Mazao Mwangaza.
SMS-led farmer advisory paired with weekly USSD price snapshots — twelve cooperatives, ~8,400 farmers, learning what advisory cadence actually moves a planting decision.
When advisory arrives matters as much as what it says.
Mazao Mwangaza starts with a question we keep hearing from cooperative chairs in Murang’a: why do farmers ignore the advisory they already receive? The program is designed to listen first.
We think the answer is cadence and trust — not content. Farmers want shorter, more frequent, more local advice, paired with something they can verify themselves. So the design pairs two channels working in tandem: an SMS advisory loop tuned to the crop calendar, and a weekly USSD price snapshot that cooperative leaders can read out at meetings.
The pilot is planned to span twelve cooperatives. We’ll measure not just open rates, but whether the advisory moves a decision — a planting date, an input choice, a sale.
Two channels. One signal.
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A.
SMS advisory loop
Crop-calendar-aligned messages in Kiswahili and English, tuned to the farmer’s county and stage.
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B.
Weekly USSD price snapshot
Cooperative leaders pull a Friday-morning price digest covering maize, beans and dairy at five reference markets.
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C.
Cooperative-level dashboard
Engagement, recall and decision-shift indicators surfaced for each cooperative’s management committee.
The ambition, in numbers.
We used to hear about prices second-hand. Now the chairman reads the snapshot at the meeting and we decide together.