Farmer soils information for decision making

Last registered on February 18, 2020

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Farmer soils information for decision making

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0005470

Initial registration date

February 18, 2020

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 18, 2020, 2:22 PM EST

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

Locations

Country

Tanzania, United Republic of

Region

Morogoro

Primary Investigator

Name

Aurelie Harou

Affiliation

McGill University

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Cheryl Palm

PI Affiliation

University of Florida

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PI Name

Malgosia Madajewicz

PI Affiliation

Columbia University

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PI Name

Hope Michelson

PI Affiliation

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2014-08-01

End date

2019-09-30

Keywords

Agriculture

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

Low fertilizer use in sub-Saharan Africa contributes to low crop yields and poverty. Extension services advise the use of fertilizers but may not recommend fertilizer types that address prevailing soil deficiencies, potentially resulting in the perception that fertilizer is not profitable. This randomized control trial tests how fertilizer recommendations based on farm-level soil tests interact with the ability to finance fertilizer to influence fertilizer application and crop yields.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Harou, Aurelie et al. 2020. "Farmer soils information for decision making." AEA RCT Registry. February 18. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5470-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2015-12-01

Intervention End Date

2016-02-29

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Fertilizer use (kg/acre) (farmer reported), fertilizer purchases (kg) (agro-input dealer reported), and maize yields (kg/acre) (farmer reported).

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We test how fertilizer recommendations based on farm-level soil tests interact with the ability to finance fertilizer to influence fertilizer application and crop yields. We randomly select 50 villages in Morogoro Rural and we assign 20 randomly chosen villages to the treatment group and 30 to the control group. In each of the 20 treatment villages, we randomly select 40 farmers to participate in the study, and we assign 10 farmers randomly selected from these 40 to each of the three treatment arms and to the control group. In each of the 30 control villages, we randomly select 10 farmers. The treatment group includes 600 farmers in 20 treatment villages. The control group includes 500 farmers: 200 control farmers in treatment villages and 300 farmers in control villages. The treatments include 3 arms: plot-specific recommendations, an agricultural input voucher, plot-specific recommendations and an agricultural input voucher.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by a random number generator on computer.

Randomization Unit

Farming household

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

50 villages

Sample size: planned number of observations

1,100 farming households

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Recommendation treatment: 20 villages, 200 farmers
Voucher treatment: 20 villages, 200 farmers
Recommendation and voucher treatment: 20 villages, 200 farmers
Control: 50 villages, 500 farmers

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB