EVALUATION OF THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM SUPPORT PROJECT CROSS-COUNTRY WORKSHOP FOR IMPACT EVALUATIONS IN AGRICULTURE AND COMMUNITY DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT Addis Ababa, April 13-16, 2009 MALAWI EVALUATION OF THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM SUPPORT PROJECT R. Musopole, W. Makumba, A. Chikomola, G. Kambauwa & J. Mvula D. Rohbarch, M. Mobarak & A. BenYishay

Title PROJECT COMPONENTS The overall project objective of the ADP-SP is to improve effectiveness and sustainability of investments in the agricultural sector aimed at fostering food security and agricultural led economic growth. The project encompasses three main components which are: (i) institutional development and capacity building, (ii) sustainable food security; and (iii) project coordination

PRIORITIES FOR LEARNING: INTERVENTIONS Title The project will evaluate three methods to disseminate agricultural technologies: Lead farmer (a smart, receptive and influential farmer) Peer farmer (a group of receptive and influential farmers) Extension worker (All participating farmers and extension workers will be given incentives) sin

PRIORITIES FOR LEARNING: INTERVENTIONS Title Technologies: (1) Conservation agriculture and (2) Fertilizer management. The project will also evaluate the effect of gender on testing and adoption by farmers, using the following methods: Randomize gender of the message sender Look at differential take-up and adoption by male and female farmers

Title EVALUATION QUESTIONS The evaluation will answer the following questions – Does a lead farmer in tandem with the extension worker perform better than an extension worker alone in disseminating technologies? Does a lead farmer perform better than a peer farmer in disseminating technologies? Does gender of the dissemination agent have effect on technology uptake by farmers?

Title EVALUATION DESIGN The randomization will be done in the following three steps: Randomly select the control and treatment villages (T1: CA, T2: fertilizer) Randomly assign dissemination methods to treatment villages Randomly assign male and female lead farmers to treatment villages

Title EVALUATION DESIGN Technology package Peer farmer Lead farmer   Technology package Peer farmer Lead farmer Extension agent Control Conser-vation Agriculture 1 (M+F) 1 M (M or F) F Fertilizer Manage-ment 2 (M + F) 2

Title SAMPLING AND DATA A random selection of farmers in every village will be surveyed and monitored Key questions will include: whether farmers have heard of the technologies before; if yes, from whom; whether farmers have adopted the technologies; yield levels; soil fertility levels

TIMELINE FOR IMPACT EVALUATION Title ACTIVITY TIME FRAME Selection of target districts By 30th April, 2009 Site selection By 10th May, 2009 Baseline design Immediately – 30th June Pretesting July, 2009 Baseline July – August, 2009 Household survey Technical survey Project Roll-out End of August 2009 Annual monitoring survey From land prep. to harvest Lead farmer and peer farmer survey At end of project Ex –post survey (impact evaluation) At end of project (2012)

IMPACT EVALUATION TEAM: STAFFING Title The evaluation team will comprise of Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security National Statistical Office Universities Local and foreign consultants

Title BUDGET Selection of Sites: 50,000 Baseline Survey: 130,000 Monitoring Surveys 210,000 Ex – post Survey 130,000 Technical assistance 150,000 Total Tentative budget: USD$600,000