Agriculture
Three-quarters of the world’s poor live in rural areas, and many depend directly or indirectly on agriculture. Agricultural technologies have the potential to improve their lives through higher yields, better prices, lower risk, and improved nutrition. But take-up of these technologies—from improved seeds to financial products like microinsurance—is low.
J-PAL affiliates are conducting rigorous research to test new ways to promote take-up, boost farmers’ profits, manage the risks inherent to agriculture, and better link farmers to markets.
In addition to supporting policymakers in applying evidence from randomized evaluations to their work, sector chairs and staff write policy insights that synthesize general lessons emerging from the research, condense results from evaluations in policy publications and evaluation summaries, and fund new research through the Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative and the Digital Agricultural Innovations and Services Initiative.
Blog
Affiliate Spotlight: Robert Darko Osei on the intersection of agriculture, technology, and development
Robert Darko Osei is an associate professor at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research and Dean for the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Ghana. Robert also serves as co-chair of the Digital Agricultural Innovations and Services Initiative (DAISI), which funds...
Blog
Identifying and testing gender-sensitive and climate-resilient agricultural solutions: The Digital Agricultural Innovations and Services Initiative’s first round of projects
J-PAL and the Center for Effective Global Action’s (CEGA) Digital Agricultural Innovations and Services Initiative (DAISI) was launched in 2021 to rigorously evaluate programs that increase the availability, quality, and reach of bundled, digital agricultural solutions and services for small-scale...
Blog
Agricultural productivity and labor: Evidence and open questions for researchers
This blog offers insights and proposes questions on how farmers in Kenya can best utilize household and hired labor, in addition to agricultural technologies.
Blog
Affiliate Spotlight: Tavneet Suri on the importance of locally-grounded research
A weak internet connection did not stop J-PAL Africa Scientific Director Tavneet Suri from getting her point across in our interview: Good research is done with an ear to the ground and a connection to the community. Calling in from her home country of Kenya, Tavneet emphasized how important it is...
Policy insight
Incentivizing higher-quality agricultural outputs
Despite making investments in technologies and practices to improve the quality of their products, smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries do not often receive higher prices for their higher-quality agricultural goods. Disorganized markets with many intermediaries may make quality...
Case study
Phone-based technology for agricultural information delivery
In this Evidence to Policy case study, see how Precision Development leveraged findings from two randomized evaluations to create and diffuse a new mobile-phone based model for agricultural extension.
