Overview

Haiti is one of the poorest and most food insecure countries in the world, and improvements in productivity for staple crops such as rice are crucial to improve rural income and food security. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is touted as a high-yielding low external input rice cultivation method that can increase rice yields and improve household welfare, but these claims remain controversial and inconsistent with widespread disadoption in some contexts. Evidence of the impact of SRI on household income is mixed because the bundle of practices reduces easily quantified inputs such as seeds and fertilizer but demands more labor, which is difficult to value properly in field trials. Additionally, SRI demands more precise water control, which often raises classic coordination problems with shared local irrigation infrastructure. Addressing these coordination constraints may raise adoption rates and increase the benefits of SRI, but little is known about the magnitude of these constraints and their determinants. In collaboration with Oxfam America as an implementing partner and the Faculte d’Agronomie et Medecine Veterinaire as our research partner, we propose a randomized control trial of SRI to test the household-level impacts of SRI, the effect of coordinated SRI adoption these impacts and the mechanisms behind these coordination effects. The design of this intervention allows us to exploit a dose response approach to rigorously evaluating these effects. Several organizations