(United States Agency for International Development (USAID), 2017) Smith, Stephen C.; Fishman, Ram; Bobić, Vida; Sulaiman, Munshi
Some development programs are designed on the premise that they can trigger lasting changes in poverty or food security. An intervention in eastern Uganda to increase the use of improved seed varieties and basic farming practices among women smallholders was phased out after four years due to a loss of funding. Using an innovative reverse-randomized controlled trial,1 we found that three seasons after programming ended there was no decline in rates of improved seed adoption and farmers still used the program’s cultivation techniques. While these results may be unique to BRAC’s programming and the local context, the study has larger implications for determining a program’s efficient duration outside of one set by funding cycles.