Abstract
Smallholder farmers in Africa typically only have access to blanket fertilizer recommendations which are defined over very broad areas and may not be optimal for local production conditions. The response to such recommendations has generally been poor. Using a randomized control trial in Ethiopia, we explore whether targeted extension advice leads farmers to align fertilizer usage to the recommended levels and whether this impacts productivity. We also consider whether coupling the targeted information with agricultural insurance encourages fertilizer investment. Results show that targeted recommendations closed the gap between the amount of fertilizer used and the recommended amounts and this in turn increased productivity and profits. We found no differential effect of the targeted recommendation when coupled with agricultural insurance, suggesting that the risk of crop failure is not a binding constraint to fertilizer adoption in this context, or that farmers do not consider agricultural insurance a useful risk-mitigating mechanism.
Highlights
Agricultural productivity growth is one of the main components of the structural transformation process through which developing coun tries modernize and experience productivity and welfare improvements (Timmer, 1988; Diao et al, 2010; Christiaensen et al, 2011).1 Broad-based agricultural growth, by allowing greater participation by the poor in the growth process, has better poverty-reducing character istics than growth which is concentrated in the commercial farm sector (Diao et al, 2010)
Various reasons have been proposed for explaining such low adoption rates, including: tech nologies that are ill-suited to local conditions (Emerick et al, 2016); lack of information and difficulties in learning (Ashraf et al, 2009; Hanna et al, 2014); absence of formal insurance (Karlan et al, 2014); liquidity
We examine the impact of providing site-specific agronomic information (SSI) to smallholder farmers on fertilizer usage, farm productivity, profits from maize production, and household welfare using a two-level cluster randomized control trial
Summary
Agricultural productivity growth is one of the main components of the structural transformation process through which developing coun tries modernize and experience productivity and welfare improvements (Timmer, 1988; Diao et al, 2010; Christiaensen et al, 2011). Broad-based agricultural growth, by allowing greater participation by the poor in the growth process, has better poverty-reducing character istics than growth which is concentrated in the commercial farm sector (Diao et al, 2010). ☆ We are grateful for comments from Andrew Foster, Dean Karlan, Edward Ted Miguel, EASST impact evaluation summit participants, and two anonymous re viewers
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
