Progress 01/01/19 to 12/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this effort is comprised of Virginia Tech undergraduate students, andundergraduate students at the Escuela Politecnica de Chimborazo (ESPOCH). An additional target audience is farmers in the watershed where the project took place (Chimborazo province, Ecuador). These farmers received information on the research conducted by the project team. Specifically, we provided information on: (i) costs and benefits of various conservation agriculture techniques; (ii) local farmer perceptions of environmental degradation due to conventional farming practices, benefits of adopting conservation agriculture and intention to adopt conservation agriculture. A further audience is the national agricultural research institution (INIAP) in Ecuador. Scientists there assisted in all aspects of the research, but learned about several components of high-quality socioeconomic research. Specifically, they learned about data collection using table computers, the importance of randomization, and sample design. Changes/Problems:Challenges were dealt with as they emerged. a) In 2019, the illness of a student in the middle of the field survey in Ecuadorrequired the attention of the faculty mentor. The student was hospitalized for several days. Fortunately a US graduate student, together with our host partners, was able to supervise continuous data collection during the absence of the student and faculty mentor. The surveying was not affected by these absences. b) In 2020 and 2021, COVID 19 considerations made international travel impossible. The faculty team adjusted the program as described previously. The inability to travel forced us to modify the questionnaire for the 2022 years as our original plan was to collect panel data with detailed inventory of agricultural assets in year 2. c) In 2022, social conditions in the Andean communities necessitated an early departure due to the threat of violence associated with a nationwide protest. This early exit meant fewer completed interviews, but the sample size remained large enough to permit statistical analysis. d) In 2023, faculty at Virginia Tech were unavailable to accompany students to Ecuador. To address this problem, we engaged with our partners in Ecuador for them (students supervised by our research partners) to collect end-line data. Two students in US were engaged in preparing the questionnaire, training the students and faculty (ESPOCH) advisors, monitoring progress and formatting the data bases.IRB approval was obtained in Ecuador by INIAP researchers. e) During each surveying round, IRB approval was an important constraint. We were required to front-load the IRB segment of student training to ensure that there was sufficient time before the summer fieldwork to complete the IRB. In-field survey testing was complicated by the IRB need to review any substantive changes; as we piloted the survey to farmers around Quito, we had to make changes to the wording and ordering of questions which the Virginia Tech IRB said needed to be approved. We were able to fast-track IRB approval in that year and in 2022 (when field surveying resumed), the IRB office allowed us to make minor changes to the survey instrument without returning the questionnaire to the IRB office. On the host-country side, research approval was obtained from the division of research at INIAP, our partner institution. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?a) During each cohort, students were esposed to rigorous training in field research methods. Modules were presented on conceptualizingresearch objectives, preparing and coding into CSPro a survey questionnaire, designing a sample, piloting and field-testing the survey, and data collection. Human subjects protection (and the approval process, the IRB) and data management were also taught. b) Students also received training in the development context, agriculture in the study area, conservation agriculture and its environmental impact,interview protocols in an alien cultureand challenges to field work. Each student group faced unique challenges and worked together and with their faculty mentors to address the challenges. c) Students received hands-on training incoding and implementing tablet-based surveys. These methods are now recognized as best practice and our project was the first to introduce these practices to the Ecuadorean partners. INIAP now uses CSPro in many surveying contexts. Studentslearned survey coding, modification of questionnaires and survey skip codes based on interview piloting, and basic quality controls used to monitor data quality. They also received training in advancedstatistical analysis methods. They learned about communication of research findings. d)Students became familiar with ethical considerations associated with field work and the importance of human subject considerations. Virginia Tech students were taken during the spring semester class through the IRB process. Theyfirst participated in in-class instruction and thensubmitted requireddocuments for IRB approval. We coordinated with the IRB in the partner institution(the research review committee at INIAP) to ensure that everything was consistent with Ecuador guidelines. The consent forms, opt-out mechanics and questionnaires were all approved by both IRBs. In the 2021 year, the Virgininia Tech IRB for interviewing students was complicated by FERPA considerations and students in that cohort were fully able to appreciate student and family protections. e) The project as a whole followed a data management plan consistent with US norms. Students were taught considerations such as anonymization and privacy protection for personal information. We committed with our INIAP partners to anonomyze any publicly released data by removing GPS coordinates and names of respondents. Our data management plan required some modification as CSPro uses Dropbox as its cloud-based default data repository. Dropbox has never been approved by Virginia Tech information technology security and, instead of uploading the data to the cloud, it was loaded (tablet by tablet) onto a secure computer managed by the Virginia Tech faculty member. Students became well aware of this constraint. Following completion of the field surveying, the data were loaded into module-based (each part of the questionnaire, such as household demographics was a module) excel spreadsheet datasets by INIAP data technicians. These are transmitted to users based on approved requests, but the raw data itself remained in the hands of INIAP. The students wanted information on geospecific data, such as distance to markets, distance to roads, elevation and average field slopes in each community. These were computed by a data specialist using the Department of Agriculture's database and the values (not the GPS coordinates) were included in the excel modules and transfered to students. The data itself is being analyzed in Stata, R and python, depending on the student group. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes. Farmer field days were held in various communities where fieldwork was conducted. INIAP (host-country institution) has developed outreach materials related to conservation agriculture in the Andes and included our survey findings in these materials. The 2019 cohort was able to present preliminary summary statistics to the communities where data were collected. In 2022 we were unable to present due to the early departure necessitated by the unrest in the region. