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Field
Abstract
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Before
With the advent of mobile phones and the internet in India, channels of information exchange have widened more than ever before. A by-product of this development has been the expansion of the ‘digital agriculture’ movement in various directions, one of them being smartphone agriculture. In this paper, I study the effects of farmer-Whatsapp groups on smartphone agriculture adoption rates. More specifically, by collecting data from a unique field experiment spanning 100 Indian villages, I test whether long-distant (online) connections lead to better diffusion and adoption of new agricultural technology by bridging farmers from disparate parts of a region. I randomly assign villages to two treatment interventions. In the first arm, I connect farmers on across-village moderated Whatsapp groups to facilitate online information sharing of farming practices. In the second arm, along with such Whatsapp groups we also simulate in-person connections by making the Whatsapp group participants meet physically to discuss several farming related topics over lunch. I then measure the differential effects of online farmer-interactions in these two types of groups. By facilitating online discussions on digital agriculture technology, and its benefits and challenges, I expect to see an increase in awareness and adoption rates of smartphone agriculture in both treatment groups. For villages with unfavorable baseline beliefs about smartphone agriculture, the treatment with both Whatsapp groups and in-person meetings is expected to have a greater effect on smartphone agriculture adoption rates than the only Whatsapp group treatment.
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After
With increasing internet accessibility in India, channels of information exchange have widened more than ever before. A by-product of this development has been an increase in the rural uptake of smartphones for various purposes, including agriculture. In this paper, I study the effects of exogenously created farmer-Whatsapp groups on agriculture outcomes, including yields, costs and response to weather and pest shocks. I also measure the effect of online interactions on farmer beliefs of willingness to exchange information with other farmers in-person versus over the phone. More specifically, by collecting data from a unique field experiment spanning 108 Indian villages, I test whether long-distant (online) connections lead to better diffusion of information and adoption of new agricultural technology by connecting farmers across space on several online groups. Due to the endogeneity of within-village networks, I randomize treatment at the village level, into two treatment interventions. In the first arm, farmers from non-neighboring villages are connected on twelve moderated Whatsapp groups (one group per 3 villages) to facilitate online information sharing of farming practices. In the second arm, along with the Whatsapp groups I also simulate in-person connections by inviting the Whatsapp group participants meet physically to discuss several farming related topics over lunch, and attend a poster-presentation. I then measure the differential effects of online farmer-interactions in these two types of groups. In addition, I track individual Whatsapp chat participation rates to test whether in-person interactions substitute or complement the online interactions. By facilitating online discussions on topics that are important to local farmers, I expect to see better agricultural outcomes for treated farmers. Preliminary analysis indicates that the mechanism through which this may happen is increasing willingness to exchange agriculture information with unknown farmers for treated groups.
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