Reflections on the mFarmer initiative: delivering agronomy information through mobile

This is the second blog in a series of posts on insights and highlights from the mFarmer initiative. Learn more about the individual services we worked with by reading our mFarmer case studies.

mFarmer first blog post: Who uses Agri VAS services?
mFarmer third blog post: Choosing your delivery channels
mFarmer fourth blog post: Delivering market price information through mobile

Agronomy and livestock advice, market prices, weather forecasts and relevant news/alerts e.g. weather or disease risks and notification of government agricultural schemes have all been identified as areas of information paucity in developing markets. Agri VAS could bridge this information gap faced by smallholder farmers. Although use cases vary across the information types, common barriers to meeting the information demand are similar: providing locally relevant, timely and actionable information remains a challenge.

Mobile agronomy advice – value and common use-cases:

  • Fills the information gap with regards to new farming practices and new crops
  • Often serves as a complementary source of information
  • Offers advice on pest and disease management, new crop practices, and the application of appropriate inputs
  • Information can be saved, reused and shared with the community

Case studies, phone surveys and interviews suggest that there is a need for agronomy-related advice across the services. Tigo Kilimo’s baseline study revealed a general lack of information to address immediate farming challenges, such as diseases and pests on the farm. Many farmers reliant on indigenous knowledge are unable to address these problems alone, looking to under-resourced village extension officers for answers. The mKisan baseline study suggests that farmers in India struggle to identify which seeds or pesticides they need to use and how to correctly apply them, and many mKisan users interviewed during the midline study joined the service to learn about growing new crops and use of farming inputs; recent IVR usage analysis reveals that 70% of access to agricultural content on mKisan addressed these issues.

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source: Usage analysis of Handygo IVR data, October 2014

Although farmers interviewed for baselines in Mali and Kenya identified information needs around modern cropping practices as lower on the agenda than other agricultural problems, they were still insufficiently provided by existing information sources.

Case studies reveal noteworthy changes in behaviour by users who receive agronomic advice, suggesting that the information is not only desirable but effective. The mKisan midline report reveals 31% repeat users of IVR users changed their farming or marketing practices based on the advice received from mKisan. Amongst those who reported changes, 33% reported seeing a better yield, 23% used the information to try new methods for controlling crop pests and diseases.

Common barriers and key requirements:

Provision of local, timely, relevant content
In a midline survey, many participants responded that they have not used Tigo Kilimo information on their farm because the information was irrelevant to their situation (21%) or not what they were looking for (20%). It has also been a challenge for Airtel Kilimo to provide relevant automated push content to a large population of farmers who have specific needs in different regions. As one user stated:

“The information … is too general. It doesn’t touch on the specific needs of us as farmers… being fed with information about crops that you don’t grow may be expensive and irrelevant.”

Agri VAS users may struggle to understand how to apply the recommended techniques if the advice provided is complex or difficult to understand. User testing in Tanzania revealed that users felt they didn’t have enough knowledge to put into practice the advice received via SMS. Some advice may be disseminated in a manner that may be perceived as ‘too scientific’, containing complex instruction or terminology. One mKisan user said:

“I tried to use the information as per my understanding. It helped me in controlling the pest to some extent… I wasn’t able to understand the whole process on the phone.”

In such cases, it would be useful for services to provide complementary follow-up information or offer assistance via the helpline channel to help alleviate these constraints.
Lastly, users may be unable to adopt new farming techniques because they lack the necessary resources or capital to act upon the advice provided. According to interviews, a number of users were unable to follow the advice provided because they lacked the appropriate equipment and resources. One farmer suggested:

“They should also tell more about diseases and home remedies that do not require purchase of additional inputs.”

Most farmers are risk averse and cannot afford to use costly inputs like improved seeds, irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides. In addition, farmers must run the risk of buying counterfeit farm inputs. There is an opportunity to provide advice on organic farming that is not heavily reliant on the use of expensive inputs.

Service design
Agricultural information, more than any other content category, suffers from encyclopaedic menus. During the user testing it took some users more than 9 minutes and 4 USSD session timeouts to access the agronomy content they were looking for, compared to 6 minutes for other content types (e.g. weather or market price). IVR menus for agronomy content can also be difficult to navigate; one user said:

“I was not able to find the information I wanted about lentils… improved seeds for wheat, coriander, and government schemes. Overall, the service did not meet my expectations”
Dissatisfaction with the content and design of a service may deter users from continuing usage. Customers will become regular users only if they consider the service to be valuable in terms of the quality of information they receive.

Is this your experience of delivering agronomy content, or do you have a different story? Please leave any comments below, or contact us by email: [email protected]. Stay tuned for more insights from the mFarmer initiative over the coming weeks.

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