DDRIE: Farm to Fridge: Traceability and Quality Incentivizing in a Dairy Chain

DDRIE：从农场到冰箱：乳品链中的可追溯性和质量激励

• 批准号: 2242369
• 负责人: Jonathan Robinson
• 金额: $ 2.5万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Cruz
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-07-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2242369&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DDRIE; Farm; Fridge; Traceability; Quality

Improving the quality of agricultural products is an important step in the process of structural transformation---moving farmers from subsistence farming to modern commercial agriculture. Disorganized agriculture value chains prevent the transmission of quality incentives to farmers in the supply chain, especially when quality is unobserved at the farm gate. Without an effective traceability system along the value chain, farmers will not be rewarded for producing high-quality products. This project will support low-income farmers to develop more accountable food supply chains by establishing a sustainable traceability and quality-based payment system in dairy farming. This system helps to improve products’ quality, increase farmers’ profit, and improve consumers’ welfare, which has the potential to be scaled up to not only many other dairy cooperatives, but also other agricultural commodities. This research would help the U.S. target its aid policies in agricultural value chains in developing countries more effectively with a better understanding of these emerging markets. The results of this research could improve agricultural product quality and increase the incomes of small-scale farmers as well as improve the health of consumers. This project will use a randomized controlled trial (RCT) at the collection center level within dairy cooperatives to evaluate the effect of establishing a milk quality traceability system, supplemented with a quality-based payment on milk quality, and farmers’ investment in quality upgrading. The experiment has two arms. First, the project implements a traceability system to track the flow of milk delivery throughout the value chain among randomly selected collection centers. Milk tests at different levels based on the traceability system will be conducted to determine farmers’ eligibility for quality subsidies. Second, this project randomizes the subsidy to be paid to eligible farmers as well as vary the range of subsidies to be given to farmers. This experimental design allows the PIs to identify the causal effects of traceability systems and quality-based payment on milk quality and farmers’ investment in quality upgrading. The design can be adapted to study other markets and the results could provide economists with a better understanding of product quality upgrading, and important contribution to the development economics literature. The data collected for the project will be made available to future researchers. The results of this research could improve agricultural product quality and increase the incomes of small-scale farmers as well as improve the health of consumers. The results will also inform US policies on quality upgrading in agricultural value chains as well as guide the formulation of US aid policies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

提高农产品质量是结构转型过程中的重要一步-使农民从自给自足的农业转向现代商业农业。杂乱无章的农业价值链阻碍了向供应链中的农民传递质量激励，特别是在农场门口没有发现质量的情况下。如果价值链上没有有效的追溯体系，农民生产优质产品就得不到回报。该项目将通过在奶牛场建立可持续的可追溯性和基于质量的支付系统，支持低收入农民发展更负责任的食品供应链。这一制度有助于提高产品质量，增加农民利润，改善消费者福利，不仅有可能推广到其他许多乳制品合作社，而且还有可能推广到其他农产品。这项研究将有助于美国更有效地将其援助政策定位于发展中国家的农业价值链，并更好地了解这些新兴市场。本研究成果对提高农产品质量、增加小农收入、增进消费者健康具有重要意义。该项目将在乳品合作社内部的收集中心层面使用随机对照试验(RCT)来评估建立牛奶质量可追溯系统的效果，并辅之以基于质量的牛奶质量付款，以及农民在质量升级方面的投资。这个实验有两只胳膊。首先，该项目实施了一个可追溯系统，在随机选择的收集中心之间跟踪整个价值链上的牛奶输送流动。将基于可追溯系统进行不同级别的牛奶检测，以确定农民是否有资格获得质量补贴。其次，该项目将支付给符合条件的农民的补贴随机化，并改变给予农民的补贴范围。这一实验设计使PIs能够确定可追溯系统和基于质量的付款对牛奶质量和农民在质量升级方面的投资的因果影响。该设计可以适用于其他市场的研究，其结果可以为经济学家更好地理解产品质量升级提供帮助，并对发展经济学文献做出重要贡献。为该项目收集的数据将提供给未来的研究人员。本研究成果对提高农产品质量、增加小农收入、增进消费者健康具有重要意义。该结果还将为美国农业价值链中的质量升级政策提供信息，并指导美国援助政策的制定。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。