Evaluation Plan PACTA II (In Spanish only)

The Program to Support Technological Innovation in Agriculture (PATCA) was initially implemented in 2002 with the purpose of reducing poverty and enhancing efficiency and competitiveness in the agricultural sector of the Dominican Republic. The program included three components: (i) technology adoption support; (ii) food safety, and (iii) technical assistance for institutional reform. The total cost of the project was $61 million dollars with $55 million financed by the IDB.

The first component which provided financial support to farmers through vouchers and private providers in order to promote technology adoption, funded five different types of technologies: (i) land leveling; (ii) modernization of water and irrigation techniques; (iii) zero or non farming; (iv) pasture conservation and (v) introduction of new tree species.

The program targeted rice, vegetables, fruits and tuber producers as well as livestock breeders. An impact evaluation of this program was conducted by the IDB; however, the data availability and the program design limited the scope of the analysis.

Building on the first phase, the second phase of PATCA (PATCA II) seeks to increase agricultural productivity and income by providing financial and technical support in order to promote technology adoption. To accomplish this objective, the program will help farmers overcome barriers that impede technological innovation, such as credit market failures, risk aversion, uncertainty and information asymmetries, by financing a percentage of the cost of the technology to be adopted as well as by providing technical support.

In particular, the main technologies to be promoted are: (i) land leveling; (ii) irrigation; (iii) rustic greenhouse, and (iv) post-harvest management techniques. These technologies will mainly benefit fruit and vegetable producers. Overall, the objective of PATCA II is to accelerate the process of technology diffusion and adoption in the rural areas in the Dominican Republic.

PATCA II is the first agricultural technology transfer program in the Latin-America and Caribbean (LAC) that will randomly select beneficiaries for participation in order to promote transparency and equal opportunity. This approach was carefully designed by the IDB and the Agricultural Ministry in order to implement a rigorous impact evaluation that allows a careful measurement of the program’s direct and indirect effects.

Direct effects correspond to the average effect of the program on the treated producers (those that participate in the program). On the other hand, indirect effects correspond to the average effect of the program on the non treated producers (the friends and neighbors of the participants) and take place when these producers are indirectly affected by the program participants or the program itself. Frequently, agricultural programs tend to overlook the importance of indirect effects and therefore, underestimate the overall impact of the program. PATCA II overcomes this lack of planning by evaluating direct and indirect program impacts, thus providing valuable lessons for future programs in the region.

To create an “uncontaminated” control group of eligible producers that allow for meaningful comparisons, the randomization strategy will be conducted in two stages. In the first stage, the areas that will benefit with the program are selected. Once the areas are selected, the second stage consists of selecting the producers (treatment group).The treatment group will be chosen among all the eligible producers who are located in the randomly selected areas. Given that it is possible that some selected farmers would not be able to participate, the program will be evaluated using an Instrumental Variables approach where the instrument to identify participation will be the random selection process.

To assess the impact of PATCA II on agricultural productivity, the impact evaluation strategy will focus on a series of indicators that include, among others: (i) net agricultural income; (ii) total factor productivity; (iii) value of agricultural production and (iv) agricultural yields.

These indicators will be measured in two points in time through farm-level surveys that will be administered to beneficiaries and control group in selected and non selected areas before and after the program is implemented. The baseline survey will be administered in 2011 and the follow-up survey in 2014 to about 3500-4000 agricultural producers. The data collection will be financed with non refundable IDB resources.

PATCA II will serve as a model for the execution of similar programs that aim to implement a combination of vouchers and private providers in the LAC region. The results obtained from the impact evaluation will be an important input for policy makers and international organizations in order to understand the dynamics that lead technological adoption and diffusion in the rural areas in developing countries as well as its effects on agricultural productivity. Lessons learned from PATCA II will also be crucial in the implementation of potential agricultural policies in the Dominican Republic and other countries in the region.