Building Trust in Rural Producer Organizations: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial

Viceisza, Angelino, Spelman College
Bernard, Tanguy, University of Bordeaux
Danzer, Pia Naima, University of Mannheim
Frlich, Markus, University of Mannheim and C4ED, Mannheim, Germany
Landmann, Andreas, University of Erlangen-Nrnberg
Wouterse, Fleur, Global Center on Adaptation, Rotterdam, Netherlands

2021-09-10

2020-2029

Trust is considered an important factor for successful collective action in groups of smallholder farmers. A prime example is collective commercialization of agricultural produce through producer organizations. While previous research has focused on trust as an exogenous determinant of participation in groups, this article tests whether trust within existing groups can be improved using a training program. We conduct a cluster-randomized controlled trial in rural Senegal to identify the effects of training members and/or leaders with respect to commercialization on intragroup trust. Our design allows identifying both direct treatment effects of having participated in the training and spillover effects on farmers who did not partake. Looking at different measures of trust in leaders competence and motives and of trust in members, we find that participating in the training significantly enhances both trust in leaders and trust in members. For trust in leaders, we also find a strong spillover effect. Our findings suggest that relatively soft and noncostly interventions such as group training appear to positively affect trust within producer organizations.

text

application/pdf

articles

Agricultural and Resource Economics Review

Department of Economics

Spelman College

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/sc.fac.pubs:2022_viceisza_angelino

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/