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
Making markets for carbon: can smallholder farmers benefit from investments to cut climate change?
Paying people for actions that contribute to climate change mitigation, known as payment for ecosystem services (PES), has the potential to address both environmental and poverty alleviation goals. For example, there is a strong history …
Can millions of smallholder farmers meaningfully mitigate climate change and be rewarded for it? We think so.
PxD is collaborating with the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (IGSD) to identify opportunities to benefit poor farming communities through their participation in climate mitigation activities. The 27th Conference of the Parties (COP 27) …
Q2 2022: Progress Report!
We are pleased to present our second progress report for 2022, with programmatic and organizational updates for the period spanning 1 April to 30 June. Please write to communications@precisiondev.org for more information or to explore …
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 …
Reading the coffee grounds: A landscape analysis of challenges confronting Indian coffee growers
Precision Development (PxD) has completed a landscape analysis to more systematically understand the challenges faced by users of the Coffee Krishi Taranga (CKT) service, with a focus on three core areas, namely, sustainability, market linkages, …
Cottoning on: A free weather product for Punjab’s cotton belt
PxD is building a free weather forecast product for cotton farmers in Pakistan’s Punjab Province to be launched in March, ahead of Kharif – South Asia’s summer planting season. The service will be launched in …
Weathering the storm: Smallholder farmers and the untapped potential of weather forecasts
Accurate weather forecasts would reduce uncertainty for farmers, yet they are under-supplied and under-studied in developing countries. Government and market failures reduce the quality and reach of weather information in rural regions, reducing its value …
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 …
Evidence to Policy – New Video
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab’s (J-PAL) has showcased PxD as an organization that leveraged the value of randomized evaluations to launch more effective approaches to reducing poverty on a global scale. The video …
Fighting Poverty through Climate Action
Last week delegates convened in Glasgow at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to engage in the difficult task of negotiating an offramp to climate …
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 …
Leveraging Women’s Groups to Bridge Gender-Specific Information Gaps in India
Vaishnavi Surendra, Post-Doctoral Researcher, and Revati Vaidya, Process and Product Innovation Associate, mark the International Day of Rural Women At PxD, we aim to generate research and design products and services that bridge information gaps …
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 …
Ploughing Back the Evidence to Empower Women Farmers
As we mark International Women’s Day, this posts reflects upon and celebrate the growing evidence-base of gender-focused research that is intended to inform evidence-based policies and laws to improve the lives of women.
Women, Work, and Women’s Work in International Development
Maya Woser, Senior Research and Operations Associate, Stefania Pozzi, Global Senior Research Associate, and Yifan Powers, Global Senior Research Associate, pull on strands of evidence to assess the effects of patriarchal practices and cultures in …
On-going Distress: COVID-related Financial Difficulties Impact Farmers and Agro-dealers in Rural Kenya
Sam Strimling, a Research Associate on PAD’s Kenya team, reflects on the results of a third round of interviews surveying farmers and agro-dealers across Kenya’s agricultural heartland. CONTEXT In December 2020, Precision Agriculture for Development …