Uptake of Best Management Practices by Rice Farmers in Nigeria: The Effectiveness of Bundling Women’s Empowerment Training, Digital Extension, and In-Person Extension

To evaluate the effectiveness of the bundle/package of women’s empowerment training, digital extension, and in-person extension on the uptake of best management practices and the performance of rice production, the trial tests variations of two interventions (women’s empowerment training and digital extension supplemented with in-person extension) leading to five experimental groups: “Provision of wives-only training about women’s empowerment and RiceAdvice Lite recommendations supplemented with bi-weekly visits of female extension agents in the rice cropping season” (T1), “Provision of wives-only training about women’s empowerment and RiceAdvice Lite recommendations supplemented with bi-weekly visits of male extension agents in the rice cropping season” (T2), “Provision of couples’ training about women’s empowerment and RiceAdvice Lite recommendations supplemented with bi-weekly visits of female extension agents in the rice cropping season” (T3), “Provision of couples’ training about women’s empowerment and RiceAdvice Lite recommendations supplemented with bi-weekly visits of male extension agents in the rice cropping season” (T4), and “No training about women’s empowerment, no RiceAdvice Lite recommendations, and no supplementary bi-weekly visits of extension agents of any gender in the rice cropping season” (C).

The interventions start with the women’s empowerment training workshops in October 2024. There are 8 one-day training workshops: 2 per state, including 1 only for wives and 1 for both wives and husbands. In polygamous households, only the wife growing rice and managing their plots is selected; if there are many such wives, one of them is randomly selected. Wives of households in the villages allocated to the “wives-only” training receive a one-day training about women’s empowerment implemented by an experienced local NGO in Nigeria. The training curriculum is administered to address five empowerment domains (production, resources, income, leadership, and time) and increase the Abbreviated Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI). Wives and husbands of households in the villages allocated to the “couples” training receive the same one-day training about women’s empowerment implemented by the same experienced local NGO in Nigeria. Although treated couples receive the same training curriculum as treated wives, differences in outcomes may be observed between the two bundle sub-components because the “couples” training contributes to gender-transformative intra-household changes as opposed to gender-accommodating intra-household changes.

In addition to the women’s empowerment training, households in treatment villages will receive RiceAdvice Lite recommendations and bi-weekly visits of extension agents in October and November 2024. The extension agent is female in T1 and T3 while male in T2 and T4. Extension agents facilitate the use of RiceAdvice Lite app on the plots and give any additional agricultural advice that the households may need on rice cropping practices and the use of agricultural machinery. Extension agents are local extension professionals from two NGOs, ATAFI and Green Sahel. Although the bundle component “digital extension supplemented with in-person extension” is allocated at the village level, extension agent’s gender differences in the take-up of best management practices across villages may be observed due to heterogeneous abilities in agricultural advice delivery. Besides, the interaction between the farmer’s gender and the extension agent’s gender introduces additional dynamics to be observed since female extension agents may relate well with the female farmers and deliver them agricultural advice in a better way than male extension agents do due to the gender norms in Northern Nigeria. Thus, the “female extension agent” assignment may contribute to gender-transformative intra-household changes as opposed to gender-accommodating intra-household changes.

2024-10-21

2024-11-30

The trial focuses on outcomes at two levels: farmer level (i.e., spouse level) and farmer-plot level.
Primary outcomes are either binary or continuous. Binary primary outcomes are adoption of the key improved cultural practice (smart-valley) and use of the key agricultural machinery (tractor). Continuous primary outcomes are the following aggregate outcomes:
-Count of agricultural machinery used (tractor, power tiller, mechanized transplanter, mechanized seeder, mechanized weeder, net (for bird scaring), mini combine harvester, ASI/ATA thresher, GEM parboiler, Striga management video);
-Count of improved cultural practices adopted and agricultural machinery used (mulching, smart-valley, mechanical leveling, row-sowing, row-transplanting, improved steamed parboiling, tractor, power tiller, mechanized transplanter, mechanized seeder, mechanized weeder, net (for bird scaring), mini combine harvester, ASI/ATA thresher, GEM parboiler, Striga management video);
-Abbreviated Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI).

