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Abstract
In much of the developing world, many farmers grow crops for local or personal consumption despite
export options which appear to be more profitable. Thus many conjecture that one or several markets are
missing. We report here on a randomized controlled trial conducted by DrumNet in Kenya that attempts to
help farmers adopt and market export crops. DrumNet provides smallholder farmers with information about
how to switch to export crops, makes in-kind loans for the purchase of the agricultural inputs, and provides
marketing services by facilitating the transaction with exporters. The experimental evaluation design
randomly assigns pre-existing farmer self-help groups to one of three groups: (1) a treatment group that
receives all DrumNet services, (2) a treatment group that receives all DrumNet services except credit, or (3)
a control group. After one year, DrumNet services led to an increase in production of export oriented crops
and lower marketing costs; this translated into household income gains for new adopters. However, one
year after the study ended, the exporter refused to continue buying the cash crops from the farmers because
the conditions of the farms did not satisfy European export requirements. DrumNet collapsed in this region
as farmers were forced to sell to middlemen and defaulted on their loans. The risk of such events may
explain, at least partly, why many seemingly more profitable export crops are not adopted.