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Field
Last Published
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Before
September 15, 2025 09:46 AM
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After
January 23, 2026 07:25 AM
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Field
Intervention (Public)
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Before
The Digital Platform: The tool enables farmers to demonstrate compliance with EU deforestation regulations (e.g., EUDR). This is a powerful incentive for adoption as it directly links to market access and potentially higher prices.
Experimental groups:
We use a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in Antioquia, Colombia.
In the first stage, we will conduct a one-to-one baseline survey, which will allow us to characterize farmers' digital skills, agricultural practices, and socioeconomic conditions.
The farmers will be selected using the list of cooperative members of the association. Specifically, we will interview a sample of 1500 farmers from the association. The 150-minute survey will be conducted at farmers' houses. The visits will be pre-announced, and convenient times will be agreed upon. During the initial visit, participants will be informed about the project's objectives, the benefits they can expect, and how their data will be managed. Participants can withdraw from the project at any time without incurring any further consequences.
In the second stage, 1500 farmers will be randomized into the following five groups:
T1: Training App Platform - Individual: farmers interact with a trained peer extensionist who provides expert guidance on app usage and compliance practices.
T2: Training App Platform - Family: both the extensionist and a spouse or adult offspring of the farmer join the group
T3: Training App Platform - Family - Additional Artificial Intelligence module
T4: App Platform no training - Individual
T5: App Platform no training - Family
T6: Pure Control Group: No app access
Farmers in T1 and T2 will participate in three one-day training sessions. The sessions will be conducted at a farm nearby, and transportation will be provided. The training sessions aim to prepare farmers for the use of sustainable agricultural practices following European Union Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR). The sessions use a participatory methodology where farmers learn practical skills in group activities. In
the sessions, farmers discuss sustainable agricultural practices for the protection of soil, water, forest, and biodiversity. They learn how to document good practices using an App and practice commercialization and negotiation in different markets.
Farmers in T3: receive a three-hour practical training on the use of an AI module called Croppie.
Farmers in T4 and T5: will have the option to install the App, but will not receive any type of agricultural training. They will also not receive an explanation on Croppie. This group is used as a reference to evaluate the impact of T1 to T3.
Farmers in T6 (Pure control group) will have access to the app one year later. The staggered implementation would allow us to validate the impact of the app without limiting the possibilities for the control group to benefit from it. This group works as a reference to evaluate the impacts of T3 and T4.
In the last stage, we will conduct a one-to-one end-line survey to evaluate the impact of the treatments and, in particular, T3. As before, the survey will be conducted at farmers' houses. The visits will be pre-announced and agreed upon. The impacts of the training program will be assessed at the household level by comparing the changes in digital adoption among farmers in the treated and control groups.
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After
The Digital Platform: The tool enables farmers to demonstrate compliance with EU deforestation regulations (e.g., EUDR). This is a powerful incentive for adoption as it directly links to market access and potentially higher prices.
Experimental groups:
We use a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in Antioquia, Colombia.
In the first stage, we will conduct a one-to-one baseline survey, which will allow us to characterize farmers' digital skills, agricultural practices, and socioeconomic conditions.
The farmers will be selected using the list of cooperative members of the association. Specifically, we will interview a sample of 1500 farmers from the association. The 150-minute survey will be conducted at farmers' houses. The visits will be pre-announced, and convenient times will be agreed upon. During the initial visit, participants will be informed about the project's objectives, the benefits they can expect, and how their data will be managed. Participants can withdraw from the project at any time without incurring any further consequences.
In the second stage, 1200 farmers will be randomized into the following five groups:
T1: Training App Platform - Individual: farmers interact with a trained peer extensionist who provides expert guidance on app usage and compliance practices.
T2: Training App Platform - Family: both the extensionist and a spouse or adult offspring of the farmer join the group
T3: Training App Platform - No Whatsapp group - Artificial Intelligence module
T4: App Platform no training - Individual
T5: App Platform no training - Family
T6: Pure Control Group: No app access no whatsapp
Farmers in T1 and T2 will participate in three one-day training sessions. The sessions will be conducted at a farm nearby, and transportation will be provided. The training sessions aim to prepare farmers for the use of sustainable agricultural practices following European Union Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR). The sessions use a participatory methodology where farmers learn practical skills in group activities. In the sessions, farmers discuss sustainable agricultural practices for the protection of soil, water, forest, and biodiversity. They learn how to document good practices using an App and practice commercialization and negotiation in different markets.
Farmers in T3: receive one session of practical training on the use of another app AI called "Croppie".
Farmers in T4 and T5: will have the option to install the App, but will not receive any type of agricultural training. They will not have access to "Croppie". This group is used as a reference to evaluate the impact of T1 to T3.
