1. EVALUATION OF THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM SUPPORT PROJECT
CROSS-COUNTRY WORKSHOP FOR IMPACT EVALUATIONS IN AGRICULTURE AND COMMUNITY DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT
Addis Ababa, April 13-16, 2009
MALAWI
EVALUATION OF THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM SUPPORT PROJECT
R. Musopole, W. Makumba, A. Chikomola, G. Kambauwa & J. Mvula
D. Rohbarch, M. Mobarak & A. BenYishay

2. Title PROJECT COMPONENTS
The overall project objective of the ADP-SP is to improve effectiveness and sustainability of investments in the agricultural sector aimed at fostering food security and agricultural led economic growth.
The project encompasses three main components which are:
(i) institutional development and capacity building,
(ii) sustainable food security; and
(iii) project coordination

3. PRIORITIES FOR LEARNING: INTERVENTIONS
Title
The project will evaluate three methods to disseminate agricultural technologies:
Lead farmer (a smart, receptive and influential farmer)
Peer farmer (a group of receptive and influential farmers)
Extension worker
(All participating farmers and extension workers will be given incentives)
sin

4. PRIORITIES FOR LEARNING: INTERVENTIONS
Title
Technologies: (1) Conservation agriculture and (2) Fertilizer management.
The project will also evaluate the effect of gender on testing and adoption by farmers, using the following methods:
Randomize gender of the message sender
Look at differential take-up and adoption by male and female farmers

5. Title EVALUATION QUESTIONS
The evaluation will answer the following questions –
Does a lead farmer in tandem with the extension worker perform better than an extension worker alone in disseminating technologies?
Does a lead farmer perform better than a peer farmer in disseminating technologies?
Does gender of the dissemination agent have effect on technology uptake by farmers?

6. Title EVALUATION DESIGN
The randomization will be done in the following three steps:
Randomly select the control and treatment villages (T1: CA, T2: fertilizer)
Randomly assign dissemination methods to treatment villages
Randomly assign male and female lead farmers to treatment villages

7. Title EVALUATION DESIGN Technology package Peer farmer Lead farmer
Technology package
Peer farmer
Lead farmer
Extension agent
Control
Conser-vation Agriculture
1 (M+F) 1 M
(M or F) F
Fertilizer Manage-ment
2 (M + F) 2

8. Title SAMPLING AND DATA
A random selection of farmers in every village will be surveyed and monitored
Key questions will include: whether farmers have heard of the technologies before; if yes, from whom; whether farmers have adopted the technologies; yield levels; soil fertility levels

9. TIMELINE FOR IMPACT EVALUATION
Title
ACTIVITY TIME FRAME
Selection of target districts By 30th April, 2009
Site selection By 10th May, 2009
Baseline design Immediately – 30th June
Pretesting July, 2009
Baseline July – August, 2009
Household survey
Technical survey
Project Roll-out End of August 2009
Annual monitoring survey From land prep. to harvest
Lead farmer and peer farmer survey At end of project
Ex –post survey (impact evaluation) At end of project (2012)

10. IMPACT EVALUATION TEAM: STAFFING
Title
The evaluation team will comprise of
Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security
National Statistical Office
Universities
Local and foreign consultants

11. Title BUDGET Selection of Sites: 50,000 Baseline Survey: 130,000
Monitoring Surveys 210,000
Ex – post Survey 130,000
Technical assistance 150,000
Total Tentative budget: USD$600,000