Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0 
Author-Name: Mekonnen, Tigist
Author-Email: mekonnen@merit.unu.edu
Author-workplace-name: UNU-MERIT, and Maastricht University
Title: Financing rural households and its impact: Evidence from randomized field 
	 experiment data
Abstract: We evaluate the short-term impact of financial support to smallholder 
	 farmers and training program to married women in two regions of 
	 Ethiopia. Using household-level panel data from the World Bank collected 
	 in 2010-2012, the combined Difference-In-Difference (DID) and matching 
	 methods are applied. The three main findings emerge from the analysis 
	 shows that first; the program seems to improve rural households’ annual 
	 income from farm and non-farm economic activities (26 percent). Second, 
	 financial incentive positively affects smallholders’ innovative farm 
	 practices, adoption of modern technologies and new marketing approach. 
	 Third, only training to resource-poor rural women is not enough to their 
	 income earning activities. Farm households engage themselves in nonfarm 
	 economic activities measured in working days positively affect 
	 households’ income. However, the whole household member participation in 
	 agricultural activities has a negative effect on income, suggesting that 
	 the surplus labor participation on a small land holding household 
	 resulting in diminishing marginal return on income. 
Keywords: Rural capacity building, innovation, technologies, randomized 
	 control trials, Ethiopia
Classification-JEL: C93, O12, O33, Q14
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20170206
Number: 2017-009
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2017/wp2017-009.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2017009