Incentivizing Sustainable Agriculture: A Randomized Controlled Trial with Rice Farmers in India

Last registered on April 30, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Incentivizing Sustainable Agriculture: A Randomized Controlled Trial with Rice Farmers in India
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015873
Initial registration date
April 25, 2025

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
April 30, 2025, 9:29 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
India
Region
Uttar Pradesh

Primary Investigator

Name
Yuan Shi
Affiliation
MIT Operations Research Center
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Yanchong Zheng
PI Affiliation
MIT Sloan School of Management
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PI Name
Alp Sungu
PI Affiliation
The Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-04-28
End date
2025-12-31
Keywords
Agriculture, Environment & Energy
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study tests how different financial incentives influence farmers’ decisions to adopt sustainable agricultural practices. We conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) across 16 villages in Uttar Pradesh, India, encouraging rice farmers to adopt Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR) — a water- and labor-saving alternative to traditional transplanting. Farmers are randomly assigned to one of three incentive schemes (an upfront cash transfer, a fixed payment at harvest, or a price premium for harvested crops) or to a control group with no incentive.
We measure how these incentives affect farmers’ willingness to adopt DSR, their production investments, their farming outcomes such as yields and income, and their perceptions of DSR and the incentives themselves.
This pilot study will provide early insights into how companies and organizations can better design incentive programs to promote sustainable farming practices, and will inform a larger-scale study planned for 2026.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Shi, Yuan, Alp Sungu and Yanchong Zheng. 2025. "Incentivizing Sustainable Agriculture: A Randomized Controlled Trial with Rice Farmers in India." AEA RCT Registry. April 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15873-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We test three financial incentive schemes designed to encourage the adoption of Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR), a sustainable farming technique, among smallholder farmers in Uttar Pradesh, India. Farmers are randomly assigned to receive either
(1) an upfront cash transfer,
(2) a fixed payment at harvest conditional on compliance,
(3) a price premium per unit of harvest, or
(4) no financial incentive (control group).
Intervention (Hidden)
This cluster-randomized trial is implemented across 16 villages in Uttar Pradesh. Villages are randomly assigned to one of four groups: a control group or one of three treatment arms. In each village, 20 eligible farmers are randomly selected for participation.

The interventions are:

Treatment 1 – Upfront Group: A cash transfer of ₹2000 per acre is provided prior to sowing for all farmers who sign up for the program.

Treatment 2 – Fixed Group: A cash reward of ₹2000 per acre is paid at harvest, conditional on verified DSR adoption.

Treatment 3 – Sustainability Premium Group: Farmers receive ₹100 per quintal of harvested paddy, conditional on verified DSR adoption.

Control Group: No financial incentive is provided.

All treatment groups receive a short DSR training and access to technical support. Compliance is monitored through photo self-reports, random field audits, and exploratory remote sensing. This is a pilot study designed to inform a larger-scale RCT planned for 2026.
Intervention Start Date
2025-04-28
Intervention End Date
2025-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1. Sign-up rate (intention to adopt)
2. Verified DSR adoption (compliance)
3. Cost-effectiveness: total incentive cost per acre of verified adoption
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Sign-up rate is a binary indicator equal to 1 if a farmer enrolled in the program.
Verified adoption is a binary indicator equal to 1 if DSR adoption is confirmed via photo evidence or field audit.
Cost-effectiveness is computed as the total financial incentives paid in a treatment arm divided by the total number of verified DSR acres in that arm.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Change in total input expenditure and in yield per acre

Change in net income

Farmer satisfaction with DSR

Perception of DSR risks and benefits

Future intention to adopt DSR

Perception and use of incentive payment
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This is a randomized controlled trial conducted across 16 villages in Uttar Pradesh. Villages are assigned to one of four groups: control or one of three treatment arms offering different financial incentives for DSR adoption. 20 farmers per village are selected to participate. We compare DSR uptake, yield, and economic outcomes across treatment groups.
Experimental Design Details
The study uses a cluster-randomized design with randomization at the village level. Villages are stratified and randomly assigned to one of four arms: a control group or one of three treatment groups offering either an upfront payment, a fixed payment at harvest, or a price premium per unit of paddy harvested. Within each village, 20 eligible farmers are randomly selected based on criteria established during a village-level census.
Baseline and endline surveys are administered to all recruited farmers. DSR adoption is verified through self-reported photo evidence, random audits, and remote sensing. The primary analysis is conducted at the farmer level, with standard errors clustered at the village level.

Randomization Method
Randomization was conducted using a computer in-office, stratified by village characteristics.
Randomization Unit
The unit of randomization is the village. Within each randomized village, 20 individual farmers are randomly selected for inclusion in the study. All outcome analysis is conducted at the farmer level.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
16 villages
Sample size: planned number of observations
320 farmers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
4 villages (20 farmers per village) per treatment arms
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
MIT Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects (COUHES)
IRB Approval Date
2025-04-17
IRB Approval Number
2503001604
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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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