Farmers in T6 (Pure control group) will have access to the app one year later. The staggered implementation would allow us to validate the impact of the app without limiting the possibilities for the control group to benefit from it. This group works as a reference to evaluate the impacts of T3 and T4.
In the last stage, we will conduct a one-to-one end-line survey to evaluate the impact of the treatments and, in particular, T3. As before, the survey will be conducted at farmers' houses. The visits will be pre-announced and agreed upon. The impacts of the training program will be assessed at the household level by comparing the changes in digital adoption among farmers in the treated and control groups.
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Field
Intervention Start Date
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Before
September 01, 2025
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After
October 01, 2025
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Field
Intervention End Date
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Before
September 30, 2026
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After
April 30, 2026
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Field
Primary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
1. Digital adoption outcomes
1.1 App engagement: Number of compliance documents uploaded, Number of crop photos uploaded, Deforestation risk score generated from app use.
1.2. WhatsApp engagement: Volume and frequency of messages, Textual analysis of content (responsiveness, participation of farmer vs. family member), Group-level activity indicators (who replies, how quickly, how often).Platform Engagement: User logins, frequency of use, features accessed.
2. Compliance and sustainability outcomes
2.1. Improvement in compliance scores (Number and quality of pictures uploaded, algorithm-generated compliance score, personalized crop performance feedback.).
2.2. Adoption of recommended reforestation and best crop practices (as reflected in monitoring data).
3. Digital literacy (frequency of use of mobile phone (e.g. chat, listen music or watch tv, financial transactions, communication, etc.), perceived ability to handle different applications, perceived ability to acquire and select information, digital awareness and knowledge of different Apps.
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After
1. Digital adoption outcomes
1.1 App engagement: Number of compliance documents uploaded, Number of crop photos uploaded, Deforestation risk score generated from app use.
1.2. WhatsApp engagement: Volume and frequency of messages, Textual analysis of content (responsiveness, participation of farmer vs. family member), Group-level activity indicators (who replies, how quickly, how often).Platform Engagement: User logins, frequency of use, features accessed.
2. Compliance and sustainability outcomes
2.1. Improvement in compliance scores (Number and quality of pictures uploaded, algorithm-generated compliance score, personalized crop performance feedback.).
2.2. Adoption of recommended reforestation and best crop practices (as reflected in monitoring data).
3. Digital literacy (frequency of use of mobile phone (e.g. chat, listen music or watch tv, financial transactions, communication, etc.), perceived ability to handle different applications, perceived ability to acquire and select information, digital awareness and knowledge of different Apps.
4. Digital financial adoption
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Field
Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
The experimental design uses a between subject design. Based on baseline characteristics of the population, we create 5 treatment groups and a control group. The groups vary the access to a mobile App to document agricultural practices (access vs. no access), the modules included in the app (Al Invest vs Croppie) and the type of training (farmer alone or farmer with family member).
T1: Access to the APP, training on basic modules AL invest, WhatsApp with farmer only
T2: Access to the APP, training on basic modules AL invest, WhatsApp with farmer + family member
T3: Access to the APP, training on basic modules AL invest AND Croppie module, WhatsApp with farmer + family member
T4: Access to the APP, no training, WhatsApp with farmer only
T5: Access to the APP, no training, WhatsApp with farmer + family member
T6: Pure control: No Access to the APP, no training
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After
The experimental design uses a between subject design. Based on baseline characteristics of the population, we create 5 treatment groups and a control group. The groups vary the access to a mobile App to document agricultural practices (access vs. no access), the modules included in the app (Al Invest vs Croppie) and the type of training (farmer alone or farmer with family member).
T1: Access to the APP, NO access to Croppie, training on basic modules AL invest, WhatsApp with farmer only
T2: Access to the APP, NO access to Croppie, training on basic modules AL invest, WhatsApp with farmer + family member
T3: Access to Croppie, training on Croppie module only, NO WhatsApp
T4: Access to the APP, NO access to Croppie, no training, WhatsApp with farmer only
T5: Access to the APP, NO access to Croppie, no training, WhatsApp with farmer + family member
T6: Pure control: No Access to the APP, NO access to Croppie, no training
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Planned Number of Clusters
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Before
1500 farmers
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After
1200 farmers
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Planned Number of Observations
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Before
1500 farmers
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After
1200 farmers
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Field
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
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Before
T1: 150
T2: 150
T3: 300
T4: 225
T5: 225
T6: 450
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After
T1: 150
T2: 150
T3: 300
T4: 150
T5: 150
T6: 300
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Field
Intervention (Hidden)
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Before
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After
We are modifying the number and treatments as January 23, 2025, intervention has not been implemented for T1,T2, T4, T5.
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