Designing Impact Evaluations for Agricultural Projects

This guide from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) aims to support the design of impact evaluations for agricultural projects that directly target farmers and aim to improve agricultural production and profitability. 

"Specific issues in evaluating agricultural projects are addressed, including the need to use production-based indicators and to carefully consider indirect or spillover effects that are common in agricultural projects. The guideline considers the challenges of conducting impact evaluations of agricultural projects as well as the methods for assessing impact. Issues of collecting agricultural data for an impact evaluation and how to put together the overall design strategy in an evaluation plan are also covered. The guideline concludes with three case studies of impact evaluations designed for a technology adoption project in the Dominican Republic, a forestry/technology project in Nicaragua, and a crop insurance project in Peru." (Winters, Salazar & Maffioli, 2010)

Contents

  • Agricultural Projects and their Expected Impact
  • Challenges in Evaluating Agricultural Projects
  • Evaluation Design and Methods to Employ
  • Experimental Approaches
  • Non-experimental Approaches
  • Incorporating Spillover Effects
  • Considering the Methodological Options
  • Collecting Agricultural Data
  • Designing Data Collection Procedures
  • Writing an Evaluation Plan
  • Case Study: Dominican Republic Technology Adoption Program PATCA II
  • Case Study: Nicaraguan APAGRO Program
  • Case Study: Evaluating the Impact of Index Insurance on Cotton Farmers in Peru

Sources

Winters, P., Salazar, L., & Maffioli, A. Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Office of Strategic Planning and Development Effectiveness. (2010). Designing impact evaluations for agricultural projects (Technical Notes No. IDB-TN-198). Retrieved from website: http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=35529432