Precision Agriculture for
Development
DIGITAL OUTREACH & EXTENSION:
Experiences from South Asia and Africa
IICA, April 7, 2021
Heiner Baumann, Co-Founder and MD
Claudia Carbajal, Regional Director LatAm
Today’s Presentation
1. Big Picture
• PAD at a Glance
• Global Challenge
• Evidence on Impact
2. Examples from our work
• Odisha, India
• Kenya
• Punjab, Pakistan
3. Take-aways
• Insights/Key Success Factors
• COVID
PAD at a glance
● Global non-profit organization serving 3.8
million farmers across 9 countries
(aim: 100 million)
● We reduce information poverty by providing
actionable, customized information
through mobile phones
● Focus on yields, net incomes and
environmental sustainability
● We partner with governments, NGOs and
businesses
2021 - Expanding Operations to Latin America
AWARDED IN DISCUSSIONS
Colombia I Ecuador Brazil Colombia II
Implementation Consulting
● Rare ● IADB ● Ministry of Agriculture, ● Ministry of Agriculture
● TNC ● ProAmazonia Livestock, and Supply and Rural Development
● UK Pact ● IICA ● IICA
Why?
● 70% of world’s poor are
smallholder farmers
● 20% of Latin America’s rural
population live in extreme
poverty (IICA).
● Global food demand continues to
grow
● Climate change,
soil and water constraints,
protection of ecosystems
Information and productive technologies
exist but farmers lack access…
...and adoption is often low
Traditional extension limitations
● Expense and accountability issues
● Reach and trust issues (6%, 70% in India)
● Information flow mostly one-way
● Limited evidence of impact, cost effectiveness
● Difficult to execute in crises (e.g., COVID, conflict)
Solution: Providing customized ag advice over
mobile phones - PAD’s model
Farmer profile information Agricultural data
● Location ● Soil type
● Agro-ecological zone ● Rainfall
● Socio-demographics ● Market prices
● Crop variety ● Pest/disease outbreaks
● Water management
Customized content
● Input recommendations
● Management advice
● Market information
● Weather-related content
● Decision support tools
Solution: Adjusting our services to farmers’ devices
~75% ~25%
Feature phone Smartphone Characteristics
SMS: Regular written messages timed to Mobile apps: WhatsApp, Telegram, Mobile 2-way communication
crop calendar opportunity for advanced content
(video, photos, etc.)
Voice: Regular push calls timed to crop Available on demand
calendar Learning platforms: Self-directed,
interactive content for smartphone
Interactive Voice Response (IVR): users Customized
Users pull content from automated
menu options Automated Farmer Profiling
Timed to crop calendar
Q&A Hotline: Users pose questions that
are answered by agronomic experts
Cost effective
Decision Support & Productivity Tools:
Input optimization; Pest Management;
Seed selection
Global growth in digital ag platforms
- but do they work?
Impact of digital agricultural advisory services
from rigorous evaluations
● 4% average yield gains
(including non-adopters)
At $2 per farmer per year (at scale),
● 22% average increase in recommended digital extension can reach 100+ times
farming practices
more farmers than in-person
● Evidence on adoption of inputs extension programs given the same
● 10:1 benefit-cost ratio budget.
Large variation in impact estimates across studies
Source: “Realizing the potential of digital development: The case of agricultural advice.” Science, December 2019.
Today’s Presentation
1. Big Picture
• PAD at a Glance
• Global Challenge
• Evidence on Impact
2. Examples from our work
• Odisha, India
• Kenya
• Punjab, Pakistan
3. Take-aways
• Insights/Key Success Factors
• COVID
Odisha, India: Ama Krushi
A two-way IVR+ helpline available to 1M+ farmers
Features System
Build - Operate - Transfer program w/ Weekly advisory message on crop
Govt of Odisha: 2018 - 2021 Push Calls management practices
Started with rice, now providing content on
> 20 crops, kitchen gardens, livestock and Farmers can record a question;
fisheries Q&A answered by experts within 24 hours
On average, farmers rate the quality of
Farmers can easily access their
content 4.3 out of 5 Personal Inbox personal history of Q&A
(where 5 is excellent)
Feedback mechanism where farmers can
Research: constant experimentation with Ratings rate content (on a scale of 1-5)
A/B testing and large-scale impact
evaluation being implemented in 2021
Features for the technological service are determined in
collaboration with partners
Odisha, India: Ama Krushi
Staged process for engaging with farmers
Improve Service
Farmer profiling Continuous
and Training on how to Preparation of Weekly push calls
use the service customized content analysis,
registration
onto the service Feedback
Surveys
~5-6 minute survey on Live demos by field staff; Advisory designed Answering of
land size, irrigation, Training over the phone; using farmer profiles
farmer queries Random sample of
demography, info needs Peer training and local crop
conditions farmers weekly
polled to assess
Farmers questions service satisfaction
answered and
documented in <24
hours
Odisha, India: Ama Krushi
Improving the offer to engage and empower more women
Challenges Solutions
Limited agricultural Offer advice for areas where ● Kitchen gardens
1 decision-making power women do possess decision ● Horticultural crops
regarding staple and cash making power ● (Livestock/fisheries)
crops
6.4% Partner with
20.1%
Women 2 Disproportionately limited
access to mobile phones grassroots NGOs Women
(Early 2019) (Early 2021)
47% of new users
in last 6 months
Low levels of mobile phone ● Community Radio are female
Disseminate info in ways that do not
3 literacy, text literacy and
rely heavily on tech/text literacy
● Live Call Center
numeracy relative to men ● Peer to peer
Kenya: MoA-INFO
Two-way SMS platform with 550,000 users
● Partnership with Ministry of
Agriculture and Safaricom,
Welcome to
launched in July 2018
MoA-INFO! To
learn about Fall
Armyworm (FAW) ● MoA-INFO developed initially to
and better farming
practices, reply provide information about Fall
FARM at any time.
