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Impact evaluation
grant summary
An impact evaluation of EAMDA's banana initiative to increase
technology adoption by smallholder farmers in Kenya
Programme overview
Approximately 67 per cent of Kenya’s total population and
80 per cent of its poor live in rural areas and are dependent
on agriculture for their livelihoods. While poverty reduction
is a multifaceted challenge, adoption of modern technology
can play an important role in enhancing productivity and
stemming diminishing returns to agriculture.
About the grant
Grant-holding organisation: University
of Sydney, Australia
Lead principal investigator: Shyamal
Chowdhury
([email protected])
Award: $723,260
The East Africa Market Development Associates (EAMDA),
in partnership with the Banana Growers Association of Kenya, is taking concrete steps to solve the
problems faced by smallholder banana farmers. There are approximately 270,000 of them, of which
approximately 50 per cent are women. To enhance the capacity of farmers and farmer organisations (FOs),
EAMDA, funded by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, will train farmers and FOs in land
preparation and planting, seed selection, weed control,
harvesting, grading, post-harvest handling and record
Primary evaluation questions
keeping.
1. Do information and training of
Barriers to learning and ability to fetch a good price for
smallholder farmers lead to
produce are often constraints to technology adoption. By
technology adoption? Is goal
setting important?
disseminating information and providing inputs, marketing
2.
What
are the impacts of training
services and training, farmers may be more willing to adopt
and
goal
setting on agricultural
profitable technologies to increase yield.
productivity, improving living
standards and income?
Impact evaluation overview
3. What roles do social connections
This impact evaluation is funded as part of 3ie's Agricultural
and social learning play in
Innovation Thematic Window. 3ie conducted a scoping
technology adoption and diffusion?
4. What is the spillover effect of
exercise that identified existing evidence and where there
EAMDA’s interventions on
are gaps in the evidence base. The analysis and
non-participants?
consultations during the exercise identified the need for
more evidence on the effectiveness of interventions in four
areas: (1) interventions that promote communicating effectively with farmers; (2) ones that promote
adopting more productive technologies; (3) ones creating markets, and (4) ones strengthening value
chains. All funded studies in this thematic window focus on programmes in at least one of these four areas
and address one or more associated priority questions, of which this study will address two:
•
•
How should information be packaged and delivered to improve farmer decisions and uptake of improved
seeds, better soil-management practices and technologies?
What are the cost-effective mechanisms to incentivise smallholder farmers to adopt improved seeds,
and better practices and technologies?
The impact evaluation will test the effectiveness of EAMDA’s programme to build a competitive banana
industry in Kirinyaga County, by increasing the rate of adopting new technologies. It will also evaluate its
impact on agricultural productivity and farmers’ income. Drawing on lessons from behavioural research, the
study will also test the extent to which goal setting may affect adoption. The study will inform policymakers
about how farmers and FOs can adopt modern technologies and effectively manage their operations.
Methodology and identification strategy
The evaluation uses a multi-arm randomised study involving two cross-cutting sets of treatment groups:
(1) farmers receive training; and (2) the same training is followed by a goal-setting exercise.
Randomisation will take place at both the group and individual levels.
Clusters of 90 villages in the Kirinyaga County in central Kenya that are part of the sample will be
randomly assigned into five groups of villages (including the control group) depending on the percentage
of farmers included in the study: (1) only 20 per cent of the eligible farmers included; (2) 40 per cent of
eligible farmers included; (3) 60 per cent of eligible farmers included; (4) all eligible farmers are included
in the treatment; and (5) the control group will include villages where no eligible farmer is included for
training. There will be 15 villages in each group in the first four groups, and 30 villages in the control
group. In the second stage, randomisation will be at the individual farmer level.
Qualitative methods will help explain the interplay of constraints within the socio-economic power structure
of the region and across communities with different levels of market access. A thorough understanding of
this interplay will facilitate the interpretation of results and its application to other contexts.
Heterogeneity analysis
Timeline
It is expected that the impact of the intervention will vary at the
household level based on the education level of the household
head, their sex and prior experience with growing bananas.
The study will also estimate the variance in impacts derived
from these household-specific characteristics.
Start: September 2015
Baseline report: November 2016
Draft final report: August 2017
End: January 2018
3ie is a member-based, international non-governmental organisation promoting evidence-informed
development policies and programmes through high-quality and policy-relevant evidence. One of the ways
that 3ie realises this commitment is by supporting and quality assuring impact evaluations, systematic
reviews and replication studies of development interventions in low- and middle-income countries in
high-priority sectors. 3ie is the global leader in funding and producing evidence on what works, for whom,
why and at what cost. We believe that better evidence will help make development more effective in
improving poor people’s lives.
3ie’s Agricultural Innovation Thematic Window is supported by the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa,
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and UK aid.
www.3ieimpact.org
For more information and updates, please email [email protected]
@3ieNews
TW4.1027
August 2016
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