Browsing by Author "Weil, Ray"

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    Increasing maize yields with soil testing and subsides in Tanzania
    (FEED THE FUTURE, 2020-09) Harou, Aurélie P; Madajewicz, Malgosia; Michelson, Hope; Palm, Cheryl A; Amuri, Nyambilila A; Magomba, Christopher; Semoka, Johnson M; Tschirhart, Kevin; Weil, Ray
    Though the use of fertilizers can enhance productivity and increase profits for small-scale farming families, two barriers to their adoption have proved critical. First, many farmers often cannot afford to buy fertilizers; second, use recommendations from government sources may not be appropriate for specific farms. In Tanzania, 1 our multi-disciplinary team used low-cost soil testing to pair field-specific recommendations with subsidy vouchers to help cover the cost of fertilizer purchase. Our results show that farmers benefitted significantly in both yields and profits when (1) fertilizer recommendations were calibrated to the needs of individual farms and (2) a subsidy made the recommended fertilizers affordable.
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    The joint effects of information and financing constraints on technology adoption: evidence from a field experiment in rural Tanzania
    (Elsevier, 2021-10-04) Harou, Aurélie P.; Madajewicz, Malgosia; Michelson, Hope; Palm, Cheryl A.; Amuri, Nyambilila; Magomba, Christopher; Semoka, Johnson M.; Tschirhart, Kevin; Weil, Ray
    Low investment in profitable technologies contributes to persistent poverty. Many farmers in developing coun- tries invest too little in fertilizer despite evidence that fertilizer is profitable. This field experiment investigates a two-part explanation: (1) farmers are reluctant to invest without farm-specific evidence of profitability, possibly because of heterogeneous returns, and (2) information is not sufficient to increase investment because of financing constraints. Farmers in one arm of the experiment receive fertilizer recommendations based on tests of their soils, others receive recommendations paired with an input subsidy, and others receive only the input subsidy. Only farmers who receive recommendations and the subsidy increase fertilizer application and yields relative to the control group. The financing constraint may explain limited response to heterogeneous fertilizer recommendations. The approximate net benefit of increased yields, accounting for the full cost of inputs and soil tests, is equivalent to average wages for seven days of work.