Climate-resilient agriculture (CRA) can help develop more sustainable agricultural systems and enhance famer resilience, thus reducing food insecurity – while generating biodiversity and greenhouse gas mitigation co-benefits from reduced deforestation. Despite their demonstrated benefits, adoption of CRA remains very low in Madagascar and robust empirical evidence on the key policy instruments and behavioural factors that support their widespread adoption is very thin. One of the key constraints to adoption is limited access to information and knowledge. Another major constraint is high upfront investment costs associated with input purchases and labour costs. This project aims to address these contraints by testing the impacts of knwoeldge and credit transfer on CSA adoption, as well as on various indicators of local welfare.

Research questions

Using a mixed-method approach (a randomized controlled trial, novel experimental games, and in-depth interviews), this project aims to provide robust empirical evidence on the most effective policy levers for upscaling CRA investments and improving local welfare in south-eastern Madagascar. 

This project aims to address the following key research questions (RQs):

1 – Do credit and knowledge transfer (training in CRA and farmer business school – FBS) increase investments in CRA and local welfare (farm and non-farm income, food security and resilience)?

2 – Does the effectiveness of the CRA and FBS training depend on the availability of the credit?

4 – What are the underlying mechanisms driving observed changes in behavior?

5 – How do behavioural factors such as risk aversion and willingness to engage in collective action affect farmer’s intention to invest in CRA?

6 – Can village savings and loans association (VSLAs) be a suitable vehicle for encouraging investment in more sustainable farming techniques and income generation?

Study participants include ~2800 small-scale household farmers, who are members of 145 village savings and loans associations across 90 villages in eight communes in the region of Farafangana and Vagaindrano in southeast Madagascar, a major landfall for cyclones on the island, and one of the poorest and most vulnerable regions to the negative effects of climate change.

This project also aims to build research capacity within the African continent by training Malagasy postgraduate researchers and by helping the Project Leader gain valuable experience as overall project lead.