Characterizing adopters of sustainable intensification innovations: Evidence from the Africa RISING (AR) program in Malawi and Tanzania

Africa RISING (AR) is a research-for-development program that aims to create opportunities for smallholder farmers to move out of hunger and poverty through sustainable intensification of their farming systems.
The research aims to compare beneficiaries of AR agricultural technology innovations with randomly selected non-beneficiaries and control households in Malawi and Tanzania, using geographic information systems and baseline household survey data. Results show that AR target villages seem to differ from non-target villages along some biophysical and economic dimensions, such as access to market and agricultural extension services; beneficiaries in both countries seem to differ from non-beneficiaries along several dimensions and the former show better education, larger family size, higher farm size, more durable assets, greater likelihood to own livestock, and have better quality housing; beneficiaries also use more agricultural inputs, are more likely to practice intercropping, and obtain higher yields in the last harvesting season.