The Outlook for Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning for Development
There are several misconceptions in Agriculture Research for Development (AR4D) that are responsible for a divergence between the outcomes of international public goods research and policy outcomes such as incidence of food insecurity, intensity of global shortages of potable water, and frequency of climate-induced displacement of people. AR4D literature belies a misguided belief in Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) that aims to test the efficacy of technical options such as integrated soil fertility management and conservation agriculture in addressing policy challenges of soil erosion, water quality decline, and deforestation.