative’s logo on the envelope, and as farmers may be accustomed to receiving important bills or other documents from their cooperative, this may prompt them to open it and review its contents.
- Raffle incentive: In order to encourage farmers to take action on the mailers immediately, we will test the effect of promoting the opportunity to win a raffle prize of $500 to go toward cover crop seed application if farmers enroll prior to August 1st, 2023. This aims to test whether it is possible to initiate a moment of choice on whether to use cover crops earlier in the season and help farmers overcome the procrastination that frequently occurs when farmers are planning for cover crops. This raffle may also provide a potential short term benefit to enrollment that would normally not exist, which could help some farmers overcome the present bias that may impact some farmers' willingness to try cover crops.
- Email reminders: Treatment farmers with email addresses on file will receive follow-up emails to help keep the cover crop cost share program salient during a busy time of the year.

Intervention 2: Farmer Network Referrals

The Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) has a large network of cover cropping farmers already engaged in their cover crop cost share program. We designed a campaign to encourage farmers that enroll in the PFI cover crop cost-share program to refer their farmer neighbors and friends to the program. This intervention leverages existing farmer social networks and provides a friendly introduction to PFI’s programs from a trusted and relatable peer messenger. The intervention components being tested are as follows:
- Email: Farmers in the treatment group receive an email after they have successfully enrolled in the PFI cover crop cost share program with a clearly communicated call to action to share the program with their neighbors/friends. The email includes behaviorally informed messaging and would be accompanied by specific guidance about who to refer (anyone who is or is not cover cropping), easy eligibility heuristics, or other information.
- One SMS reminder: Farmers (who have indicated a willingness to be contacted via text) will receive a follow-up reminder text to share with interested friends 1 week after the initial treatment email is sent.
- One email reminder: All farmers in the treatment group will receive a follow-up email approximately 2 weeks after the initial treatment email.
Intervention Start Date
2023-06-05
Intervention End Date
2023-12-29

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Enrollment in PFI’s cover crop cost share program
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Application submission date
Number of Acres of fall cover crop intended to seed for 2023
# of Acres of fall cover crop seeded for 2023
Likelihood of making a referral for 2023
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will be conducting three randomized controlled trials (RCTs):

RCT 1: Postcard experiment with two treatment arms and one control arm designed to evaluate the impact of postcards on enrollment in PFI's cover crop cost-share program.

RCT 2: Letter experiment with two treatment arms and one control arm designed to evaluate the impact of postcards on enrollment in PFI's cover crop cost-share program.

RCT 3: Referral program: Structured referral program with a treatment and a control arm designed to evaluate whether farmer-to-farmer referrals impact enrollment in PFI's cover crop cost-share program.
Experimental Design Details
We will be conducting three randomized controlled trials (RCTs):

RCT 1: Postcard experiment
Control: No mailer. The cooperative’s conservation agronomists will conduct business as usual, which includes offering all farmers that they work with the opportunity to enroll in the PFI cover crop cost share program as they do each year.
Treatment 1: Farmers in treatment group 1 will be sent a postcard and a follow up reminder email (if they have an email address on file).
Treatment 2: Farmers in treatment group 2 will be sent a postcard and a follow up reminder email (if they have an email address on file). This version of the postcard will include the offer of a $500 raffle entry incentive for all farmers that enroll before August 1, 2023.

RCT 2: Letter experiment
Control: No mailer. The cooperative’s conservation agronomists will conduct business as usual, which includes offering all farmers that they work with the opportunity to enroll in the PFI cover crop cost share program as they do each year.
Treatment 1: Treatment group 1 will be sent a letter and a follow up reminder email.
Treatment 2: Treatment group 2 will be sent a letter and a follow up reminder email. This version of the mailer will include the offer of a $500 raffle entry incentive for all farmers that enroll before August 1, 2023. This version of the letter mailer will also contain an additional informational flier on a specialty cover crop seeding method.

RCT 3: Referral program
Control: Control farmers will receive all the normal communications from PFI about the cost share program. They will be able to refer farmers to the program if they choose to do so.
Treatment: Farmers in the treatment group will receive two emails and one text reminder (if they indicated willingness to receive text messages) encouraging them to refer their friends to the program after they have successfully enrolled in the program.
Randomization Method
Intervention 1 (Timely mailers from a trusted messenger): ideas42 will conduct the randomization of eligible cooperative members using Stata.

Intervention 2 (Farmer Network Referrals): Farmers will be randomized into treatment or control through an automated AirTable randomization function.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Intervention 1 (Timely mailers from a trusted messenger): 5,599 people
Intervention 2 (Farmer Network Referrals): approx. 1200 people
Sample size: planned number of observations
Intervention 1 (Timely mailers from a trusted messenger): 5,599 people Intervention 2 (Farmer Network Referrals): Final count will depend on the number of enrolled farmers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Intervention 1 (Timely mailers from a trusted messenger)

RCT 1
Control = 1089 people
T1 = 1089 people
T2: 1089 people

RCT 2
Control: 457
T1: 457
T2: 457

Intervention 2 (Farmer Network Referrals)

RCT 3
Control: Approximately 600
Treatment: Approximately 600
Note: These counts are approximate and based on the 1,200 farmers that enrolled in 2022. (The total sample size will depend on the number of farmers who enroll in 2023)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Intervention 1 (Timely mailers from a trusted messenger): RCT1 MDE: Unit: Individual base rate = 5.4% variance = 0.051084 MDE = 2.7 pp change RCT2 MDE: Unit: Individual base rate = 5.4% variance = 0.051084 MDE = 4.2 pp change Intervention 2 (Farmer Network Referrals) MDE Unit: Individual Base rate = 32% variance = 0.2176 MDE = 7.5 pp change
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Advarra Center for IRB Intelligence
IRB Approval Date
2023-06-06
IRB Approval Number
Pro00071174
Analysis Plan

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

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