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goals were met as follows. a) Training in research methods. Undergraduate participantsfrom Virginia Tech were trained in research methods, data analysis and writing/reporting. This was accomplished through a 3-credit course in Spring of the relevant years (2017-2023). Students prepared a survey questionnaire, engaged in the Virginia Tech IRB approval process, programmed the survey into a tablet computer using CSPro, a US Census standard software, and pilot tested the survey among each other and with collaborating students at the partner Ecuadorean university Escuela Politecnica de Chimborazo (ESPOCH). The students at ESPOCH and their academic advisors participated in several classes remotely as appropriate. A total of 28 US undergraduate students participated in this training (2019-7; 2020-7; 2021-6; 2022-6; 2023-2). Thirty one (31) undergraduate students from ESPOCH also participated. Three US graduate students were engaged as well. b) Experience in field research.In project years 2019 and 2022, Virginia Tech students traveled to Ecuador with faculty advisor(s). Students spent two weeks in Quito in language and cultural instruction, visiting partner institutions including INIAP's central experiment station Santa Catalina (outside of Quito) and the INIAP head office in Quito, continuing to work on the questionnaire, interacting with ESPOCH students, field testing the questionnaire and preparing themselves for the field work. Studentsthen traveled to Riobamba with Virginia Tech faculty and local partners and spent 3 1/2 weeks surveying households in the communities where ongoing INIAP research on conservation agriculture is being conducted. Studentslearned about creating a sample frame, how to approach and interview households, how to enter data and trouble-shoot the surveying process; this learning occurred first during the spring class and was reinforced in the field. During the subsequent fall semester, students analyzed the data, wrote reports and presented their findings to an external evaluation panel. In project year 2022, students were forced to return from Ecuador oneweek before their anticipated departure due to unrest and protests in various parts of Ecuador. They were airlifted from Riobamba to the Quito airport and flew out one day later. The main impact on the survey was that the sample size was smaller than we expected due to the early departure. During the Fall 2022 semester, the students participated in a data gathering and analysis excercise (undergraduate research for one credit), cleaned and analyzed the data. They prepared and revised a paper. Data analysis was conducted in R. c) Other experiential research. In project years 2020 and 2021, students were unable to travel to Ecuador due to COVID 19 travel restrictions. In 2020,students were trained in quantitative methods which were used to analyze the data collected by the previous group of students (from 2019). The training in data analysis skills was completed with available data, but no additional household data were collected that year. The summer, which under normal conditions would have involved travel to Ecuador,was instead spent analyzing data and writing a report. These activities ocurred remotely due to the COVID restrictions. In 2021, because travel continued to be restricted, students remained in Blacksburg, and designed a survey to measure undergraduate student perceptions about different COVID instruction modalities. They designed the questionnaire, had it approved by the VT IRB, and programmed it into tablets using the CSPro software. Telephone surveys were conducted and the summer was spent analyzing the data. d) In the 2023 project year, two retirements of VT faculty and non availability of others caused the team to decide to suspend the program. Instead, two VT undergraduates worked with Dr. Alwang for the spring semester. Students at ESPOCH demonstrated willingness to field the endline survey and the Virginia Tech students were tasked with designing the survey. This survey was approved by the INIAP IRB and fielded by Ecuadorean students and INIAPpartners. Data analysis Analysis of the first year of data focused on characteristics in the study area. These included basic household conditions such as number of people by age,gender, and education; income-earning activities;assets owned by the household including general household and farming assets;farming practices including crop and animal activities;perceptions of environmental degradation and knowledge of conservation agriculture practices. Two student groups (2019 and 2020 cohorts) conduced multivariate analysis of knowledge of environmental consequences of traditional farming activities and knowledge ofconservation agriculture practices. The main take-home findings were: (i) Crop production has become less important in the research areato most families as livestock and dairy production has increased in recent years. (ii) Knowledge of environmental damages due to soil erosion is not widespread, but respondents recognize that soil productivity is compromised by intensive traditional cultivation. (iii) Conservation agriculture practices are not widely recognized (fewer than 25% of respondents responded correctly). (iv) The most important determinant of intention to adopt was knowledge of the practice itself, not recognition of the environmental damage associated with intensive cultivation. In the second year (2020), students at VT conducted additional analysis of the 2019 data. This analysis included enhanced graphical presentation of farm characteristics and refinement of the multivariate models first estimated in 2019. The third year students (2021) analyzed Virginina Tech students' perceptions of quality of instruction and learning under different COVID 19-induced instruction modalities. These findings (including summary statistics and graphical analysis) mainly showed that students faced many difficulties learning material and, while there were differences by modality of instruction (e.g. remote learning only), perceptions were that difficulties were found under all instruction regimes. In the fourth project year (2022), the student group was able to travel to Ecuador and revisit the farms first visited in 2019. The focus of the research was on adoption and intention to adopt conservation agriculture. The sample was split into two research arms: in the first, we interviewed households who had been randomly assigned to training in conservation agriculture practices; the second arm consisted of households (also randomly selected) who had not. The analysis involved graphical analysis and some multivariate analysis. Participation in training was associated with a higher probability of intention to adopt. Knowledge of conservation agriculture practices was also higher for training attendees.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Jeffrey Alwang, Darrell Bosch, Victor Barrera, Susan Chen, Jorge Delgado, Catherine Larochelle and George W. Norton, Undergraduate research in the Andes: Overcoming barriers to developing-country farm-household focused analysis. Applied Economics Teaching Resources (AETR, Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association ). Submitted to special edition on undergraduate research engagement. Under second review.
