Chwele 2009 RCT summary
Impact study
Summary of results for our maize yields study in Chwele district, Kenya, 2009
Independent researchers conducted an RCT for One Acre Fund in 2009, our third year of operation, with the major goals of determining how effective our internal M&E was, and generating program learning early in our history. Our internal M&E results at the time were shown to be substantially different from the RCT results, which led to several important changes to our internal M&E methodology—eventually causing us to restate our impact figures when we had developed confidence in a changed method.
The RCT showed some farmers who had a negative return on investment from farm inputs and also showed some evidence that we were selecting wealthier farmers – both of which were cause for concern and led to program change.