The effect of demonstration plots and the warehouse receipt system on ISFM adoption, yield and income of smallholder farmers: a study from Malawi’s Anchor Farms

The Anchor Farm Model (AFM) of the Clinton Development Initiative (CDI) aims to increase agricultural production, income and food security through adoption of Integrated Soil Fertility Management practices (ISFM) - and soybean production in particular - by smallholder farmers in Malawi. To reach this goal: (i) CDI disseminates production knowledge through the use of demonstration plots, lead farmers and farmer field days; (ii) CDI improves farmers’ access to input markets, in particular credit and seed markets through CDI’s contract with seed companies and intermediary role in the credit market; (iii) CDI provides access to structured output markets through its established relationship with international soybean buyers. CDI primarily works with farmers in groups, organizing farmers into clubs of 10 to 20 members. Each club elects a leader who is provided with inputs and trained at the AF in soy production, ISFM techniques, postharvest practices and receives information on commodity markets. CDI aims to scale-up this project across the country. In this scale-up, CDI aims at both improving the current set of interventions as well as adding new interventions.

2014-09-01

2018-09-01

Income (agricultural), yield (of maize, soy and groundnut), adoption of integrated fertility and soil management practices and knowledge and beliefs

We use a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) to evaluate the impacts of AFM’s access to credit-based demonstration plots and warehouse receipt system. In Fall 2014, we selected two Extension Planning Areas which had not been covered by CDI before: Mthumtama in Kasungu district and Chibvala in Dowa district. We randomly selected 250 villages out of 303 villages present in these two EPAs (excluding villages with less than 50 farming households) and randomly assigned these villages into a treatment and a control group. Villages in the treatment group were exposed to CDI’s extension activities during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 agricultural season. In 2016, we – again randomly – subdivided the villages in the treatment group into two groups. Only one group will be exposed to CDI’s marketing and storage activities throughout the next two seasons. We evaluate the effects of the CDI interventions midway – in 2016 – and at the end – in 2019.

Randomization done in office by a computer

Village

Yes

250

2500

65

Though extension services have long since proved their value to agricultural production and farmer prosperity, their record in sub-Saharan Africa has been mixed. To study the impact of such programs on farmers' learning about agricultural technologies, we implemented a quasi-randomized controlled trial and collected detailed panel data among Malawian farmers. Based on those findings, we develop a two-stage learning framework, in which farmers formulate yield expectations before deciding on how much effort to invest in learning about these processes. Using data centered on farmer beliefs, knowledge, and constraints, we find evidence that beliefs about potential yields hinge on first-hand and local experience, and that these beliefs significantly impact learning efforts. Consistent with this, we find that farmers who participated in season-long, farmer-led demonstration plot cultivation plan to adopt more components of new multi-component technology, compared to farmers who were invited to attend only field-day events.

Maertens, Annemie, Hope Michelson, and Vesall Nourani. "How do farmers learn from extension services? Evidence from Malawi." American Journal of Agricultural Economics 103.2 (2021): 569-595.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajae.12135

Farmer groups are the cornerstone of many agricultural projects in low income countries. The success of such projects crucially depends on the ability of group members to cooperate. We conducted a series of public goods experiments to study within-group cooperation in Malawian farmer groups. We combine results from these experiments with survey data and qualitative interviews. Our results shed light on the heterogeneous capacity of groups to cooperate. We find that democratically run groups, in particular those with close social ties, are more cooperative compared to groups with leader-driven decision-making. Focus groups indicate that this democracy is deliberative in nature, characterized by open discussion that aggregates preferences, increases common knowledge, and creates goodwill. A second set of experiments in which we experimentally vary the decision-making processes yields quantitatively similar results in arbitrary groupings of farmers and null results in pre-existing groups with established decision-making procedures, demonstrating the stickiness of institutional rules. Our results imply that group formation and functioning needs to be included in the design phase of agricultural projects in low income countries.

Nourani, Vesall, Annemie Maertens, and Hope Michelson. "Public good provision and democracy: Evidence from an experiment with farmer groups in Malawi." World Development 145 (2021): 105507.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X21001194

This paper documents the role of village fairness norms in land markets. A strong and robust relationship is established between experimentally elicited village-level fairness norms and land rental rates across 250 Malawian villages. Stronger fairness norms correlate with a tighter range in village rental rates. The study suggests that the fairness norms for tenants appear to be more important, constraining the land-rental price range by a price ceiling rather than a price floor. The results further indicate that rented-in fields are of lower agronomic quality than owner-cultivated fields, but do not find any statistically significant relationship between the fairness norms and land rental activity in the village.

Krah, K., Maertens, A., Mhango, W., Michelson, H., & Nourani, V. Forthcoming. Village Fairness Norms and Land Rental Markets. World Bank Economic Review.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3910008