The SSJDA Seminar [4th August (Tue), 2020] Does Experience Sharing Affect Farmers' Pro-environmental Behavior? A Randomized Controlled Trial in Vietnam
Date & Time
4th August (Tue), 2020, 11:00－12:00
Venue/Tool
Online(Zoom)
Language
English
Title
Does Experience Sharing Affect Farmers' Pro-environmental Behavior? A Randomized Controlled Trial in Vietnam
Speaker
Vu Ha Thu (Hiroshima University)
Discussant
Yuki Yamamoto (Nagasaki University), Masahiro Shoji(The University of Tokyo)
Abstract
Encouraging farmers to adopt pro-environmental production is vital to the promotion of sustainable agriculture. Previous observational studies emphasize the importance of economic incentives and information access to farmers' decision-making processes; however, due to endogeneity issues, little strong causal evidence is available. This study makes an original contribution by experimentally examining the impacts of 50% price subsidy and information treatments on farmers' adoption of organic fertilizer. Exposure to the experience of farmers who have applied organic fertilizer is selected as our information treatment. We analyze data from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted with 1287 small-scale tea farmers in Vietnam. We find significant impacts of both the information and 50% price subsidy treatments. Moreover, the effect of the former is approximately one-third that of the latter. Subgroup treatment analysis also reveals that the information treatment performs well for members of certification groups. Thus, to induce farmers to adopt pro-environmental production behaviors, information treatment can partially substitute for subsidies to reduce the burden on the public budget.
