Two Heads Are Better Than One : Agricultural Production and Investment in Côte d’Ivoire
Low levels of agricultural productivity and investment hinder economic growth in developing countries. This paper presents results from a field experiment in Côte d'Ivoire, which randomized wives’ participation in an agricultural extension tra...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099814305162265850/IDU0f96b7b5805126048aa0bc9406d23820b9487 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37454 |
| Summary: | Low levels of agricultural
productivity and investment hinder economic growth in
developing countries. This paper presents results from a
field experiment in Côte d'Ivoire, which randomized
wives’ participation in an agricultural extension training
for rubber, a male-dominated export crop that takes six
years to start producing latex but requires upfront care.
The training included a planning portion, consisting of
filling out an action plan for rubber farming over the next
two years, and a skills portion. In the without-wife group,
households witnessed a 26.4 percent drop in the value of the
crop harvested and a 18.4 percent drop in productivity, with
labor going to planting rubber seedlings. In the group with
wife participation, households had higher levels of
investment (planting 20 percent more rubber seedlings) and
were able to maintain pre-program levels of agricultural
production on older trees and other crops. These households
increased their labor hours and agricultural input use,
resulting in no drop in overall production or productivity.
This outcome did not come through increased skills or
incentives. Rather, underlying these results are increases
in planned agricultural management by wives, increased
retention of the action plan, and a reduction in gendered
task division. The results show how including women in
economic planning can improve the efficiency of household
farm production and promote higher levels of investment. |
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