Armyworm pest management
● Developed into digital advisory
platform providing actionable and
customized farming advice on 11
crops; Dairy in development
● Provided free! Info available in
English & Swahili
Kenya: MoA-INFO SMS platform
What’s on the platform?
1. Registration survey
● Interactive message sequence giving initial advice on Fall Armyworm (FAW) and
collecting user location down to the ward level
2. Menu
● Farming advice on 11 crops and FAW
3. FAW monitoring tool
● Encourages farmers to measure the rate of FAW infestation in their field
● Provides advice based on reported infestation rate
4. Cropping Series (pushed every week)
● Available for all 11 crops customized to location
● Users opt-in to receive series for 2 crops of their choice
● Messages timed to the planting cycle stage
5. Decision Support Tools
● Seed Selector Tool: customized seed varieties recommendations (rec) for maize
& beans
● Fertilizer Tool: quantities rec. based on farm size, location, & budget
● Pesticide Selector Tool: suitable products based on local availability, and
symptoms identified
Kenya: MoA-INFO SMS platform
Knowledge and adoption of best practices
● Survey with 214 randomly selected MoA-INFO maize farmers
● Highlights user knowledge, adoption, and reasons for non-adoption of priority recommendations for maize farming
Practice Knowledge Adoption Reason for non-adoption or
Awareness of best practices Implementation of practices sub-optimal Adoption
Manure/Compost Use 76% 48% Unavailability (72%)
Planting Fertilizer Quantity 58% 57% Financial constraints (91%)
Maize Thinning 73% 30% Information Constraint (62%)
Kenya: MoA-INFO SMS platform
Using A/B tests to increase engagement with a pest monitoring tool
Way forward: send message B at midday
Punjab, Pakistan: Zinc Biofortified Wheat
Blitz Promotion of zinc biofortified wheat to 103,000 farmers through
Robocalls and SMS
Project description Adoption Increase Farmer Motivation
● Partnership with HarvestPlus and Reasons for adopting
Govt of Punjab
Yield up 82%
● Goal: Increase adoption of Akbar-19
Rust resistance 56%
and Zincol-16 wheat varieties to +566%
address malnutrition and increase
Disease resistance 62%
farmer incomes
Health benefits 23%
● 968,000 Robocalls over 17 days
Other 8%
● 1,300,000 SMS over 13 days
● 4,400 incoming Helpline calls over
nine days
Preliminary analysis
Today’s Presentation
1. Big Picture
• PAD at a Glance
• Global Challenge
• Evidence on Impact
2. Examples from our
work
• Odisha, India
• Kenya
• Punjab, Pakistan
3. Take-aways
• Insights/Key Success Factors
• COVID
PAD is adapting its approach in several ways to
respond to COVID-19
1. Understand and respond very rapidly (real time) to new and
changing needs of farmers and PAD implementing partners.
a. Adapt and leverage established live 2-way
communication at scale
b. Rapid changes to service delivery and service
sophistication
2. Addition of digital services to existing traditional extension
systems
3. Responding to COVID-related disruptions to agriculture
(markets for inputs, outputs, labor, food, finance, etc.)
4. Responding to COVID-related disruptions in other sectors
(e.g., education)
Insights / Key Success Factors
General Insights/KSF PAD’s Specific Approach
Customer-centric and data-driven approach is critical Use of behavioral sciences to design services; Use of
experiments to test, iterate and improve
Unit costs drive scale - which in turn drives unit cost Scaling rapidly through partnerships 96%
with govts, NGOs and private firms
Stickiness of service - think about the end game, from start Build, operate, transfer; motivation and capacity of
partner organizations
Pivot around changes in government, Covid, etc.;
Ability to adapt is key
flexible people, flexible processes
Leverage what you have - create value for sector Sharing of data and learnings transparently as public
goods
Empowering farmers with
high quality information at
their fingertips.
[Link]
hbaumann@[Link]
ccarbajal@[Link]