14 pages., his paper evaluates the effect of the Rural Capacity Building Project (RCBP),
which aimed at promoting growth by strengthening the agricultural service systems
in Ethiopia, and by making them more responsive to smallholders’ needs, in particular women farmers. We examine the gender-differentiated impact of the RCBP
using panel data on 1,485 geographically dispersed households in project and control
kebeles. We find that women farmers’ access and satisfaction with extension services
increased significantly immediately after the start of the project, but that effect did
not last into the medium term. The project led to an increase in the adoption of high-
value crop farming, area of land cultivated, and economic participation of household
members, benefiting male- and female-headed households equally. Results point to
the positive impact of incorporating women’s needs and constraints in the design of
the agricultural extension system. However, the project was not able to reduce the
preexisting gender gap in agricultural outcomes.
12 pages, Using a nationally representative sample of farm households from India, this paper examines the impact of use of information on net farm incomes. Employing methodologies that mitigate potential biases in the estimation of the impact, the empirical results show that farmers who use information realize over 12% higher net returns per hectare. The paper also establishes a pecking order in access to information. Small farmers and those at the bottom of social hierarchy (based on caste) have access to fewer information sources, and they depend more on informal social networks and input dealers for their information needs. The larger farmers and those from upper caste rely relatively more on sources such as radio, television and newspaper.
