Agriculture
Where you you get your information on agricultural research? Are there any go-to sources that we're missing in our list of recommendations? Do you have any country- or region-specific recommendations (in English or any other language)?
Let us know by emailing Chrispine at crl2 (at) williams (dot) edu, and we'll put the information up!
In this experiment, Esther Duflo, Michael Kremer, and Jonathan Robinson investigate why it is that farmers in Kenya don’t use as much fertilizer as they could. They find that small inconveniences might be making a large difference.
This executive summary on JPAL describes an experiment in which farmers in Kenya were provided with “nudges” to make purchases of fertilizer rather than putting it off suggests that small policy changes to the incentives people face can have outsized impacts.
In this study, Edward Miguel analyzes the relationship between witch killings and extreme weather that particularly affects the livelihoods of the poor in Tanzania. What he finds suggests that witch killings might be related to the desperation people feel when things go wrong.
This executive summary provides a synopsis of an article in which Edward Miguel analyzed the relationship between witch killings and extreme weather among the poor in Tanzania.
This report has been assigned as required reading in the CDE spring elective Program Evaluation.