Impact of innovative model of agricultural extension on agricultural performance and food security of households in Benin: a Randomized Control Trial approach

Last registered on June 23, 2018

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Impact of innovative model of agricultural extension on agricultural performance and food security of households in Benin: a Randomized Control Trial approach
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002552
Initial registration date
November 02, 2017

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
November 04, 2017, 10:13 AM EDT

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

Last updated
June 23, 2018, 12:38 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Centre d'Expertise en Evaluation du Développement

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Ministry of Agriculture - Benin
PI Affiliation
African School of Economics
PI Affiliation
International Institute of Social Studies

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2017-07-20
End date
2018-04-30
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This study is a randomized control trial to evaluate the impact of the project titled “Project for Support to Food Production and Build Resilience in the departments of Alibori, Borgou, and Collines (PAPVIRE-ABC)” implemented by Benin Ministry of Agriculture.
Benin used to be a non-critical food security country till early 2000. However, due to severe climatic hazards which caused drought and floods with serious consequences since 2010, some parts of the country reached an alarming level of food and nutrition insecurity. As a result, household income was affected because of loss of production, precarious living conditions have increased, rural exodus and social conflicts over the use of land and transhumance corridors have been exacerbated.
In designing PAPVIRE, the overall goal is to improve food and nutrition security, as well as to help reduce poverty in the project impact area. As for the impact evaluation study, its main objective is to evaluate the impact of the innovative model of agricultural advisory as implemented by PAPVIRE, on productivity and food security of households in Benin.
From a policy perspective, the study seeks to address evidence gap regarding food security, poverty reduction, and resilience. As far as our knowledge is concerned, there is very few studies that focused on agricultural extension as a package in Benin as projects using this approach are rare . In that respect, findings from this research will assist policymakers reshape rural development policy, projects and programs to improve living conditions of the most vulnerable segments of the population.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Hodonou, Assogba et al. 2018. "Impact of innovative model of agricultural extension on agricultural performance and food security of households in Benin: a Randomized Control Trial approach." AEA RCT Registry. June 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2552-2.0
Former Citation
Hodonou, Assogba et al. 2018. "Impact of innovative model of agricultural extension on agricultural performance and food security of households in Benin: a Randomized Control Trial approach." AEA RCT Registry. June 23. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2552/history/31129
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The project that we intent to evaluate, “Project to Support Food Production and Build Resilience in departments of Alibori, Borgou, and Collines (PAPVIRE-ABC)” is designed to help come up with solution to food production’s problems we are facing in its intervention zone. In fact, Benin has faced low productivity in agriculture for decades, mainly in food production. For example, agronomic research shows that maize yield could reach seven tons per hectare, but in reality, we barely get 1.4 ton/ha (Hodonou, A, 2014; MAEP, 2014; MAEP, 2015). Also, maize varieties used in Benin are most of the time not climate smart as the production cycle may last more than 105 days. As a results, maize may not come to the end of it production cycle before drought or flood hits. Therefore, loss of production due to non-resilient variety of maize will have a negative impact on household income. Other problems faced by food producers in Benin are lack of credit to purchase high yield food crop seeds, access to market not well organized; as a result of that, it is difficult to come up with a sustainable mechanism of agricultural credit. The other crucial problems are lack of training for use of climate smart technologies in agriculture, farm management in context of climate change. Their consequences on productivity and food security are well-known.

In general, the Republic of Benin used to be a non-critical food and nutrition security situation country. In fact, the global hunger index at Benin level showed that a big effort has been made in that more than 50% reduction have been observed in the value of this index between 1990 and 2014. However, due to severe climatic hazards which cause drought and floods with serious consequences since 2010, some parts of the country have reached an alarming level of food and nutrition security. The three Departments of Alibori, Borgou and Collines, being supported by the project, are the most stricken (CFSVA, 2014). As a results, household income was affected, and precarious living conditions have increased, rural exodus and social conflicts over the use of land and transhumance corridors have been exacerbated.

