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Field
Abstract
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Before
Access to irrigated land is a key factor in determining a household's income and its food security in rural parts of Africa. The construction of large-scale irrigation perimeters comprising networks of primary, secondary and tertiary canals and often times pumping stations is one avenue to providing access to irrigated land on a large scale. From 2009 to 2014, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) invested around 100M USD into the construction of an irrigated perimeter in the Boucle du Mouhoun region of Burkina Faso, the Di perimeter. After the original owners of the land were compensated through higher quality but smaller plots of land, MCC distributed 710 hectares of irrigated land via a public lottery, called the Di Lottery.
Five hundred and three Di Lottery winners were randomly selected among 1,528 participants. Lottery winners received leases for 710 hectares of irrigated land in the Di perimeter, training in agricultural technologies for irrigated land, and starter kits (land preparation, materials and inputs). Lottery winners are the treatment group. The 1,025 lottery participants who did not win the lottery constitute the lottery control group. In addition, there are applicants who were not admitted to the lottery because they did not meet an application score eligibility cutoff. These are a second control group for an RD design. Based on baseline data collected by a previous evaluator prior to the lottery, baseline observable characteristics of lottery winners and non-winners are balanced and have similar means.
The lottery offered plots of 2 hectares for rice or 1 hectare for polyculture, and participants disclosed their plot preferences prior to the lottery. About one-third of the households that participated in the lottery received land.
We will analyze the effect of winning the Di Lottery on agricultural practices, production, total agricultural income, overall household income and land tenure security by using the framework of a randomized control trial (RCT). Our analysis will incorporate lottery participants' plot preference, will interview members of both parts of split households, and will administer survey questions on communal land rights. We will undertake two rounds of quantitative data collection. The first round will be in October 2017. It will cover the 2017 planting season. The final round will be in 2020.
At a cost in U.S. dollars of about $39,700 (without Compact administration costs) or $45,000 (with Compact administration costs) per hectare, the benefit of winning the lottery ranks as one of the largest stakes in any RCT that we know of. For more detail, please see Ksoll et al. "Evaluation of the Burkina Faso Agriculture Development Project: Design Report." Washington, DC: Mathematica Policy Research, June 2017.
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After
Access to irrigated land is a key factor in determining a household's income and its food security in rural parts of Africa. The construction of large-scale irrigation perimeters comprising networks of primary, secondary and tertiary canals and often times pumping stations is one avenue to providing access to irrigated land on a large scale. From 2009 to 2014, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) invested around 100M USD into the construction of an irrigated perimeter in the Boucle du Mouhoun region of Burkina Faso, the Di perimeter. After the original owners of the land were compensated through higher quality but smaller plots of land, MCC distributed 710 hectares of irrigated land via a public lottery, called the Di Lottery.
Five hundred and three Di Lottery winners were randomly selected among 1,528 participants. Lottery winners received leases for 710 hectares of irrigated land in the Di perimeter, training in agricultural technologies for irrigated land, and starter kits (land preparation, materials and inputs). Lottery winners are the treatment group. The 1,025 lottery participants who did not win the lottery constitute the lottery control group. In addition, there are applicants who were not admitted to the lottery because they did not meet an application score eligibility cutoff. These are a second control group for an RD design. Based on baseline data collected by a previous evaluator prior to the lottery, baseline observable characteristics of lottery winners and non-winners are balanced and have similar means.
The lottery offered plots of 2 hectares for rice or 1 hectare for polyculture, and participants disclosed their plot preferences prior to the lottery. About one-third of the households that participated in the lottery received land.
We will analyze the effect of winning the Di Lottery on agricultural practices, production, total agricultural income, overall household income and land tenure security by using the framework of a randomized control trial (RCT). Our analysis will incorporate lottery participants' plot preference, will interview members of both parts of split households, and will administer survey questions on communal land rights. We will undertake two rounds of quantitative data collection.
first round will be in October 2017. It will cover the 2017 planting season. The final round will be in 2020.
[UPDATE SEP 2018] The interim data collection took place in the first few months of 2018.
At a cost in U.S. dollars of about $39,700 (without Compact administration costs) or $45,000 (with Compact administration costs) per hectare, the benefit of winning the lottery ranks as one of the largest stakes in any RCT that we know of. For more detail, please see
Ksoll et al. "Evaluation of the Burkina Faso Agriculture Development Project: Design Report." Washington, DC: Mathematica Policy Research, June 2017.
Ksoll et al. "Evaluation of the Burkina Faso Agriculture Development Project: Baseline Report." Washington, DC: Mathematica Policy Research, April 2018.
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