One Size Fits All? Experimental Evidence on the Digital Delivery of Personalized Extension Advice in Nigeria

Arouna, Aminou; Michler, Jeffrey D.; Yergo, Wilfried Gnipabo; Saito, Kazuki

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3593878

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This paper presents evidence indicating that customized shock-specific recommendations could improve crop productivity relative to existing generic recommendations [18,19]. Our result is consistent with recent evaluations suggesting that personalized, localized advice is far more effective than blanket recommendations [13,14]. We differ from these studies that focus on digital advisory services provided via extension agents in the field, while our evaluation utilizes hotline phone services.…”

Section: Plos Onesupporting

confidence: 83%

“…Our study contributes to the evolving literature on the impact of digital advisory services in agriculture in two ways. First, we present new evidence on improving the delivery of agricultural extension services in developing countries [12][13][14]. In existing experimental studies, the provision of agricultural advisory services is still heavily supply-driven [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, we present new evidence on improving the delivery of agricultural extension services in developing countries [12][13][14]. In existing experimental studies, the provision of agricultural advisory services is still heavily supply-driven [13]. However, observational studies have shown that the demand for extension services may not be high [15,16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Harnessing digital technology to improve agricultural productivity?

Subramanian

2021

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Can improving access to mobile extension improve agricultural productivity? Recent evidence suggests both significant and insignificant ways in which SMS-based agricultural information could affect farming outcomes. It is unclear if variations in the programs’ design or the methodological challenges in evaluating the programs cause wide-ranging impacts. Extension hotline services provide rapid, unambiguous information by agricultural experts over the phone, tailored to time- and crop-specific shocks. Using methods from experimental economics, we randomly distributed the hotline number to generate exogenous variation in the access to farming information. We conducted our study among 300 farmers in the South Indian state of Karnataka. Our results show that eliminating informational inefficiencies increases farmers’ average yields for a high-stakes pigeon pea crop that faced adverse aggregate shock. The impact on the yield is through the adoption of cost-effective and improved farming practices. However, we do not observe any effect on the crops that were not affected by the shock. Our findings reveal that advisory recommendations customized to time- and crop-specific shocks are associated with a greater impact on agricultural productivity.

show abstract

Section: Plos Onesupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Harnessing digital technology to improve agricultural productivity?

Subramanian

2021

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Therefore, the use of inorganic fertilizer based on blanket recommendations throughout the CARD period hinders the achievement of the expected yield gain. However, new applications such as RiceAdvice or Crop Manager that can deliver target recommendations are increasingly available and are expected to increase the efficiency of inorganic fertilizer ( Arouna et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving toward rice self-sufficiency in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030: Lessons learned from 10 years of the Coalition for African Rice Development

Arouna

Fatognon

Saito

et al. 2021

World Development Perspectives

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Highlights Contribution of the CARD policy to rice production in sub-Saharan Africa. Forecasts local rice supply and demand by 2030. Significant impact of the CARD policy was found on local production. Yield growth rate was not sustainable in most countries throughout the CARD period. Demand-pull factors development should be prioritized over the supply-shift actions.

show abstract

“…Algorithms for P and K were improved ( Buresh et al, 2010 ). Advances in information technology and mobile communications made it possible to generate tailored recommendations by using web- and smartphone-based apps such as Nutrient Expert ( Pampolino et al, 2012 ; Xu et al, 2017a ), Rice Crop Manager ( Buresh et al, 2019 ; Sharma et al, 2019 ), and RiceAdvice ( Arouna et al, 2021 ; Zossou et al, 2021 ). These tools were aimed at breaking the pervasive information and service asymmetry that is common in smallholder farming systems in the developing world, where there is a very low extension-to-farmer ratio, and where professional agricultural services such as soil testing are either not available, not affordable or not reliable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Co-benefits of nutrient management tailored to smallholder agriculture

Chivenge

Saito

Bunquin

et al. 2021

Global Food Security

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Plant nutrition plays a central role in the global challenges to produce sufficient and nutritious food, lessen rural poverty, and reducing the environmental footprint of farming. Site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) provides field-specific solutions for smallholder farmers, potentially creating co-benefits of increased productivity and sustainability. Here we perform the first meta-analysis comparing SSNM with farmers’ fertilizer practice for maize, rice and wheat using 61 published papers across 11 countries. Relative to the farmer practice, across all crops SSNM increased grain yield by 12% and profitability by 15% with 10% less fertilizer nitrogen applied, thereby improving nitrogen use efficiency and reducing nitrogen pollution to the environment. Delivering it to millions of smallholder farmers requires use of digital decision support tools, but also policy incentives, links with financial and input supply services, and enhancing public-private partnerships.

show abstract

One Size Fits All? Experimental Evidence on the Digital Delivery of Personalized Extension Advice in Nigeria

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Harnessing digital technology to improve agricultural productivity?

Harnessing digital technology to improve agricultural productivity?

Moving toward rice self-sufficiency in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030: Lessons learned from 10 years of the Coalition for African Rice Development

Co-benefits of nutrient management tailored to smallholder agriculture

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About