A kitchen-garden based intervention to improve nutritional outcomes of children in rural areas

Last registered on January 07, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
A kitchen-garden based intervention to improve nutritional outcomes of children in rural areas
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0008761
Initial registration date
January 07, 2022

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
January 07, 2022, 10:52 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
India
Region
Uttar Pradesh

Primary Investigator

Name
Debayan Pakrashi
Affiliation
Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Debayan Pakrashi
PI Affiliation
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Chitwan Lalji
PI Affiliation
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Sounak Thakur
PI Affiliation
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2021-09-01
End date
2024-12-31
Keywords
Agriculture, Behavior, Gender, Health, Welfare
Additional Keywords
food and nutrition security, malnutrition, health, wellbeing
JEL code(s)
I12, I30, O13, O15, Q18
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Severe malnutrition, especially amongst children, is a persistent problem in India. Using a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) design, we propose to measure the efficacy of a kitchen garden based intervention in addressing the problem. We propose to train and incentivize
women in rural households to raise a small kitchen garden. If found effective, this intervention can easily be scaled up for implementation as a policy to improve nutritional outcomes, particularly in the event of an adverse shock to income.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Lalji, Chitwan et al. 2022. "A kitchen-garden based intervention to improve nutritional outcomes of children in rural areas." AEA RCT Registry. January 07. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8761-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
In this project, we will study the effect of an intervention designed to address the issue of severe malnutrition and food insecurity in rural India. The proposed intervention consists of nudging rural households in Uttar Pradesh to raise a nutri-garden (or kitchen garden) in their backyards.
Intervention (Hidden)
In this project, we will study the effect of an intervention designed to address the issue of severe malnutrition and food insecurity in rural India. The proposed intervention consists of nudging rural households in Uttar Pradesh to raise a nutri-garden (or kitchen garden) in their backyards. There will be three treatment and control arms in total (two treatments and one control), while the first treatment will be just the training, the second treatment will be a training component along with a conditional cash transfer, conditional upon raising a kitchen garden post intervention. The control arm will receive no such intervention.

Villages will be randomly assigned to one of the two treatment arms or the control. An eligible woman from each treated household will be the recipient of all training and cash transfers, if any. The eligibility criteria that we will use will be (1) married women aged 18-49;
(2) with atleast one child aged 0-10 years; (3) willing to participate in the proposed program and (4) has a small plot of land for kitchen garden in the premises of the house.
Intervention Start Date
2021-12-01
Intervention End Date
2022-03-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
indicator to capture awareness and adoption of kitchen garden, and then indicators for health and nutrition of mothers as well as children captured via incidence of malnutrition, dietary diversity, food and nutrition security.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
life satisfaction, happiness, physical and psychological wellbeing, anthropometric indicators and other behavioral changes captured via lab-in-the-field games.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The study has three arms: the first two arms will be treatment arms (awareness/training only and awareness/training along with conditional cash transfer) while the third arm will be the control arm.

The intervention will follow a baseline survey and will be followed by the adoption verification and the endline survey.
Experimental Design Details
There will be three arms of the study. The first two arms will receive Treatment 1 and Treatment 2 respectively. The third will make up the pure control group. Assignment to an arm of the study will be random

1. Treatment 1: Awareness only
2. Treatment 2: Awareness + Conditional cash Transfer
3. Control only. Households assigned to the control will not receive any intervention.
Randomization Method
Randomization will be done using STATA on a computer
Randomization Unit
At the village level.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
90 villages
Sample size: planned number of observations
About 1800 women.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
About 30 villages and 600 women per treatment/control arm.
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 Technology Kanpur
IRB Approval Date
2021-09-02
IRB Approval Number
IITK/IEC/2021-22/I/12
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