Researchers evaluated the impact of two light-touch interventions (an orientation video for families, and a guided conversation between women and their families) on gender norms related to women’s work and increase labor force participation. Researchers did not find meaningful changes in support of women’s work nor in rates of employment among women that received these interventions.

Researchers conducted three randomized evaluations to measure the degree of competition among wholesale maize traders, understand the implications for social welfare, and test whether new traders could make a market more competitive. Researchers found that traders did not pass through much of a randomly administered cost reduction by lowering prices to consumers and, instead, colluded with other traders to maximize their profits.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test how informal insurance within Indian sub-castes affected the demand for formal rainfall insurance, and subsequent risk-taking among households employed in agriculture. Informal insurance both increased and decreased the demand for formal rainfall insurance, depending on the extent to which informal and formal insurance covered individual losses.

In this evaluation, researchers seek to understand if a purely psychological savings product, which encourages customers to earmark account funds for a specific financial goal, increases savings rates. Preliminary results found that customers with a labeled Susu savings account have more total deposits than comparison customers.

Researchers are investigating how important these differences are when it comes to increasing the use of irrigation pumps in western Kenya, and whether subsidies for experimentation can be targeted based on certain skills or traits to more effectively increase technology adoption.

Researchers are using Western Seed Company's expansion into new areas to evaluate the socio-economic effects of the hybrid maize program in Western and Central Kenya.

The researcher conducted a randomized evaluation in rural Tanzania to determine the impact of an SMS-based messaging app that connects agricultural workers and employers on wages. He found that the SMS-based messaging app reduced wage spread within villages–meaning employers paid a wage closer to the average wage.

In India, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to test how the provision of rainfall index insurance affected farmer production decisions, focusing on the decision to grow cash crops. They found that providing insurance led farmers to shift production towards higher-risk, higher-return cash crops.

Researchers randomly provided free fertilizer to women rice farmers in southern Mali to measure how farmers chose to use the fertilizer, what changes they made to their agricultural practices, and the profitability of these changes. The fertilizer grants led to increased fertilizer use, use of complementary inputs such as herbicides and hired labor, and yields, yet did not lead to substantial increase in profit.

This study in Western Kenya will test for failures in the market for local agricultural information and measure the impact of disseminating local information on farmers’ decisions to invest in agricultural inputs.

Researchers partnered with CGIAR’s International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to evaluate the impact of a flood-resistant rice variety on fertilizer use and crop yield in India. During floods, the flood tolerant seeds had a clear advantage over the traditional seeds. In non-flooded areas, there was no significant difference in yields between flood-resistant and traditional seeds, suggesting that there was no yield penalty in non-flood years to farmers who switched to the new seed technology.

In Ethiopia, researchers conducted a randomized evaluation to assess the impact of behavioral nudges on household behaviors, like grain and flour storage, cooking, and consumption, as well as on childhood nutrition. They found that households improved grain storage and cooking practices, and children in those households ate more of the improved maize.

Researchers evaluated a program in Pakistan that provided farmers with information on veterinarians’ AI success rates and average prices. This led to more successful inseminations at lower prices.

Researchers are evaluating the effect of farmer training program that highlights a balanced approach combining chemical fertilizers with labor-intensive agricultural practices on cowpea farmers' yields in Burkina Faso.

Researchers conducted a randomized evaluation in Mali to study the role of giving information to different people within a network in the spread of that information. People who were social and more closely connected to those who were trained had more information. Female farmers were less likely to receive information, indicating that disseminating information through social networks may reinforce existing gender inequalities.