Increasing agricultural productivity by promoting high-yielding and micronutrient-rich crop varieties has the potential to reduce poverty and malnutrition. However, getting these technologies into the hands of smallholders remains a challenge. This paper presents results from a randomised field experiment that uses rural primary schools as dissemination hubs for improved orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) vines and nutrition information in rural Tanzania and Uganda. Two years after the initial vine distribution, we find that households in treatment villages are 21 percentage points more likely to report growing OFSP and 27 percentage points more likely to correctly state the nutritional benefits of OFSP compared to those in control villages. We also find up to 16 percentage point increase in the likelihood of OFSP consumption by children under 5 years of age in treatment villages compared to that in control villages. Furthermore, we find suggestive evidence that increased knowledge on the nutritional benefits of OFSP mediated up to a third of the total treatment effect on OFSP adoption and consumption. Our findings suggest that rural primary schools can be effective channels for promoting and accelerating the diffusion of micronutrient-rich crop varieties in rural areas.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/erae/jbab028

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Tesfamicheal Wossen Assfawhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-3672-2676

Shiferaw Felekehttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-0759-4070

Victor Manyonghttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2477-7132

https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/erae/jbab028

Social Science and Agribusiness

Agribusiness; Capacity Development; Knowledge Management; Livelihoods; Markets; Nutrition; Smallholder Farmers; Socioeconomy

Adoption; Nutrition; Schools; Field Experiments; Poverty; Smallholders; Farmers; Tanzania; Uganda

Africa; East Africa

Tanzania; Uganda

Eastern Africa Hub

European Review of Agricultural Economics