Experiment (select + to view abstract)	Abstract	Start date	Location	Partner_organization	Research tags	Status	Agricultural_season	Experiment_type	Approved by RM	Public
Weather Forecast Dissemination 2024	In 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) partnered with the Development Innovation Lab India (DIL–India) at the University of Chicago Trust to pilot and scale innovations addressing climate change, food security, and farmers’ welfare. Under this initiative, PxD and DIL–India collaborated to enable the digital delivery of weather forecasts to farmers. Climate change is disrupting weather patterns, reducing predictability, and making it increasingly difficult for farmers to plan their growing seasons, heightening their risk of severe crop losses. Building on evidence of the benefits of weather forecasts, a large-pilot was launched which delivered two types of forecasts to farmers via SMS across five Indian states: monsoon onset (MO), providing predicted start dates of the monsoon season (produced by a researcher at PIK), and total rainfall (TR), projecting cumulative rainfall over the June–September monsoon season (produced by IMD). The objective of disseminating this information was to provide farmers with seasonal forecasts that offer sufficient lead time to make critical agricultural decisions. The study’s primary research questions focused on whether farmers recall receiving SMS weather forecasts, trust the forecasts, update their beliefs about the upcoming monsoon, and use the information to guide their agricultural decision-making. The experiment sampled PM Kisan beneficiaries across Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, and Chhattisgarh. Total rainfall forecasts were sent to 8.6 million farmers, while monsoon onset forecasts were sent to 0.85 million farmers in Telangana, with 0.4 million of these farmers also receiving total rainfall forecasts. Message dissemination used a saturation design, with varying coverage levels across sub-districts for monsoon onset and randomly assigned comparison groups within districts for total rainfall forecasts. Results are awaited.		India	Development Innovation Lab - University of Chicago, India Ministry of Agriculture	Communication technology, Message framing, Social learning, Weather information	Ongoing	Kharif	Impact Evaluation
Lab-in-the-field and weather call service for coffee farmers	To be filled		India, Karnataka, India	CFAN, Coffee Board of India, iCare	Agricultural management advice, Message framing, Service design, Weather information	Completed	_Multiple seasons	Other
Asset Collateralized Loans: Non-linear Repayments	Rainfall and temperature variability induced by climate change pose a substantial economic risk to smallholder dairy farmers in developing countries (Tadesse and Dereje 2018). Rainwater harvesting tanks may help farmers adapt to climate uncertainty. Previous work has found that Asset Collateralized Loans (ACLs) help farmers purchase water tanks in Kenya (Jack et al, 2023). This study aims to validate past work and evaluate the impact of ACLs for water tanks on economic and household outcomes among dairy farmers in Kenya, with a focus on climate resilience. The study will also test an alternative loan design in which required monthly payments are a function of milk income, which may be better adapted to farmers with seasonally variable income.		Kenya	Development Innovation Lab - University of Chicago, LEPESA SACCO, Lessos Dairy Cooperative, Sirikwa Dairy Cooperative	Agricultural management advice, Input recommendations, Service design, Social learning	Ongoing	_Multiple seasons	Impact Evaluation
Andhra Pradesh Walmart Coffee A/B Test	The Coffee Krishi Taranga (CKT) service, launched in 2018 by the Coffee Board of India in partnership with PxD, was designed to provide voice-based advisory services to coffee farmers in Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu through a two-way Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, and has reached over 150,000 registered farmers. Coffee, being a weather-sensitive crop, has been increasingly affected by climate variability, emphasizing the need for timely agronomic information to support farmers’ decision-making. The impact of CKT advisories on the adoption of priority coffee management practices (composting and white stem borer management) among smallholder farmers in Andhra Pradesh was evaluated. The primary research question examined was whether access to the full CKT outbound service led to an increase in the adoption of recommended coffee practices. All 2,457 registered farmers in the blocks of Ananthagiri, Chinthapalli, Araku Valley, Paderu, G. Madugula, and Hukumpeta were included in the sample, stratified by block and prior CKT experience (enrolled before or after January 2024), and then randomized into two groups. The control group was provided access to the CKT hotline only, while the treatment group was provided access to outbound voice-call advisories, in addition to the hotline and SMS dissemination. Results are awaited.		India	Coffee Board of India, Walmart	Agricultural management advice, Service design	Ongoing	Kharif, Rabi	A/B test
Bayer - GeoPotato Evaluation	mPower and PAD partnered with Bayer to test branded SMS alerts in the GeoPotato advisory service, which delivered real-time fungicide recommendations between 2018 and 2019. The partnership aimed to explore sustainable models for delivering digital advisory services by testing how branded content affects farmers’ behavior and perceptions. The main purpose of this trial was to assess whether Bayer-branded GeoPotato alerts influence farmers’ brand recognition, fungicide usage, and trust in the service, as well as their willingness to adopt recommendations. Farmers were randomly assigned to receive either standard GeoPotato alerts or alerts that included Bayer branding. The study measured outcomes related to brand recall, fungicide use, and trust in the service. The results showed that branded messages led to an 18% increase in the usage of Bayer products without undermining farmers’ trust in the GeoPotato service or their willingness to adopt its recommendations. However, the branded alerts did not significantly impact farmers’ ability to recall the Bayer brand or recognize its products. These findings support the potential of partnerships with private input suppliers to sustain digital advisory services while boosting product uptake.	2018	Bangladesh	mPower	Extension agents, Input markets, Social learning	Completed	_N/A	A/B test
