Accelerating technical change through ICT: Evidence from a video-mediated extension experiment in Ethiopia.

Despite enthusiasm around applications of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to smallholder agriculture in many lower-income countries, there are still many questions on the effectiveness of ICT-based approaches. This study assesses the impacts of video-mediated agricultural extension service provision on farmers' adoption of improved agricultural technologies and practices in Ethiopia using data from a two-year randomized experiment. Our results show that the video-mediated extension approach significantly increases uptake of recommended technologies and practices by improving extension access and farmer knowledge.

Drought-tolerant rice, weather index insurance, and comprehensive risk management for smallholders: evidence from a multi-year field experiment in India.

In rainfed production systems throughout India, agricultural activities are dependent upon the summer monsoon, and any aberration in monsoon rainfall patterns can have severe consequences for rice production. There is considerable policy interest in designing programs to lower small-scale farmers' exposure to these types of risk given the regularity with which adverse monsoon events occur. This paper introduces a field experiment conducted with two risk management options in the state of Odisha: a drought-tolerant rice cultivar; and a weather index insurance product designed to complement the performance of the cultivar.

Ex ante and ex post effects of hybrid index insurance in Bangladesh.

This study assesses both the demand for and effectiveness of an index insurance product designed to help smallholder farmers in Bangladesh manage crop production risk during the monsoon season. Villages were randomized into either an insurance treatment or a comparison group, and discounts and rebates were randomly allocated across treatment villages to encourage insurance take-up and to allow for the estimation of the price-elasticity of insurance demand. Among those offered insurance, we find demand to be fairly price elastic, with discounts significantly more successful in stimulating demand than rebates.

New modalities for managing drought risk in rainfed agriculture: Evidence from a discrete choice experiment in Odisha, India.

Droughts have historically had large impacts on agricultural production in rainfed agricultural systems. Scientists and policymakers have proposed various strategies for managing risks, with limited success. In this study we consider two such strategies, specifically drought tolerant rice and weather index insurance.