Knowledge, risk, and benefit perceptions : using participatory video and tailored mobile messages to motivate farmers' uptake of drought tolerant (DT) maize seed in kenya

Summary

"This research documents the design and testing of two strategies for using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to increase farmers' knowledge and uptake of DT maize: (1) locally-made, or 'participatory' video, and (2) a multichannel method that incorporates the same video with timely mobile phone-based audio messages. We conducted a randomized field experiment in Machakos and Makueni counties in Kenya. The experiment randomly allocated the two strategies to farmers in the study... Show more"This research documents the design and testing of two strategies for using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to increase farmers' knowledge and uptake of DT maize: (1) locally-made, or 'participatory' video, and (2) a multichannel method that incorporates the same video with timely mobile phone-based audio messages. We conducted a randomized field experiment in Machakos and Makueni counties in Kenya. The experiment randomly allocated the two strategies to farmers in the study areas. It was found that, after implementing these interventions, farmers in the multichannel group demonstrated significantly higher knowledge about DT maize and its accompanying management practices. Further, they were significantly more likely to report purchasing improved seed as well as intending to plant DT maize than the farmers in the video-only and the control groups. Farmers in the video-only group did gain a higher level of knowledge than the farmers in the control group; however, this difference is not statistically significant. Moreover, farmers' perceived risk regarding DT maize was found to be associated with their level of knowledge on the varieties and to which kind of treatments they are exposed. Farmers in the two treatment groups showed lower perceived risk than farmers in the control group, especially in the multichannel group. Mitigating the perceived risk of growing the varieties played a crucial role in motivating farmers to test DT maize. We found risk perception was more likely to decrease willingness to test DT maize among farmers who retained lower levels of knowledge than the farmers who had higher levels of knowledge. The results suggest that an ICT strategy integrating multiple ICTs can effectively communicate contextualized knowledge and timely reminders to farmers. This strategy helped farmers gain knowledge about DT maize and induced them to test new seed varieties. This finding contributes to existing theories on the usage of ICTs in agricultural knowledge provision. Previous literature mainly discusses whether single ICTs can improve farmers' knowledge and uptake (e.g. Gandhi, et al., 2009; Cole & Fernando, 2012), while this study investigates how to design ICT-based approaches by integrating various ICTs to make them more effective in innovation diffusion. In this case, those designing ICT strategies should consider farmers' cognitive capacities and the characteristics of agricultural innovations, such as complexity and whether farmers need to practice multiple steps at various points in a growing cycle, as such design can influence farmers' learning and uptake of the innovations. Lastly, this study contributes to a greater understanding of farmers' knowledge and perceptions of DT maize and how they are associated with farmers' uptake decisions."--Pages ii-iii. Show less