External Evaluation of Mobile Phone Technology Based Nutrition Advisory Services (mNutrition): Farmer Club service in Ghana

Last registered on May 01, 2018
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
External Evaluation of Mobile Phone Technology Based Nutrition Advisory Services (mNutrition): Farmer Club service in Ghana
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0001991
Initial registration date
May 01, 2018

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
May 01, 2018, 10:47 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Ghana
Region
West Africa

Primary Investigator

Name
Melissa Hidrobo
Affiliation
IFPRI
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Dan Gilligan
PI Affiliation
IFPRI
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2016-10-01
End date
2019-06-30
Keywords
Agriculture
Additional Keywords
Nutrition, mobile technology
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
In this pre-analysis plan we describe the evaluation plans for “Mobile Phone Technology Based Nutrition Advisory Services” in Ghana (mNutrition). The mNutrition intervention is part of a global initiative supported by DFID to use mobile technology to improve the health and nutritional status of children and adults across the developing world. The objective of mNutrition in mAgri is to create and scale commercially sustainable mobile services enabling smallholder farmers to improve their nutrition, yields and incomes. The product to be delivered and evaluated is Ghana’s Vodafone Farmer Club. The service is a bundled solution offering agricultural and nutrition information in addition to voice and SMS services. The primary research questions are 1) What is the impact of the Farmer club product on agriculture income, agriculture production, and household and women’s dietary diversity (primary outcomes)?; 2) What is the impact of the Farmer club product on behaviors, knowledge, and practices (secondary outcomes); 3) What are the impacts of targeting women on primary and secondary outcomes?; 4) What is the demand for the Farmer Club product and can framing and targeting affect household’s willingness to pay?
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Gilligan, Dan and Melissa Hidrobo. 2018. "External Evaluation of Mobile Phone Technology Based Nutrition Advisory Services (mNutrition): Farmer Club service in Ghana." AEA RCT Registry. May 01. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1991-1.0
Former Citation
Gilligan, Dan and Melissa Hidrobo. 2018. "External Evaluation of Mobile Phone Technology Based Nutrition Advisory Services (mNutrition): Farmer Club service in Ghana." AEA RCT Registry. May 01. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1991/history/28994
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The objective of mNutrition in mAgri is to create and scale commercially sustainable mobile services enabling smallholder farmers to improve their nutrition, yields and incomes. The product to be evaluated is Ghana’s Vodafone Farmer Club. The Vodafone Farmers’ Club (VFC) service is a mobile agricultural extension service, offering agricultural and nutrition information in addition to voice and SMS services.
Intervention Start Date
2017-03-08
Intervention End Date
2018-10-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
agriculture income, agriculture yield, and household and women’s dietary diversity
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
2-stage randomized encouragement design. The first stage assigns enumeration areas to either the comparison group or encouraged group. The second stage assigns households in the encouraged group to either receive a default agriculture marketing script or an agriculture + nutrition marketing script and randomly targets either a male or female household member.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization was done in the office by a computer.
Randomization Unit
1st stage: Enumeration areas
2nd stage: Households
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
207
Sample size: planned number of observations
3933 households
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1976 households (104 clusters) in the encouraged arm
1957 households (103 clusters) in the comparison arm
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Ghana Ethics Committee for the Humanities
IRB Approval Date
2016-10-10
IRB Approval Number
013/15-16
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