Gendered Impacts of Individual and Bundled Services on Agricultural and Farmer Outcomes in Benin

Finding the right partners and places to ask questions is paramount to understanding the drivers of agricultural transformation. To facilitate opportunities for researchers and partners to develop trust and scope early-stage evaluation questions, DAISI funds small proposal development grants. These support very preliminary, exploratory research activities, including researcher travel. This proposal development grant explored research themes related to information (advisory) and access to credit under the cross-cutting theme of gender.

With this proposal development grant, researchers partnered with TIC Agrobusiness Center (TIC ABC), an agricultural information and communications technology provider in Benin, to assess feasibility of a full-scale randomized evaluation on #Agricef, a digital service that bundles agricultural advisory and credit. The researchers were particularly interested in how #Agricef facilitated women’s access to inputs and credit. The DAISI travel grant supported field visits and interviews in Natitingou, Kétou, and Parakou, Benin, to engage with TIC ABC and local farmers. The researchers also attended a national dialogue on digital farmer services in Benin.