Role of Text Messages in Nudging Farmers to use Credible Information Sources for Farming decisions.

Last registered on October 14, 2020
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Role of Text Messages in Nudging Farmers to use Credible Information Sources for Farming decisions.
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005690
Initial registration date
April 15, 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
April 17, 2020, 1:01 PM EDT

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

Last updated
October 14, 2020, 7:05 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
India
Region
Andhra Pradesh

Primary Investigator

Name
Reddy Sai Shiva Jayanth
Affiliation
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Sthanu R Nair
PI Affiliation
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-12-10
End date
2021-07-31
Keywords
Agriculture
Additional Keywords
Smartphones, ICT, Technology adoption, Text messages, Randomized control trial
JEL code(s)
Q160, Q130, Q120
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The role of information is very evident and spans all the steps of decision making as depicted above. One of the key factors that compromise optimal decision making of farmers is the lack of credible information (Aker, 2011a; Fafchamps & Minten, 2012b; Jensen, 2007). It is often argued that the govt. organized extension programs suffer from poor planning, formulation, and execution (Ali & Kumar, 2011; Glendenning & Ficarelli, 2012). They fail to respond to the needs of the community, further their reach is very minimal (Glendenning et al., 2010). As an alternative, the role of ICT’s as a medium and source of information dissemination is slowly gaining popularity all over the world (Ali & Kumar, 2011; Beaman et al., 2014; Rao, 2007). We propose to use the intervention of text reminders in our study to nudge the farmer into using a mobile phone application. We hypothesize that this nudge would lead to a shift from using less credible sources of information to more credible sources of information thereby enhancing the decision-making capabilities of the farmer.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
R Nair, Sthanu and Reddy Sai Shiva Jayanth. 2020. "Role of Text Messages in Nudging Farmers to use Credible Information Sources for Farming decisions.." AEA RCT Registry. October 14. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5690-1.1
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2021-01-01
Intervention End Date
2021-06-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1. Usage of MPA
2. Choice of information sources
3. Decision-making capabilities of the farmer
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We would firstly introduce a mobile phone application to all the (treatment as well as control) farmers. Once the mobile phone application is introduced, we randomly assign half of the farmers to the treatment group (and another half into control group) and start sending them frequent text reminders nudging them to use the MPA
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
In our study, we plan to use multi stage random sampling randomisation (two stage). In this method, we first obtain multiple blocks/clusters using randomisation and then at second level we select subjects within each block at random to be part of experiment.
Randomization Unit
Farmer level
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
10 villages
Sample size: planned number of observations
1100 farmers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
110 farmers per village
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2020-04-15
IRB Approval Number
IRB/01/25012020
Analysis Plan

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