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Progress 01/01/22 to 12/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this effort is comprised of Virginia Tech undergraduate students and undergraduate students at the Escuela Politecnica de Chimborazo (ESPOCH). This year, we involved sixundergraduate students from Virginia Tech and eight from ESPOCH. Changes/Problems:As noted, the unrest in Ecuador required us to depart slightly earlier than expected. This had no impact on the study, except the sample size was slightly lower than expected. 291 questionnaires were completed, while we expected to obtain approximately 350. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The students were trained in research methods, conceptualization of research objectives, preparing and coding a survey questionnaire and analyzing the data. They learned survey coding and statistical analysis methods. They also learned about communication of research findings. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Not yet. They will be next year. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Same as above. Plus presenting results to project beneficiaries.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
a) Six undergraduate students were trained in research methods, data analysis and writing/reporting. This was accomplished through a3-credit course in Spring 2022. These students prepared a survey questionnaire, engaged in the IRB approval process, programmed the survey into a tablet computer and pilot tested the survey among each other and with the students at ESPOCH. The students at ESPOCH and their advisors participated in several classes remotely. This was done to obtain feedback and learn from them. b) These students traveled to Ecuador with faculty advisor(s). They spent two weeks in Quito in language and cultural instruction, visiting partner institutions, continuing to work on the questionnaire, interacting with ESPOCH students, field-testing the questionnaire and preparing themselves for the field work. They then traveled to Riobamba with Virginia Tech faculty and local partners and spent 3 1/2 weeks surveying households. They learned about creating a sample frame, how to approach and interview households, how to enter data and trouble-shoot the surveying process. c) Students were forced to return 1/2 week before the anticipated departure due to unrest and protests in various parts of Ecuador. They were airlifted from Riobamba to the Quito airport and flew out one day later. d) In Fall 2022, the students participated in a data analysis excercise (undergraduate research for one credit), cleaned and analyzed the data. They prepared and revised a paper. Data analysis was conducted in R.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Survey instruments for study of conservation agriculture among farmers in Andean communities of Ecuador
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Progress 01/01/21 to 12/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this effort is comprised of Virginia Tech undergraduate students and undergraduate students at the Escuela Politecnica de Chimborazo (ESPOCH) in Ecuador. This year, we involved sixundergraduate students from Virginia Tech. Due to COVID, we were unable to engage the students from Ecuador. Changes/Problems:Travel to Ecuador was not accomplished due to COVID travel restrictions. We reverted some of the resources to Ecuador to continue and expand field operations, but students in Blacksburg were provided a stipend for the data analysis portion of the program (see description above). We had initially planned to conduct a panel data collection and analysis program as part of the REEU. Due to loss of two years of travel, we decided to alter our plan for this and next year (the final year of the REEU). lnstead of continuing with the panel, we are conducted an economic experiment to understand how attitudes toward soil management are affected by different stimulii (e.g. participation in a field day, receipt of text message reminders, exposure to a mass marketing campaign). This will simplify the household data collection effort. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The students were trained in quantitative methods which were used to analyze the data collected by the previous group of students (from 2019). They also collected primary data through a telephone survey of peers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We have recruited six students to participate in the 3-credit course and data collection in Ecuador. They will be paired with six students from ESPOCH. We have also designed a unique experiment to simplify the questionnaire and subsequent data analysis. Our partners in Ecuador will assist in fielding this experiment.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
a) Sixundergraduate students were trained in research methods, data analysis and reporting. These students completed a three-credit courses at Virginia Tech during Spring 2021. b) Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, students were unable to travel to Ecuador to complete their field work. Instead, they designed and fielded a telephone survey of their peers. This survey was intended to collect information on attitudes of Virginia Tech students about teaching adjustments made due to COVID-19. The students conceptualized the study, designed the data collection instruments, obtained IRB approval, coded into tablets (using CSPro), fielded and subsequently analyzed the data. They presented the findings to the advisory committee. c) During Summer 2021, five of the students participated in a five-week, full-day program on data analysis. They were taught data management techniques and coded their analysis into Stata.
Publications
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