Farmer’s learning is a decisive driver of the process of technology adoption and dis-adoption, yet few studies take a close look at this process. To address this, we implemented a randomized control trial in Kenya where 10 farmers in each treated village participated in agronomic research trials, which gave them the opportunity to test new inputs in their own parcels during 3 rainy seasons.

We identify the impact of the 2015-16 El-Niño-induced drought on the adoption of productivity-enhancing inputs and labor allocation of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, one of the countries severely affected by the drought. The availability of nationally representative panel data collected before and after the drought on both the drought-affected and non-affected households allows the identification of the impact of the drought using difference-in-differences with propensity score matching.