Research in Review: 2022
2022 was a tremendous leap forward for research at PxD. Our research and operations teams completed a total of eight A/B test experiments and impact evaluations. We collected data in person and over the phone …
research methodologies
Brewing better weather services for Indian coffee farmers
Accurate, medium-range weather forecasting information can help mitigate smallholder farmers’ exposure to climate-related risks. PxD is in the process of launching new products to assist smallholder farmers to make more informed and timely decisions based …
Increasing information sharing with women farmers in Odishan smallholder households
Precision Development (PxD) recognizes that the informational needs of poor women farmers, and the challenges they confront, are unique. As a consequence, our services must be tailored to reach and be relevant to the needs …
Research in Progress (and in Practice): 2021 in Review
Precision Development’s goal is to generate large aggregate impacts for the poor. Research plays a central role in advancing that objective. In a collaborative post, our Research Team surveys their work in 2021 and outlines …
Milk It, It’s Worth It: Survey & Experimental Data on Household Division of Responsibility & Intra-household Cooperation
Women play important roles in smallholder dairy production. As PxD prepares to roll out a dairy advisory initiative in Kenya, we conducted a gender survey to better understand the division of labor within households. In …
The 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics reminds us that rigorous research design and empirical methods are at the core of empirical knowledge
Tomoko Harigaya, PxD’s Chief Economist and Director of Research, reflects on the work of the 2021 Nobel Prize winners in Economic Sciences, and how their contributions to the field have informed PxD’s research practice. Last …
Generating New Insights for Increased Impact
Tomoko Harigaya, PxD’s Chief Economist and Director of Research, and Caitlin McKee, Global Research Support Manager (with input from across the Research Team) detail lines of new inquiry intended to build our research base and …
Who’s Talking? Varying Narrator Gender to Enhance User Engagement
Sam Carter, Revati Vaidya, Simon Rubangakene, Georges Poquillon and Habtamu Yesiget recount how we improved our content and services by learning about our end-users response to messages recorded with men’s voices and women’s voices. Do farmers act differently when they hear …
Milking Gender Data for Improved Service Provision in the Kenyan Dairy Sector
Research Associate Sam Strimling argues that one must understand the specific needs of women to inform effective service delivery and presents an upcoming effort to gather these insights prior to launching a PAD advisory service …
So Many Ideas, So Little Time: Using Adaptive Experiments for Efficient and Iterative Inquiry.
Tomoko Harigaya, Precision Agriculture for Development’s Director of Research, and Grady Killeen, a former PAD Research Associate, consider the merits of adaptive experiments. How does one create space to take stock of what we are …