Heterogeneous quality of agricultural commercial inputs and learning through experimentation

该提案旨在回答我们的合作伙伴和政策制定者非常感兴趣的关于采用小农户技术的三个研究问题，目的是提高非洲的农业生产率。首先，投入的异质性和隐蔽性是技术采用的障碍吗？如果是这样的话，这将导致建议采取干预措施，通过法规或通过传播信息来引导农民获得正确的投入。第二，关于农场试验中农业研究的新技术回报的估计，是否为现实生活条件下对投入的反应提供了有偏见的估计？如果是这样，这种偏见的最重要来源是什么？如何设计试验以避免它们？因此，这项研究旨在加强农学和发展经济学工作之间的桥梁。第三，关于新的农业技术，边做边学和向他人学习是否因土壤、技能和性别而有所不同？这种异质性是否为设计更具包容性的扩展模型以及自己的实验在此类模型中的作用提供了有用的经验教训？为了回答这些问题，我们提出了两个随机对照试验(RCT)。第一个“研究试验RCT”将允许随机选择的村庄的农民参加研究所农学家进行的农场试验，以测试不同质量的投入。第二，在“技术传播RCT”中，将在随机选择的村庄培训驻村顾问，以促进在研究试验中确定的最佳投入。对于每个随机对照试验，我们将收集几轮面板数据来研究动态采用过程。这将与来自土壤样本的信息以及关于农民认知、非认知和技术技能的详细信息相辅相成。这项研究是与IITA的科学家在一系列会议和实地考察中联合设计的，利用了农学家和经济学家的专业知识。PSE和IITA之间合作的一个具体目标是，通过在研究的所有不同步骤中进行实践合作，为IITA的社会科学家在严格的影响评估方法方面进行能力建设。这项研究将为我们在IITA的合作伙伴，以及更广泛地向对非洲农业生产力感兴趣的政策制定者和利益攸关方提供关于如何解决投入质量不同问题的指导方针。它还将旨在为CGIAR内外的科学家未来的研究提供指导，并为经济学家和其他社会科学研究撒哈拉以南非洲低采用率之谜提供关键见解。因此，我们将在整个项目中积极与不同的利益相关者接触，并致力于在高质量的同行评议的学术期刊上发表结果。该提案涉及征求提案主题1“农业与增长”中强调的一些关键问题。它还与主题3“低收入国家的创新和生产力增长”有关。

This proposal aims to answer three research questions regarding small holder technology adoption of great interest to our partners and to the policy makers aiming for higher agricultural productivity in Africa. First is the heterogeneous and hidden quality of inputs a barrier to technology adoption? If so, this would lead to the recommendation of interventions that guide the farmers toward the right inputs, through regulations or through the diffusion of information. Second, do estimates regarding returns to new technologies coming from agricultural research in on-farm trials provide biased estimates for the response to inputs in real life conditions? If so, what are the most important sources of such bias, and how can trials be designed to avoid them? The study hence aims to reinforce the bridge between agronomic and development economics work. Third, does learning-by-doing and learning-from-others regarding new agricultural technologies differ depending on soils, skills and gender? And does this heterogeneity provide useful lessons for the design of more inclusive extension models and on the role of own experimentation in such models? To answer these questions we propose two Randomized Control Trials (RCT). The first "research trial RCT" will allow the farmers in the randomly selected villages to participate to the on-farm trials carried out by the agronomists of IITA in order to test inputs of different quality. Second, in the "technology dissemination RCT" village based advisors will be trained in randomly selected villages to promote the best inputs identified in the research trials. For each RCT we will collect several rounds of panel data to study the dynamic adoption processes. This will be complemented with information from soils sample and with detailed information on farmers' cognitive, non-cognitive and technical skills. The study has been jointly designed with IITA scientists during a series of meetings and field trips, drawing on the expertise of agronomists and economists. A specific objective of the collaboration between PSE and IITA is capacity building for IITA social scientists in rigorous impact evaluation methods, through hands-on collaboration in all the different steps of the research.The research will provide guidelines on how to address the issue of heterogeneous input quality to our partners at IITA, and more broadly to policy makers and stakeholders interested agricultural productivity in Africa. It will also aim to provide guidelines for future research by scientists within and beyond the CGIAR, and provide key insights to economists and other social sciences studying the puzzle of low adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa. We will therefore actively engage with different stakeholders throughout the project, and aim to publish the results in high quality peer reviewed academic journals. This proposal addresses a number of key issues highlighted under the call for proposals' Theme 1 "Agriculture and Growth". It is also of relevance to Theme 3 "Innovation and productivity growth in Low -Income Countries".