This study is an impact evaluation on the overall effect of the PURP on both project recipients and their neighbors. Key outcomes are household agricultural income, milk yields from cattle, and restriction of herd size to the carrying capacity of the land. A separate but coordinated study will examine the long term effect of the project on land degradation patterns. In Phase 1 areas, eligible applicants to the project went through an extensive screening process, including a requirement to obtain permission from all neighbor households, and all groups that passed through this process were admitted into the project. A comparison group was created through propensity score matching, using households from three populations: 1) applicants who did not pass the full screening process and so were rejected from the project, 2) neighbors of accepted and rejected groups, 3) a random sample of herder households from soums where the project was being implemented.
