Encouraging results from a school-based agricultural education program in Liberia

The Liberian context presents an opportunity to explore new ways of spreading agricultural practices, as only 3% of farm households have access to government extension services – the process of sharing best practices with farmers (LISGIS, 2017) - while agriculture supports 75% of the population’s livelihoods (World Bank, 2019). In addition, most youth working on farms miss school to help their elders with their daily chores.

To address these challenges, the SBAE is a cost-effective system of delivering agricultural innovations into rural communities. Building on the creation of 4-H clubs in rural schools in Liberia, SBAE combines four key components:

• classroom teaching of new techniques and methods
• experiential learning with school demonstration farms
• home-based entrepreneurship projects
• leadership development The program is designed as a dissemination tool, aimed at empowering students with skills, with the likelihood of them sharing their knowledge of modern agricultural practices with their families and communities.

A four-year randomized controlled trial was implemented to evaluate the impact of SBAE on agricultural technology adoption and rural education in Liberia, involving 197 schools in six counties. The consortium responsible for the implementation consisted of 4-H Liberia, which trained teachers and principals (who implemented the program), the NGO Agricorps, which has been supporting governments and partners to implement school-based agricultural systems since 2013, and the NGO Innovation for Poverty Action Liberia, which evaluated the program under the supervision of researchers Jimmy Lee and Christopher Udry, with support from the Ministry of Education.

The 197 selected schools were randomized into three groups, based on specific school characteristics:

• the first treatment arm of 50 schools randomly assigned to the SBAE program only
• the second treatment arm of 50 schools randomly assigned to receive both the SBAE program and parent and community engagement interventions
• the control group of 97 schools.

Notably, this second treatment arm produced the most encouraging results. The researchers highlighted the pivotal role of parental and community involvement in technology diffusion and rural education:

• Adoption of agricultural practices: student adoption of bed preparation methods (the main agricultural technology promoted) increased by 62.1 percent, while parental adoption increased by 14.9 percent with engagement. However, in schools without engagement interventions, SBAE had a near-zero effect on student and parental adoption of technologies.
• Educational outcomes: school dropout rates decreased of approximately 20-25 percent, and school attendance increased by 24 percent in communities exposed to the engagement intervention, yet the SBAE program reduced student attendance by 31 percent when no engagement modules were included. The research team is currently exploring the mechanisms behind these effects.

As highlited by Christopher Udry in the dissemination event: « This is one of the most effective programs I have since in 40 years in changing the attitude of adults farmers. The program makes sense in a context of very under-resourced extension system and infrastructure available at school, with teachers trained to teach and a way to reach students which are motivated agents of change. The SBAE idea, well combined with efforts to engage the parents, is able to take this energy we see amongst the students and channel it to their parents. »

Additional results are available in the consortium’s policy brief, and confirm that education and technology dissemination can be refined by combining an effective school-based agricultural extension program with integrated parental and community engagement. Areas that SBAE can build upon include improving SBAE’s impact on education by strengthening the training of teachers, but also maximizing school-level impact by standardizing the SBAE curriculum in schools.

The program is now about to enter its second phase of evaluation with insightful learnings still coming in, particularly on yield gains thanks to the agricultural innovations, and cost-effectiveness compared to other extension solutions.

Ressources

1. IPA Policy Brief on SBAE : Policy brief