Secondary outcomes are either binary or continuous. Binary secondary outcomes are uses of non-labor inputs (improved rice varieties, inorganic fertilizer, pesticides/insecticides/herbicides), on-farm labor, and off-farm labor. Continuous secondary outcomes are the following:
-Quantity and monetary value of non-labor inputs (seeds, inorganic fertilizer, organic fertilizer, pesticides/insecticides/herbicides);
-Quantity and monetary value of on-farm labor and off-farm labor;
-Yield and value of rice output;
-% output sold and value of sales;
-Profit from rice farming.

Using local expert knowledge, we identify 3 Local Government Areas (LGAs) within each state of the corridor Jigawa-Kano-Kaduna-Nasarawa-Benue. Although there are only four study states for this trial, a pilot survey includes the state of Kano where a previous impact study (Arouna et al. 2021) was conducted. Each of the 3 LGAs has at least 4 villages with a minimum of 20 households within the village growing rice under irrigated ecology in uplands or lowlands. This yields a sample frame of 48 villages for the study (4 states * 3 LGAs per state * 4 villages per LGA).

As the villages are identified using expert knowledge, the study confirms and updates the information using local enumerator’s knowledge during the training of enumerators for the baseline data collection. In each of the 48 villages, a list of rice-growing households is obtained from the village head; the households are classified into “households mostly with male-managed rice plots” versus “households mostly with female-managed rice plots.” From this household list for the village, 20 rice-growing households are initially selected to ensure the household sample is representative of the classification into mainly male- or female-managed rice-growing households. After a baseline survey conducted in May 2024, to guard against attrition, a light phone survey outreaching baseline households was conducted in September 2024 to assess the feasibility of a planned sample size of 880 farmers based on 11 married households each in 40 villages and 2 farmers/spouses per household.

The experimental design is a multi-site (state), cluster (village) randomized trial with treatment at the village level. We will select and randomize the 40 villages into bundling treatment and control groups. In October 2024:
-20 villages will be allocated to the control group (C) receiving “no training about women’s empowerment, no RiceAdvice Lite recommendations, and no supplementary bi-weekly visits of extension agents of any gender in the rice cropping season”;
5 villages will be allocated to the treatment group (T1) receiving “wives-only training about women’s empowerment and RiceAdvice Lite recommendations supplemented with bi-weekly visits of female extension agents in the rice cropping season”;
-5 villages will be allocated to the treatment group (T2) receiving “wives-only training about women’s empowerment and RiceAdvice Lite recommendations supplemented with bi-weekly visits of male extension agents in the rice cropping season”;
-5 villages will be allocated to the treatment group (T3) receiving “couples’ training about women’s empowerment and RiceAdvice Lite recommendations supplemented with bi-weekly visits of female extension agents in the rice cropping season”;
-5 villages will be allocated to the treatment group (T4) receiving “couples’ training about women’s empowerment and RiceAdvice Lite recommendations supplemented with bi-weekly visits of male extension agents in the rice cropping season”.
Within each village assigned to the bundling treatment, the 11 married households all receive the same treatment assigned to the village.

Not available

The randomization is done in the office on a computer using Stata.

The treatment is randomized at the village level.

Yes

40 village clusters

440 households and 880 farmers or spouses

-Control group (C): 220 households and 440 farmers or spouses;
-Treatment group (T1): 55 households and 110 farmers or spouses;
-Treatment group (T2): 55 households and 110 farmers or spouses;
-Treatment group (T3): 55 households and 110 farmers or spouses;
-Treatment group (T4): 55 households and 110 farmers or spouses.

See Power calculations in “Annex: RCT Registry” and the Excel file “Final Power Calcs”