Measuring yields and productivity may require a different approach. Similar to findings in MCC’s agriculture portfolio, the Benin Access to Land evaluation found changes in increased investment but no changes in productivity and yields. In this case there was sufficient time to see these changes. Concerns were raised that our ability to measure productivity using recall data is insufficient. It is unclear if investments were simply ineffective or insufficient to result in higher productivity and yields or if we are just not able to effectively capture these changes. This points to the potential need to explore alternative and more cost-effective ways to measure productivity such as geospatial data, which allows for collection of data across areas at multiple periods of time. The World Bank is working on reviewing remote sensing imagery to see if that data will provide further details on crop cover and production.
Lesson Learned