According to the project documentation, “The overall goal of PAPVIRE-ABC is to help improve food and nutrition security, as well as to help reduce poverty. The specific project objective is to boost food production in the three administrative departments of Alibori, Borgou and Collines in a sustainable manner by improving productivity, building resilience to climate change, ensuring sustainable management of agriculture and natural resources, reducing gender inequalities, and increasing household incomes, particularly the income of the most vulnerable segments of the population in the project impact area.” (African development bank, 2015). The project will be implemented over a five-year-period, and comprises three components: (i) Support for rural infrastructures; (ii) Development of Agriculture Value Chains and Resilience; and (iii) Project Management. The second component “Development of Agriculture Value Chains and Resilience” is the main goal of this experimental study. This component aims to increase agricultural productivity, engender more added value, stimulate entrepreneurship among youth and women, alleviate food and nutrition insecurity, and reinforce the household resilience. It will mainly focus on the following activities: (a) improve farm productivity and technological innovations; (b) build stakeholder capacity; (c) develop agricultural value chains; (d) promote youths and women agricultural entrepreneurship and employability; and (e) support nutrition-oriented activities.

The project will directly benefit 50,000 people (40% of them will be women), including 25,445 smallholder farmers who will receive support to cultivate corn, rice and vegetables. On average, each smallholder farmers will get support for 1.5 hectares for corn, 0.5 hectare for rice, and 0.25 hectare for vegetables through an innovative model of agricultural extension.
Intervention Start Date
2017-07-20
Intervention End Date
2018-04-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
maize productivity
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Maize productivity will be measured at plot level and expressed as the average quantity of maize produced on one hectare of farm land, in kg/ha. It is a continuous variable that will be collected by the research team in research plots set up by the study team in participants’ maize farms. The system we plan to use is called in French “Méthode de carré de rendement” which can be translated as “productivity square”).

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
maize production and food security
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Maize production will be measured at household level as a continuous variable measured in Kg (kilograms) using self-reported survey approach. In that respect, participants will be asked the number of bags or bowls of maize they harvest during the production season. An actual weighing of the local measurements tools (bags and bowls) will be done and later on the team will make necessary conversion of the production from local units into kilograms.
Food insecurity will be measured using self-reported household survey data to determine the prevalence of food insecurity in percentage, in the study population.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The treatment is “innovative model of agricultural extension”, as it is a package of improved seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, technical advisory and farm management training.

First of all, all participants are provided with improved maize seeds. However, the duration of the vegetation cycle varies as a function of climatic hazards risk aversion of each village. By doing so, we account for equity and ethical problems that researchers use to face when it’s come to impact evaluation in the social science, and government implemented projects. Secondly, training on farm management, intensity of maize specific extension advice (either intensive or loose advisory), and access to fertilizers and pesticides are randomized in 60 villages (30 treated and 30 control) chosen among those selected to benefit from the project in the first round, which coincides with the first rainy season in the project implementation phase.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
The randomization was conducted using a computer based approach and the results were thereafter presented to the project participants in each of their communities (clusters) in a joint meeting attended by the project implementation staff, farmers and the agricultural development center at commune level.
Randomization Unit
we implement a clustered randomized design. In that respect, the randomization took place at village level across all 9 communes (3 communes in each of the 3 departments –Alibori, Borgou and Coollines-. So all project villages in a commune were randomly assigned to either treatment or control villages. Since within villages there could be more than 1 UD (UD = Unité de Démonstration that consists of a number of farmers called Contact Group), we then randomly select one of the UD to be in the research sample.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
60 villages were chosen among those selected to benefit from the project in the first round, which coincides with the first rainy season in the project implementation phase.
Sample size: planned number of observations
A total of 1170 farmers were included in the evaluation sample and assigned to treatment ad control group.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
30 treated village and 30 control village.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Partnership for Economic Policy
IRB Approval Date
2017-08-30
IRB Approval Number
000

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