Signaling to increase adoption of agroecological integrated pest management (IPM): a field experiment among maize farmers in Uganda

Last registered on April 05, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Signaling to increase adoption of agroecological integrated pest management (IPM): a field experiment among maize farmers in Uganda
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012857
Initial registration date
February 26, 2024

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
March 06, 2024, 3:29 PM EST

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

Last updated
April 05, 2024, 7:52 AM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Lotte van der Haar
Affiliation
Wageningen University & Research
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Beatrice Muriithi
PI Affiliation
International Centre for Insect Physiology & Ecology (ICIPE)
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PI Name
Menale Kassie
PI Affiliation
International Centre of Insect Physiology & Ecology (ICIPE)
PI Name
Zewdu Ayalew Abro
PI Affiliation
International Centre of Insect Physiology & Ecology (ICIPE)
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PI Name
Nathan Ochatum
PI Affiliation
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PI Name
Erwin Bulte
PI Affiliation
Wageningen University & Research
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PI Name
Kelvin Mulungu
PI Affiliation
CIMMYT-Zambia
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2023-09-01
End date
2025-01-01
Keywords
Agriculture, Behavior, Environment & Energy, Gender
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
D9 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics, Q5 Environmental Economics
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The fall-army worm (FAW) increases food insecurity and income uncertainty in Uganda due to its sizeable negative effect on maize yield. Agroecological Integrated Pest Management (IPM) provides a promising approach to mitigate maize damages while minimizing environmental harm from control methods. However, agroecological IPM is also costly for farmers in terms of initial investments and maintenance (labor) costs. This study evaluates whether signaling opportunities at different costs may help overcome these costs and impact adoption decisions of an agroecological IPM package. We also compare the effect of signaling to the effect of loss/gain framing for a material incentive. In addition, we determine the effectiveness of an agroecological IPM approach on agricultural outcomes. The study aims to evaluate these questions using empirical evidence from a field experiment in 140 villages with 2240 farmers in Soroti District, Uganda.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Abro, Zewdu Ayalew et al. 2024. "Signaling to increase adoption of agroecological integrated pest management (IPM): a field experiment among maize farmers in Uganda." AEA RCT Registry. April 05. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12857-1.1
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2023-11-01
Intervention End Date
2024-09-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
IPM Adoption (push-pull technology (PPT) implementation and PPT implementation area, willingness-to-pay for future PPT)
Signaling value (willingness-to-accept for t-shirt)
Knowledge diffusion effort (trained/shared info with other farmers)
Agricultural outcomes (maize yield/maize production costs)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The design of this study is a randomized controlled trial with 6 village-level treatment arms and one individual-level treatment arm and one individual-level control arm. Farmers assigned to individual-level treatment within all 6 village-level treatment arms will be provided the option to adopt an IPM package (including push-pull technology (PPT)), developed by ICIPE, free of charge. Two village-level treatment arms will receive the option to adopt the IPM package and receive a signal t-shirt (a t-shirt through which they can signal to others that they adopted the IPM package). Four village-level treatment arms will receive the option to adopt the IPM package and receive a neutral t-shirt (without the signal). We vary the cost (the area that needs to be dedicated to PPT) required to receive a signaling or neutral t-shirt. We also cross-randomize a loss/gain framing among the neutral t-shirt treatment arms. The individual-level treatment/control assignment thus determines whether an individual farmer will be offered the IPM package.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization was done in STATA
Randomization Unit
The project uses a two-stage randomization process. In the first step (village-level treatment assignment), sampled villages (and sampled replacement villages) are randomly assigned to one of the six treatment groups. In the second step (individual treatment assignment), we assign whether individual farmers within these villages receive the IPM package in the upcoming season (IPM treatment) or not (IPM control). From the total list of farmers (across villages) that have shown interest in the program during the information meeting, we randomly selected 1120 farmers to receive the IPM package in the upcoming season (IPM treatment) and 1120 farmers to not receive the IPM package in the upcoming season (the control group).
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
140 schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
2240 farmers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
- 20 villages in low-cost neutral t-shirt group with loss framing, 20 villages in low-cost neutral t-shirt group with gain framing, 30 villages in low-cost signal group, 20 villages in high-cost neutral t-shirt group with loss framing, 20 villages in high-cost neutral t-shirt group with gain framing, 30 villages in high-cost signal t-shirt group.
- 1120 farmers assigned to IPM treatment, 1120 farmers assigned to control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Mildmay Uganda REC (MUREC)
IRB Approval Date
2024-01-29
IRB Approval Number
MUREC-2023-300
Analysis Plan

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