Up-take of Contract Farming and Refugee-Host interactions in Uganda

Last registered on February 24, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Up-take of Contract Farming and Refugee-Host interactions in Uganda
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0017798
Initial registration date
February 20, 2026

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
February 24, 2026, 6:35 AM EST

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Dagim Belay
Affiliation
University of Copenhagen
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Annet Adong
PI Affiliation
Makerere University
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Juan F. Tellez
PI Affiliation
University of California, Davis
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-02-25
End date
2027-12-31
Keywords
Agriculture, Finance & Microfinance, Labor, Post-conflict
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Refugees face significant barriers to agricultural livelihoods, including limited access to land, inputs, credit, and markets, as well as exposure to climatic risks and host community hostilities. These constraints hinder refugees’ ability to build resilient and self-sustaining livelihoods. This study examines whether a contract farming model can help alleviate these barriers by reducing upfront liquidity constraints, facilitating access to land and inputs, and easing intergroup tensions with host communities. We experimentally test the uptake of contracts that vary in the share of production costs deferred until harvest. The study assesses contract acceptability and default, identifies key implementation frictions, examines host landlords’ beliefs toward refugee livelihood support, and estimates delivery costs to inform the design and scalability of a larger randomized controlled trial.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Adong, Annet , Dagim Belay and Juan F. Tellez. 2026. "Up-take of Contract Farming and Refugee-Host interactions in Uganda." AEA RCT Registry. February 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17798-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention offers refugee households a one-season agricultural land rental contract with host community landlords. The contract aims to reduce barriers to refugees' agricultural participation by easing liquidity constraints and varying interaction with host landowners. All participants receive an offer to rent land under one of several contract variants. Two contract features are randomized at the household level. First, payment timing varies the proportion of total costs paid upfront: 100% (control), 80%, or 50%, with remaining payments deferred until after harvest. Second, landowner contact varies whether refugees farm independently (control) or cultivate alongside the host landowner.

These features generate a 2 × 3 factorial design with six treatment conditions. Contracts are randomly assigned to 1,000 refugee households within village agents.
Intervention Start Date
2026-02-25
Intervention End Date
2027-02-25

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Contract uptake and use: willingness to accept/pay, actual upfront payment for contracted inputs; size of land cultivated under the contract
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
- Contract compliance and default: post-harvest payment completion, arrears amount
- Agricultural productivity: yield, sales
- Market participation
- Intergroup interaction: refugee-host attitudes and trust, interaction frequency, disputes/conflict
- Psychological well-being
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The study evaluates an agricultural land rental contract offered to refugee households using an individually randomized factorial design. From a universe of eligible refugee households in the settlement, a sample of 1,000 households is selected to participate. All sampled households are offered a standardized one-season land rental contract with host community landlords.

Two contract features are randomized at the household level. First, payment timing varies the share of total contract costs paid upfront versus deferred until after harvest (100%, 80%, or 50% upfront). Second, the degree of interaction with the host landowner varies between farming independently and farming alongside the landowner. These features generate six experimental conditions in a 2 × 3 design. Randomization is conducted at the household level within local recruitment units to ensure balance.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
household
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
No clustering
Sample size: planned number of observations
1000 refugee households
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
The study includes 1,000 refugee households assigned under a 2 × 3 factorial design with equal allocation across treatment arms. Approximately one-third of households (about 334 each) are assigned to the 100% upfront payment and 80% upfront payment conditions, with the remaining 332 assigned to the 50% upfront payment condition. Independently, half of the sample (about 500 households) is assigned to farm with no contact with the host landowner and half to farm alongside the landowner. This yields approximately 166–167 households in each of the six experimental cells, with minor variation due to integer constraints.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
The Mildmay Uganda Research Ethics Committee (MUREC)
IRB Approval Date
2026-01-23
IRB Approval Number
MUREC-2025-1813
Analysis Plan