A Guide to Developing Mobile Agricultural Services for Women

Agriculture is the main source of income and employment for 70% of the world’s poor living in rural areas. [1] Yet, access to crucial farming information and technologies such as weather forecasts, planting information and market prices remains a critical issue. Women, more than men, are exposed to a number of challenges that prevent them from accessing farming technologies, information and other factors that are crucial for productivity and economic gain.Women play a key role in food production and make up 43% of the rural agricultural workforce globally, but are underserved as a unique customer segment. FAO estimates that if women farmers had the same access as men, agricultural output in 34 developing countries would rise by an estimated average of up to 4%. This could reduce the number of undernourished people in those countries by as much as 17%, translating to up to 150 million fewer hungry people[2].

In light of this, GSMA mWomen and GSMA mAgri have developed a resource, the ‘Women in Agriculture: a Toolkit for Mobile Services Practitioners’, which provides MNOs, development practitioners and members of the wider mobile industry with a step-by-step guide to develop women-focused mobile agricultural services.

It should be noted that women working in agriculture are an extremely diverse group with highly variable incomes, geography, skills, opportunities, and challenges. To ensure mAgri service offerings provide value to the target population of women, operators must tailor them to the local context, taking the particular crop type, farming methods, language, and cultural context into account. The purpose of this toolkit is to provide a methodology and examples for mobile operators to understand this emerging segment of the market and to provide a starting point for tailoring their products and services to meet the unique needs of women in agriculture across the developing world.

A brief summary of the toolkit can be found below. We encourage you to have a look at both the Insights Paper and share your own lessons learned from launching an mAgri service for women with us via Twitter or email: @GSMAmWomen or [email protected]; @GSMAmAgri or [email protected].

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Define the market

Understanding the range of mAgri services, as well as identifying the target customer groups and the barriers that prevent them from accessing mobile-based agricultural services is the first step towards the development of a successful agricultural service for women. Observing key trends such as generational differences in adoption of mobile technology can also help to inform service design.

Generate consumer insights

After assessing the market opportunity, the next step should be exploring the wants and needs of women farmers for mobile agricultural services. The first step in this direction should be the analysis of already existing data to understand the women’s behaviour compared to the overall market. Potential sources of data are call logs and usage data, brand trackers, consumer satisfaction surveys and segmentation studies. However, this data should be carefully analysed to ensure reliability. For example, customer registration information data should generally not be treated as a reliable source of the gender composition of an operator’s subscriber base, as SIMs tend to be purchased by the male members of the households even if they are ultimately used by women.  Understanding the key data gaps can help to identify targeted research needs that will help to segment the market and setting initial priorities, as well as initiating consumer insights research using a gender lens to inform product design and service delivery.

Design products and services

When designing products and services for women farmers, it is important to observe that women have different purchasing priorities and different levels of technical literacy, which must be taken into account. This toolkit lays our common design features women prefer and advice on designing gender-sensitive content and services. Moreover, men should be included in the design process, as they ultimately share the benefits that derive from mobile solutions used in the households.

Brand and promote

The first step towards marketing a mobile agriculture product or service that targets women, is crafting effective messages that appeal to women. Positioning the product or service as benefitting the entire household or as a tool to generate income will make it more appealing to the target segment. Furthermore, in order to reach the target audience, specific “below-the-line marketing” (BLT) approaches should be utilised – for instance, promoting the mAgri service through community-based marketing channels constitute effective BTL marketing approaches. Additionally, understanding that women may have different times of day that they are busy when compared with men, so timing for advertising should be adjusted accordingly.

Distribute and grow

Developing a tailored distribution channel mechanism is key to reaching rural women with mobile agricultural services in an effective and cost-efficient way. This can be done by working with already existing women’s groups, partnering with existing female distributors and exploring tax relief and government subsidies. In addition, it is important to deploy an agent network capable of interacting an engaging with female customers and educate them on the use of the mAgri services. In many instances, female agents should be preferred over male agents for cultural reasons.

Monitor and improve

Monitoring the uptake of the service by existing and new customers and setting key performance indicators (KPIs) are crucial for measuring success and collecting feedback to improve the service. Specifically, the KPIs should be gender-focused and track commercial factors and social indicators across the launch, marketing and distribution stages. Once the right KPIs are identified and tracked, they will provide invaluable insights to monitor and evaluate the performance of the agricultural service, which will then drive an iterative process to improve performance on an ongoing basis.

 

[1] http://data.worldbank.org/topic/agriculture-and-rural-development

[2] http://www.unwomen.org/lo/news/in-focus/rural-women-food-poverty#sthash.wDXRYVDm.dpuf

 

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