Evidence for Agriculture

Agriculture is the world’s largest employer and with international goals to double income for smallholders, the sector attracts substantial investment. But the rigorous evidence to identify most effective interventions is surprisingly scarce. To help meet this gap, DIME works with the Agriculture Global Practice and the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) to conduct evaluations of World Bank and GAFSP programs.

The aim of this two day event is to bring together researchers from DIME and partner institutions with teams from operations to share ongoing research, discuss where the Bank should take these results, reflect on key knowledge gaps in agricultural policy where further evidence is needed, and agree on how to prioritize new impact evaluations going forward.

Results to be shared from DIME collaborations with projects in the areas of:

• Technology adoption

• Commercialization

• Gender based interventions

• Inclusion and targeting

Last Updated: Nov 02, 2016

Day 1: Monday, November 7
Introductory Remarks
9:00	Pressing Issues in Agricultural Policy	Albert Zeufack, Chief Economist, AFRCE
9:15	The DIME model of evidence based policy	Arianna Legovini, DIME
Keynote Speakers
9:30	Why don’t low productivity farmers adopt high return investments? What policies are successful at increasing rates of adoption?	Andrew Foster,Brown University
10:00	Do agricultural productivity programs serve a social protections role as well as lifting incomes? What evidence do we have?	Paul Winters, Director of Strategy and Impact Evaluation IFAD.
10:45	Discussion	Moderator: Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Director Development Economics Research Group
Breakout Session 1: Best strategies for changing agricultural practices When promoting climate smart agriculture or new crops, who are the most effective agents to teach new methods? What are the most effective methods of teaching new technologies and crops?
11:15	Operations Intro: · What new technologies is the World Bank is actively promoting? Are there specific challenges in convincing people to adopt? · What advice is the World Bank currently giving to clients on extension models, and what kind of evidence is needed to improve this advice?	Wilhelmus Janssen, Lead Agricultural Economist
11:30	Who are the best providers of Information? Evidence on network based knowledge diffusion in Malawi.	Jeremy Magruder,UC Berkeley
11:45	Which extension models work best? Evidence on contact farmers in Mozambique.	Valerie Mueller,IFPRI
12:00	Which extension models work best? Evidence on crop demonstration in Bangladesh.	Florence Kondylis,DIME
12:15	Discussion
12:30	Conclude

Day 2: Tuesday, November 8
Breakout Session 2: Enabling commercially oriented agricultureWhat prevents farmers from accessing productive investments? How should World Bank projects address the broader context in which agriculture policy takes place?
9:00	Operations Intro: · What are some of the investment priorities for World Bank between agriculture and broader context areas such as transport and natural resource management others	Aparajita Goyal, Senior Economist, Poverty Global Practice
9:15	Implementation and impacts of input subsidies for annual crops, evidence from Haïti	Jérémie Gignoux,Paris School of Economics
9:30	Impact evaluation for agricultural value chain interventions: An example Senegal	Serge Adjognon,DIME
9:45	What if farmers can’t get to markets? Evidence on feeder roads.	Marco Gonzalez-Navarro, Univ. of Toronto
10:00	Discussion
10:15	Break
Breakout Session 3: Transforming work for women in agriculture What are the constraints that cause farmers to forgo long-term investments? Do some policies particularly improve outcomes for women?
10:30	Operations Intro: How are WB projects attempting to improve outcomes for women in the agricultural sector, and reduce gender-specific constraints?	Melissa Williams, Senior Rural Development Specialist
10:45	Does land tenure regulation empower women? Evidence from Rwanda	Markus Goldstein, Gender Innovation Lab
11:00	Do Female village-level extension agents perform as well as male extension agents? Evidence from Malawi	Florence Kondylis,DIME
11:15	Discussion
11:30	Break
Breakout Session 4: Inclusion and Targeting of Marginalized Groups How does the selection of project recipients influence outcomes? How can we improve agricultural service delivery to high priority groups such as women and youth, and make projects more inclusive?
11:45	Operations Intro: · How does the World Bank currently advise clients on beneficiary selection, and what evidence do we need to improve this advice? · What types of beneficiaries would clients like to see better represented in project beneficiaries?	Melissa Williams, Senior Rural Development Specialist
12:00	How can we help create feedback systems to incentivize participation in extension? Evidence from Rwanda.	Maria Jones,DIME
12:15	How do land rights affect investment? Evidence on land formalization in Benin	Michael O'Sullivan, Gender Innovation Lab
12:30	Are there trade-offs from prioritizing small holders? Evidence on smallholder targeting strategies for irrigation in Mozambique	Paul Christian,DIME
Lunch Lunch outside MC-C1-100
Concluding Debate
1:00	Panel Debate: Where do we go next? Priorities for the next wave of agricultural impact evaluations at the World Bank.	James Stevenson, ISPC; Andrew Foster, Brown University; Florence Kondylis, DIME; Paul Christian, DIME [Moderator]
2:00	Conclude