Crop genetic improvement is central to raising agricultural productivity and resilience
in low- and middle-income countries, yet use of improved varieties remains limited
due to persistent supply- and demand-side constraints. We evaluate whether relaxing
constraints to experimentation and subsequent expansion through production and
consumption trial packs of wheat and teff can accelerate use, using a cluster
randomized trial with a 2×2 factorial design among 1,800 smallholder farmers in 120
villages in Ethiopia. Seed trial packs enable farmers to experiment and harvest seed
for replanting, thereby enabling expansion in subsequent seasons, while
consumption trial packs allow assessment of consumption attributes. We find that
seed trial packs accelerate use in the following season, as farmers replant and expand
the area under promoted varieties. Consumption trial packs alone have no significant
effect, likely due to limited availability of promoted varieties in local seed markets.
However, combining both interventions yields modest additional gains, suggesting
that consumption traits may influence production decisions when seed access
constraints are relaxed. Thus, for open- or self-pollinated crops, lowering
experimentation costs and enabling expansion through farmers’ own seed use can
accelerate varietal turnover in settings with underdeveloped seed systems.
