OCP Agribooster Project: Bundled Services, Fertilizer Customization, and Farmer Outcomes in Ghana

Last registered on September 12, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
OCP Agribooster Project: Bundled Services, Fertilizer Customization, and Farmer Outcomes in Ghana
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016637
Initial registration date
September 10, 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
September 12, 2025, 10:30 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Ghana
Region
Northern Region
Country
Ghana
Region
North East Region
Country
Ghana
Region
Upper West Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Prof Edward Asiedu
Affiliation
University of Ghana
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-02-01
End date
2027-07-31
Keywords
Agriculture
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Poor smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa face non-trivial constraints. Unfortunately, many of these constraints, limited access to credit, poor knowledge of good agricultural practices (GAPs), and limited use of soil testing, bind simultaneously, affecting farmers’ outcomes, including agricultural yields, food security, income, etc. The African Union (AU) also observed that the continent has not been able to reach the target of 50 kg/ha (nutrients) of fertilizer consumption set in the Abuja Declaration in 2006. This highlights the systemic challenges facing agricultural development in the region. We conduct a randomized control trial in Ghana to assess the impact of easing constraints in agricultural production by bundling jointly: i) training on good agricultural practices (GAPs), ii) finance for fertilizer, and iii) soil test /fertilizer recommendations, on smallholder farmers’ agricultural decisions, yields, and welfare. Recognizing the distinct challenges faced by women and young farmers, we will also examine the potential heterogeneous impacts of the bundled services across gender and youth.


External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Asiedu, Prof Edward. 2025. "OCP Agribooster Project: Bundled Services, Fertilizer Customization, and Farmer Outcomes in Ghana." AEA RCT Registry. September 12. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16637-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This trial evaluates a bundled agricultural intervention with three distinct arms:

Treatment 1 (T1): Farmers in this arm receive a combination of three interventions:
1. In-person training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs).
2. Soil testing and customized fertilizer recommendations.
3. A flexible fertilizer credit scheme.

Treatment 2 (T2): Farmers in this arm receive a combination of two interventions:
1. In-person training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs).
2. A flexible fertilizer credit scheme.

Comparison Group (C): Farmers in this arm receive a single intervention:
1. In-person training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs).
Intervention Start Date
2026-03-16
Intervention End Date
2026-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Yields
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
The primary outcome, agricultural yield will measure the quantity of dominant crops (Eg, maize, rice, cowpea, soybeans, and groundnuts) harvested per hector of land in the study areas.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Agricultural Productivity and Profitability, Income, Consumption and Food security
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Agricultural productivity and profitability will measure the efficiency and economic returns of farming through metrics such as fertilizer adoption, input use efficiency to determine if farmers are using inputs more wisely.

Profitability will compare the cost of production with the revenue generated.

Income will be measured through total household agricultural, and non-agricultural earnings. This assesses the intervention's ultimate impact on economic welfare by determining if increased yields translate into higher earnings, ultimately impacting overall economic welfare.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This study evaluates the effects of customised agricultural support services on smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana using a three-arm cluster-randomised controlled trial (RCT). The research investigates how bundling fertiliser credit with soil testing and agronomic training affects farm productivity, input adoption, and household welfare.

The unit of randomisation is the Outgrower Business (OB), a community-level cluster of smallholder farmers coordinated by an OB leader. A total of 171 OB networks, selected from nine districts in Ghana, are randomly assigned to one of three groups:

Treatment 1 (T1): Farmers in this arm receive a combination of three interventions:
1. In-person training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs).
2. Soil testing and customized fertilizer recommendations.
3. A flexible fertilizer credit scheme.

Treatment 2 (T2): Farmers in this arm receive a combination of two interventions:
1. In-person training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs).
2. A flexible fertilizer credit scheme.

Comparison Group (C): Farmers in this arm receive a single intervention:
1. In-person training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs).


In each OB, 20 farmers are randomly selected to participate in the study, resulting in 3,420 total respondents. Stratified random sampling is used within OB to ensure balanced representation in line with the local farmer population.

The main outcomes of interest include:
• Crop yields (kg/acre)
• Fertiliser and input adoption
• Household income
• Food security and consumption

Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomisation done in the office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Outgrower Business are treated as natural clusters based on OCP Africa’s operations in the study areas. All 171 OB networks in the nine target districts are purposively included. Within each OB, stratified random sampling will be employed to select 20 farmers per cluster.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
171 Outgrower Business
Sample size: planned number of observations
3420
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
51 Outgrower Business in control, 60 Outgrower Business in both treatment 1 and treatment 2.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Minimum Detectable effect size of 199.72 kg on yields with power of 0.8 and significance level of 0.05
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethics Committee for Humanities, University of Ghana
IRB Approval Date
2025-06-22
IRB Approval Number
ECH 234/ 24-25
Analysis Plan