Pumps, prosperity and household power: Experimental evidence on irrigation pumps and smallholder farmers in Kenya
通过随机分配免费水泵给肯尼亚女性户主，研究发现两年后农户仍大量使用水泵，净农场收入增加约13%，水泵三年内回本，同时女性决策权提升、家庭暴力减少。
Irrigation is a potentially effective technology to improve agricultural incomes in Sub-Saharan Africa, and hand powered irrigation pumps have received significant interest and investment as a solution appropriate to small-scale farmers in this context. This paper describes the results of an RCT impact evaluation of household irrigation pumps in Kenya, where we randomly allocated free pumps to the female head of household via public lotteries. After two years farmers are still making significant use of their pumps and allocating increased time to irrigated agriculture. We find that pumps increase net farm revenue by approximately 13% of the control mean, and pay for themselves within three years. In addition, we find that farmers with irrigation pumps spent less time on off-farm economic activity. Finally, we find that female decisionmaking power increased and domestic violence decreased among treatment households.