Experiment 112: Livestock Menu Arrangement	PxD is partnering with Ethiopia’s Agricultural Transformation Agency to help improve the effectiveness of their existing voice-based service through continuous iterations and experimentations, as well as making suggestions for improvement and customization potential. Ethiopia’s mobile advisory service, the 8028 hotline, has received more than 52 million calls from over 5.9 million farmers (April 2022 data) and represents the first in Africa to be maintained by a government entity at such a large scale. The livestock content was prepared and launched through 8028 in May 2020. The livestock content and the menu were structured as dairy (first menu), fattening (second menu), small-scale poultry (third menu), improved household poultry (fourth menu) and apiculture. Based on the analysis that PAD has done throughout, callers are likely choosing based on the arrangement of the main menu items. Dairy gets the most hits, followed by fattening, then small-scale poultry, improved household poultry, and apiculture. Similarly, the distribution of hits is more proportionate when the menu choices are fewer. For instance, the fattening menu has two submenus: cattle fattening and sheep and goat fattening. Despite the fact that sheep and goat fattening appears second, it gets more hits compared to cattle fattening.		Ethiopia	Ethiopian ATA	Communication technology	Completed	_N/A	A/B test
MoA-INFO LR2021 Registration A/B Test	PAD operates the MoA-INFO platform in collaboration with Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture to provide free agricultural recommendations to farmers via SMS. In this A/B test, we test a redesigned registration process into the platform to see whether inviting users to opt into the advisory message series first, before asking registration questions, affect the likelihood of registration completion and platform engagement behavior. Results show that the treatment group that was asked the first question to opt-in to preferred crops had a higher rate of crop series opt-ins but provided less profile information (e.g., name, location) and engaged slightly less with the platform after registration. Overall, switching the registration order improved specific registration metrics but reduced others, indicating trade-offs in registration design choices.	2021	Kenya	Kenya Ministry of Agriculture	Message framing	Completed	Long Rains	A/B test
Ama Krushi livestock speaker phone nudge	PxD operates Ama Krushi, a free agriculture information service delivered over mobile phones, in collaboration with the State Government of Odisha Department of Agriculture using a two-way Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platform with "outbound" push calls and an "inbound" hotline service. Different livestock activities are usually performed by different people within a household. In order to make sure that livestock advisories reach all the members of the households, particularly women in the family, we explored sending nudges to farmers to use their speakerphones to jointly listen to the advisories with other household members, particularly spouses of the Ama Krushi livestock users.		India, Odisha, India	FARD	Communication technology, Gender, Message framing, Social learning	Completed	Rabi	A/B test
Name	PxD has operated the Krishi Tarang service in Gujarat since 2016 to provide free agriculture information via mobile phones using a two-way IVR platform with "outbound" push calls and an "inbound" hotline service. The A/B test aims to assess the effect of including the recipient’s name in advisory push calls on user engagement.		Gujarat, India, India	J-PAL	Communication technology, Message framing, Message narration	Completed	Kharif	A/B test
Frequency A/B test	PAD operates Krishi Tarang (KT), a two-way IVR service through which farmers receive weekly advisory messages and have access to an inbound hotline service to access previous content and ask questions. This A/B test tested whether increasing call frequency with shorter messages or allowing farmers to choose their preferred frequency would improve overall engagement. Farmers were randomly assigned to receive either standard weekly calls, twice-weekly shorter calls, or to select their preferred frequency. The A/B test ran for ten weeks. The results suggest that both higher frequency and preference-based approaches increased listening rates, with stronger effects observed when farmers could choose their call frequency.	2017	Gujarat, India	J-PAL	Message timing and frequency	Completed	Kharif	A/B test
Training method A/B test	Analysing different methods of training - one-on-one training (remote v/s field) v/s group and its effect on farmer engagement	2016	Gujarat, India	J-PAL	Social learning	Completed	Rabi	A/B test
Call length A/B test	PAD operates Krishi Tarang (KT), a two-way IVR service through which farmers receive weekly advisory messages and have access to an inbound hotline service to access previous content and ask questions. KT push calls range from 60-140 seconds and cover one to four topics. Farmers who receive messages do not know the total length of the message, or the lengths of various topics being discussed. Farmers may hang up at different points during the call, which could be an arbitrary decision as they do not know how much content remains and whether it is relevant to them. This experiment is designed to test whether the decision to listen or not is a function of whether or not they are interested in the advice. A total of 6,000 cotton farmers were randomly assigned into three groups to vary whether they were provided total call length and topic length information. Over 8 weeks, each group received two weekly advisory calls, with the order of topics randomized. In the final week, all calls included both a relevant topic (pesticide use) and a less relevant one (lemon cultivation). Results show that call completion rates increased when relevant content was presented second, supporting the hypothesis that listening is driven by perceived relevance. Providing call length information also improved engagement, with both treatment groups showing significantly higher completion rates compared to the control. These findings suggest that call structure and transparency about content length can enhance IVR message engagement.	2018	Gujarat, India	J-PAL	Message framing	Completed	Kharif	A/B test
Cropping Series Invite Messages	PxD operates the MoA-INFO platform in collaboration with Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture to provide free agricultural recommendations to farmers via SMS. This experiment aimed to improve cropping series engagement by refining MOA-INFO's cropping series invitation messages.	2019	Kenya	Kenya Ministry of Agriculture	Message framing, Message narration	Completed	Short Rains	A/B test
Crop diversification	PAD is working with the West Bengal Accelerated Development of Minor Irrigation Project (WBADMI) to implement a mobile phone-based extension system, Krishi Katha, for smallholder farmers belonging to the Water User Associations (WUAs) formed under the ADMI project across West Bengal. The objective of this A/B test is to nudge WUA farmers in West Bengal through IVR and SMS messages to grow more profitable crops like Brinjal, Tomato, Okra, Gourds, Cucumber and Black Gram on a portion of their land during Kharif 2020.	2020	India, West Bengal, India	ADMI	Agricultural management advice, Message framing	Discontinued	Kharif	A/B test