Abstract
Farmers may grow crops for local consumption despite more profitable export options. DrumNet, a Kenyan NGO that helps small farmers adopt and market export crops, conducted a randomized trial to evaluate its impact. DrumNet services increased production of export crops and lowered marketing costs, leading to a 32% income gain for new adopters. The services collapsed one year later when the exporter stopped buying from DrumNet because farmers could not meet new EU production requirements. Farmers sold to other middlemen and defaulted on their loans from DrumNet. Such experiences may explain why farmers are less likely to adopt export crops.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 973-990 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | American Journal of Agricultural Economics |
| Volume | 91 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2009 |
Funding
The authors thank the editor and the referee for useful comments. In addition, they thank Jonathan Campaigne, Vince Groh, and Zack Lenawamuro for their work at DrumNet, and their patience and collaboration with this research. They also thank IDS for the data collection efforts and IDRC, SAGA, and the World Bank for funding. Richard Akresh, Steve Boucher, Paul Dower Steve Jaffee, Doug Miller, and Julius Okello provided valuable comments. Sara Nadel from Innovations for Poverty Action, and Guillem Roig and Paola de Baldomero from World Bank provided excellent research assistance. Karlan thanks the National Science Foundation for support. All remaining errors are the authors’.
Keywords
- Export crop
- Field experiment
- Food safety standards
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous)
- Economics and Econometrics
