Bundling crop insurance and extension services for Maize farmers in Mali

Last registered on March 06, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Bundling crop insurance and extension services for Maize farmers in Mali
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011980
Initial registration date
October 06, 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
October 17, 2023, 10:54 AM EDT

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

Last updated
March 06, 2024, 8:48 AM EST

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

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Primary Investigator

Name
Tim Ölkers
Affiliation
University of Göttingen
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Oliver Mußhoff
PI Affiliation
University of Göttingen
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-11-12
End date
2025-08-31
Keywords
Agriculture, Finance & Microfinance
Additional Keywords
Index-Insurance, Extension service, Maize farmers, Weather information
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Smallholder farmers comprise a large group of Mali’s inhabitants and also economically play an important role. However, despite the great amount of natural resources, experts all over the world coincide in the perception that a large portion of the countries’ agricultural potential remains untapped. Mali is severely affected by the climate crisis. Therefore, it is of importance and of interest to understand and develop tools that may reduce the negative effects related to the climate crisis for the region in Western Africa.
For the present study we, the Chair of Farm Management, cooperate with OKO Mali SarL, in the following referred to as OKO and WeatherImpact. OKO distributes weather index-based insurance policies for cereal farmers against drought or flooding. Their insurance products are tailored towards the needs of specific crops. We focus on maize insurance. The insurance pays out based on an index that is mainly linked to precipitation levels. It further considers different stages of the crop cycle by defining different strike levels for the germination period, growth period and maturation phase. If the accumulated precipitation in one phase is lower than the strike level, farmers are likely to suffer yield losses. The exit level is the accumulated precipitation level below which the indemnity is exactly the insured value. WeatherImpact provides the weather forecast which are send via SMS to the participants of our study.
While two groups receive the insurance, only one group of respondents received the insurance with additional weather information and agronomic advice. According to a predefined schedule, farmers in the treatment group receive two to three text messages per week. The text messages either contain weather information or agronomic advice. There are 23 different messages with basic agronomic advice including five messages with information on pre-planting activities and four on post-harvest management. The message also suggests to contact the local extension officer for more detailed information if the text message contained specific key words. The agronomic advice is based on practices commonly known from conservation agriculture. We plan a Randomized Control Trial (RCT). Hence, all participants have to be interviewed twice. One time in November 2023 and a second time one year later (November 2024) to estimate the effect of the bundled product. Additional we sample one control group, consisting out of Malian maize Farmers who did no buy the insurance product. They survey will target 1000 to 1200 customers.

We are interested in the following research questions:
a) What is the additional utility of the bundled product?
b) What is the value of the weather forecast?
c) Is the agronomic advice improving the maize outcomes and farmer’s wellbeing?
d) What is the farmers' willingness to pay for the bundled product?
e) How satisfied are the farmers with the bundled product?
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Mußhoff, Oliver and Tim Ölkers. 2024. "Bundling crop insurance and extension services for Maize farmers in Mali." AEA RCT Registry. March 06. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11980-1.1
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We have three treatment arms (one control and two interventions), each consisting of approximately 500 farmers, resulting in a total sample size for the baseline of approx. 1500.
While two groups receive the insurance (approx. 1000), only one group of respondents received the insurance with additional weather information and extension services via SMS (approx. 500). According to a predefined schedule, farmers in the treatment group receive two to three text messages per week. The text messages either contain weather information or agronomic advice.
Intervention Start Date
2024-06-16
Intervention End Date
2024-09-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
We are interested in the following research questions:
a) What is the additional utility of the bundled product?
b) What is the value of the weather forecast?
c) Is the agronomic advice improving the maize outcomes and farmer’s wellbeing?
d) What is the farmers' willingness to pay for the bundled product?
e) How satisfied are the farmers with the bundled product?

(see more information in the Pre-Analysis Plan)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
We are interested in the following research questions:
a) What is the additional utility of the bundled product?
Does the bundled product yields additional benefits for maize farmers: outputs, subjective well-being, asset ownership?

b) What is the value of the weather forecast?
At the endlline we will ask the farmers what they think about the weather forecast and what was the expected utility of this service.

c) Is the agronomic advice improving the maize outcomes and farmer’s wellbeing?
We focus on maize outputs, subjective well-being.

d) What is the farmers' willingness to pay for the bundled product?
We will implement a double bounded contingent valuation at the baseline survey.

e) How satisfied are the farmers with the bundled product?
We will ask the farmer about there satisfaction at the endline.

(see more information in the Pre-Analysis Plan)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
(see more information in the Pre-Analysis Plan)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
(see more information in the Pre-Analysis Plan)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We have three treatment arms (one control and two interventions), each consisting of approximately 500 farmers, resulting in a total sample size for the baseline of approx. 1500.
While two groups receive the insurance (approx. 1000), only one group of respondents received the insurance with additional weather information and extension services via SMS (approx. 500). According to a predefined schedule, farmers in the treatment group receive two to three text messages per week. The text messages either contain weather information or agronomic advice.


The assignment of who will receive the bundled product (index-insurance PLUS farming advise and weather information via SMS) will be based on stratification, taking into account factors such as agricultural zone, land ownership, village characteristics, and baseline output.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
The insurance broker organizes village events to introduce and offer the insurance to maize farmers. Additionally, the maize cooperative and village leaders extend invitations to the broker for introducing the insurance to their members. These efforts create a platform through which farmers can opt to insure their plots. We will interview the farmers if they ask for a quote for insurance.

The assignment of who will receive the bundled product (index-insurance PLUS farming advise and weather information via SMS) will be based on stratification, taking into account factors such as agricultural zone, land ownership, village characteristics, and baseline output. The stratification will be conducted by the University of Göttingen after the baseline collection in January/February 2024.
Randomization Unit
The insurance broker organizes village events to introduce and offer the insurance to maize farmers. Additionally, the maize cooperative and village leaders extend invitations to the broker for introducing the insurance to their members.
The assignment of who will receive the bundled product (index-insurance PLUS farming advise and weather information via SMS) will be based on stratification, taking into account factors such as agricultural zone, land ownership, village characteristics, and baseline output. We will randomly assign the additional treatment on village level based on stratifcation.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
The total sample size for the baseline is approx. 1500. We except to interview 20 farmers per village, resulting in 75 cluster.
Sample size: planned number of observations
We have three treatment arms (one control and two interventions), each consisting of approximately 500 farmers, resulting in a total sample size for the baseline of approx. 1500.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
500 farmers control, 500 treatment insurance, 500 treatment bundled product.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
385 or more surveys are needed to have a confidence level of 95% that the real value is within ±5% of the surveyed value. As we have three groups and assume especially attrition in the control rgoup we will interview approx. 1500 farmers.
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethics Committee - University of Göttingen
IRB Approval Date
2023-11-06
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan

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