Research
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Reaching out to socially distant trainees: experimental evidence from variations on the standard farmer trainer system, European Review of Agricultural Economics
with Olivia Bertelli
The farmer trainer (FT) model has gained momentum as a cost-effective alternative to traditional agricultural extension systems. However, there may be friction in the transmission of information, whereby farmers closer to the FT may benefit more than socially distant farmers. This study explores whether variations on the standard FT model facilitate the diffusion of information outside the FT’s pre-existing social network. On top of a standard FT training, a sub-sample of voluntary FTs in rural Uganda was randomly assigned to receive (i) vouchers for accessing professional extension agents, (ii) a signpost advertising the trainer services or (iii) further training aimed at tailoring the training to the specific needs of the trainees. The results show that the FTs assigned these treatment variations trained more farmers, a larger proportion of whom belonged to the FT’s own close circle. The FTs who received vouchers were the only ones to reach out to more socially distant farmers and were also those who organized the most training sessions. We show that these effects are independent of any FT prominence in the village. Nevertheless, further evidence suggests exercising caution regarding the presence of friction in the transmission of knowledge, since knowledge and technology adoption appear to increase only among farmers closely connected to the FT.
Training of farmers on udder care and milk quality in Uganda
Work in Progress
Farmers applying Aflasafe SN01 (aflatoxin biocontrol product) on groundnut crop in Senegal
Does others' health count for peanuts ? Health, pro-sociality, and market rewards
with Gashaw Abate, Tanguy Bernard & Joshua Deutschmann
(draft available upon request)
In many contexts, farmers are both producers and consumers of food, and the returns to food safety investment are impacted by the proportion that is sold, consumed, and donated within communities. We conduct an artefactual lab-in-the-field experiment in Senegal to elicit willingness to pay (WTP) for information about food safety and randomly vary the proportions by which food products are destined for consumption, sale, and donation. We first establish that farmers are willing to pay for information on food safety, even in the absence of a market reward. Farmers are willing to pay relatively more for information when it is more relevant to their health on average than the health of others, but this difference is small in magnitude relative to the average WTP. We randomize an informative video about the specific health risk in our setting. Treated farmers exhibit increased WTP in all scenarios. Our findings suggest market rewards, information, and pro-sociality may be complementary in resolving food safety challenges when decisions are interlinked
Amidst Sahel's Unrest : Malian refugees and rural households in Niger (draft available)
In recent years, the Sahel has seen a major revolution in institutional control: Mali, Sudan & Guinea in 2020, Burkina Faso in 2022, Niger in 2023. In 2012 already, the Malian government has faced political instability: violent events accompanied a coup d'état and resulted in a civil war which pushed Malian civilians to flee danger zones. As a result, Niger hosted about 50 000 thousand of Malian refugees on its ground in 2012 Niger is mainly rural and has a low rate of urbanisation (16% in 2012 when the sub-region's rate is 43%). About 76% of the working population works in agriculture . Most of the production is for self consumption. What is the impact of Malian refugees on rural households in Niger? The goal is to analyze the impact of refugees in a context of rural poverty . This study contributes to a growing yet relatively narrow field of literature: the impact of refugees on host communities.
Malian refugees growing vegetables in Niger