Accelerating Varietal Turnover: Appealing to Smallholders as Both Producers and Consumers

Last registered on December 21, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Accelerating Varietal Turnover: Appealing to Smallholders as Both Producers and Consumers
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012728
Initial registration date
December 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
December 21, 2023, 8:04 AM EST

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Carly Trachtman
Affiliation
International Food Policy Research Institute
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Gashaw Abate
PI Affiliation
International Food Policy Research Institute
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PI Name
Samson Dejene Aredo
PI Affiliation
International Food Policy Research Institute
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PI Name
Samyuktha Kannan
PI Affiliation
International Food Policy Research Institute
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PI Name
Anne Krahn
PI Affiliation
Tufts University
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PI Name
Berber Kramer
PI Affiliation
International Food Policy Research Institute
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PI Name
Ning Ma
PI Affiliation
International Food Policy Research Institute
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PI Name
Chalmers Mulwa
PI Affiliation
International Potato Center
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PI Name
Leocardia Nabwire
PI Affiliation
International Food Policy Research Institute
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PI Name
Julius Juma Okello
PI Affiliation
International Potato Center
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PI Name
Vikram Patil
PI Affiliation
International Rice Research Institute
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PI Name
Catherine Ragasa
PI Affiliation
International Food Policy Research Institute
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PI Name
Bjorn Van Campenhout
PI Affiliation
International Food Policy Research Institute
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PI Name
Prakashan Chellattan Veettil
PI Affiliation
International Rice Research Institute
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PI Name
Carol Waweru
PI Affiliation
International Food Policy Research Institute
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2023-01-01
End date
2024-12-31
Keywords
Agriculture, Behavior
Additional Keywords
risk, multi-site trial, varietal turnover, adoption
JEL code(s)
O13, O33
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Smallholder producers throughout the developing world continue to produce old crop varieties, despite the availability of newer, likely preferable alternatives. One explanation is that learning about new varieties through experimentation is risky, as newer varieties can be more expensive, and farmers may be unsure of how these varieties will perform on their land. As self-consumption is also prevalent, households may face additional consumption-related risks when producing a new variety, such as dislike of the taste. In this project, we compare interventions that address production-side risks (free seed trial packs) and consumption-side risks (free samples of the same variety's end-product, and a cooking demonstration) to adoption of new varieties. We use a randomized controlled trial with a 2x2 matrix treatment design, where farmers either receive one intervention, both, or neither. We implement this across six settings (Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nigeria, and two in Uganda) considering a variety of crops.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Abate, Gashaw et al. 2023. "Accelerating Varietal Turnover: Appealing to Smallholders as Both Producers and Consumers." AEA RCT Registry. December 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12728-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Production Risk Intervention: Farmers are given a free trial pack of seeds of one of the improved varieties being promoted in their setting. Trial packs are distributed at the beginning of the relevant agricultural season, such that farmers can still incorporate cultivating the trial pack as part of their production for the season. The trial pack is only meant to cover a portion of a farmer's agricultural land, but large enough for farmers to learn and experiment with how the variety works.

Consumption Risk Intervention: Farmers will be given a ``free sample'' of the crop itself rather than of the seeds of the crop. Similarly to with the trial pack, the sample is only intended to allow families to learn about the taste and consumption attributes of the new variety without having to necessarily invest in cultivating or purchasing the variety. In practice, the samples in question usually constitute enough to make 1-3 meals for the household, with some variation between settings. In some country sites, tasting experimentation was facilitated in a formal setting with individuals or groups, guided by enumerators. In other cases, households were simply given the free sample encouraged to cook with and taste it, and compare its taste to other varieties they usually eat.
Intervention Start Date
2023-01-01
Intervention End Date
2023-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
A binary indicator of whether a household reports growing the variety for which they received a trial pack/kit in the subsequent season
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The basic evaluation design to be implemented across all 6 settings (in 5 countries) is a randomized controlled trial (RCT), randomized at the cluster level. Hence identification of treatment effects comes from random assignment. The design, is a 2x2 matrix design, in which clusters are assigned to receive the Production
Risk Intervention, the Consumption Risk Intervention, both, or neither (Control Group).
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Village clusters
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Across all sites, there will be a total number of 809 clusters. (Ethiopia: 120, India: 120, Kenya: 157, Nigeria: 172, Uganda 1: 120, Uganda 2: 120)
Sample size: planned number of observations
Total: 10,636 (Ethiopia: 1920, India: 2040, Kenya: 3140, Nigeria: 1376, Uganda 1: 1200, Uganda 2: 960)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
189 clusters in pure control, 215 getting the production risk treatment only, 192 getting the consumption risk treatment only, and 213 clusters getting both treatments (across all settings)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
International Food Policy Research Institute
IRB Approval Date
2022-12-01
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan

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