Impacts of a Large-Scale Agricultural Training Program in Armenia

Although large-scale agricultural training for farmers in developing countries has been implemented to increase incomes and reduce poverty, little rigorous research has been conducted on whether these programs are effective. We used a clustered randomized controlled trial to estimate the effectiveness of a program funded by the US government that trained more than 50,000 farmers throughout Armenia. Three years after farmers received training, measurements indicate that the training neither increased household income or consumption nor significantly affected key intermediate outcomes such as changes in cultivation of higher-value crops or agricultural practices. This result suggests that the planned longer-term impacts of this program on income and poverty are unlikely to materialize in the future. We explore institutional and individual-level factors that had not been considered in designing this training program but are needed to overcome contextual and individual-level barriers to behavioral change for farmers in developing countries.