Pumps, Prosperity and Household Power: Experimental Evidence on Irrigation Pumps and Smallholder Farmers in Kenya

80 Pages Posted: 4 Mar 2022

See all articles by Julian Dyer

Julian Dyer

University of Exeter

Jeremy Shapiro

Busara Center for Behavioral Economics

Abstract

Irrigation is a potentially effective technology to improve agricultural incomes in Sub-Saharan Africa, and hand powered irrigation pumps have received significant interest and investment as a solution appropriate to small-scale farmers in this context. Despite this interest, there has been little rigorous evaluation of their effectiveness. This paper provides describes the results of an RCT impact evaluation of household irrigation pumps in Kenya, where we randomly allocated free pumps to the female head of household via public lotteries. After two seasons farmers are still making significant use of their pumps and allocating increased time to irrigated agriculture. We find that pumps increase net farm revenue by approximately 13% of the control mean, and pay for themselves within three seasons. In addition, we find that farmers with irrigation pumps spent less time on off-farm economic activity. Finally, we find that female decisionmaking power increased and domestic violence decreased among treatment households.

Keywords: irrigation, agriculture

Suggested Citation

Dyer, Julian and Shapiro, Jeremy, Pumps, Prosperity and Household Power: Experimental Evidence on Irrigation Pumps and Smallholder Farmers in Kenya. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4049473 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4049473

Julian Dyer (Contact Author)

University of Exeter

Northcote House
The Queen's Drive
Exeter, Devon EX4 4QJ
United Kingdom

Jeremy Shapiro

Busara Center for Behavioral Economics ( email )

Nairobi
Kenya

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