Transfers, information and management advice: Direct effects and complementarities in Malawi
We examine a program designed to alleviate credit, information, and farm management constraints among smallholder cash crop farmers through transfers and a cross-randomized program offering intensive agricultural extension. We document strong complementarities between the two sets of interventions....
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | Inglés |
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Elsevier
2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/176262 |
| _version_ | 1855536543117082624 |
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| author | Ambler, Kate de Brauw, Alan Godlonton, Susan |
| author_browse | Ambler, Kate Godlonton, Susan de Brauw, Alan |
| author_facet | Ambler, Kate de Brauw, Alan Godlonton, Susan |
| author_sort | Ambler, Kate |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | We examine a program designed to alleviate credit, information, and farm management constraints among smallholder cash crop farmers through transfers and a cross-randomized program offering intensive agricultural extension. We document strong complementarities between the two sets of interventions. Investment driven by increased labor expenditures, production, and consumption are highest for farmers that received both transfers and intensive extension, a pattern that persists two and three years later. In the short run, transfers alone led to the reallocation of input expenditures into increased labor for cash crop cultivation, which led to increased production of project focal crops but not total crop production. While farmers in the transfers only group continue to spend more on labor in subsequent seasons, this does not lead to changes in production or consumption, suggesting that the support of the intensive extension was important for the generation of the largest welfare gains from the transfers. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace176262 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| publisherStr | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1762622025-10-26T13:02:36Z Transfers, information and management advice: Direct effects and complementarities in Malawi Ambler, Kate de Brauw, Alan Godlonton, Susan agriculture extension cash transfers inputs smallholders advisory services We examine a program designed to alleviate credit, information, and farm management constraints among smallholder cash crop farmers through transfers and a cross-randomized program offering intensive agricultural extension. We document strong complementarities between the two sets of interventions. Investment driven by increased labor expenditures, production, and consumption are highest for farmers that received both transfers and intensive extension, a pattern that persists two and three years later. In the short run, transfers alone led to the reallocation of input expenditures into increased labor for cash crop cultivation, which led to increased production of project focal crops but not total crop production. While farmers in the transfers only group continue to spend more on labor in subsequent seasons, this does not lead to changes in production or consumption, suggesting that the support of the intensive extension was important for the generation of the largest welfare gains from the transfers. 2026-01 2025-08-29T19:55:42Z 2025-08-29T19:55:42Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/176262 en https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhz005 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8489.12237 https://doi.org/10.2499/1037800842 Open Access Elsevier Ambler, Kate; de Brauw, Alan; and Godlonton, Susan. 2026. Transfers, information and management advice: Direct effects and complementarities in Malawi. Journal of Development Economics 178(January 2026): 103601. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103601 |
| spellingShingle | agriculture extension cash transfers inputs smallholders advisory services Ambler, Kate de Brauw, Alan Godlonton, Susan Transfers, information and management advice: Direct effects and complementarities in Malawi |
| title | Transfers, information and management advice: Direct effects and complementarities in Malawi |
| title_full | Transfers, information and management advice: Direct effects and complementarities in Malawi |
| title_fullStr | Transfers, information and management advice: Direct effects and complementarities in Malawi |
| title_full_unstemmed | Transfers, information and management advice: Direct effects and complementarities in Malawi |
| title_short | Transfers, information and management advice: Direct effects and complementarities in Malawi |
| title_sort | transfers information and management advice direct effects and complementarities in malawi |
| topic | agriculture extension cash transfers inputs smallholders advisory services |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/176262 |
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