Findings range from information on land size and ownership of land, to water availability, food security, and usage of various mobile-based services such as mobile money and digital farming groups. Below are some highlights from the data, and you can download the full, 20-page report on farming in Kenya here.

Climate Change is a Key Challenge for Farmers

Unpredictable weather, drought and climactic changes were cited as major issues farmers in Kenya face that affect their yield and make it challenging for them to farm. Climactic changes were found to be the biggest factor affecting yield for farmers, and 27% said it was one of the key challenges they face. In addition, only 36% of farmers said that water was frequently available for farming. Respondents in counties that have gone through dry spells recently, such as Narok County and two other counties in the Rift Valley, reported lower levels of water availability than those in counties on the border with Uganda.

Insights on Mobile Phones and Farming

While GeoPoll’s panel is skewed in terms of mobile usage, as all respondents have a mobile phone and surveys are taken via SMS or other mobile-based methods, we nevertheless can glean interesting findings on how farmers are using mobile phones. GeoPoll found that, of this mobile-owning population, a high percentage own a smartphone, with 53% owning some sort of smartphone, and Android devices being by far the most popular operating system. There were some differences by gender, with females being more likely to own a basic phone with SMS and voice only. We also unsurprisingly observed that younger farmers were more likely to own smartphones than farmers in older age groups.

GeoPoll also examined usage of mobile money and other mobile services, including mobile lending and mobile banking, WhatsApp groups, and farming apps, finding that mobile banking and lending are the most popular services used by farmers in Kenya, likely driven by the prevalence of mPesa throughout the country. However, even among this mobile-owning segment of the farming population, most farmers get their information from word of mouth, with other farmers and agricultural officers combined being the biggest source of information, over social media and mobile apps.

Download the Data on Farming in Kenya

GeoPoll’s full report on Kenya’s agricultural sector and the effect of mobile technology in modern Kenya includes additional insights on upcoming trends in farming, including open-ended responses directly from farmers on what they see as the biggest trends, farm inputs, farm size, popular crop types by age, and much more. Download the full report here, and contact us if you are interested in conducting your own research with GeoPoll’s farmer panel in Kenya or any other country we operate in.

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GeoPoll explained our core approach – utilizing the mode of mobile device engagement that makes the most sense to the user – to allow international development practitioners to reach beneficiaries with a range of technological abilities, literacy, and income. The lecture outlined the five modes GeoPoll utilizes for mobile surveying data collection and information delivery: short message service (SMS), interactive voice response (IVR), computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI), mobile web, and its mobile application. In the lecture, GeoPoll shared with students:

• How to choose the best mode of mobile data collection based on a project’s target participant
• Strategies for developing questionnaires
• How to reach specific sub-populations of interest
• The insights and analysis that GeoPoll can provide

Relevant to the topic of the course’s session this week, which focused on agriculture and health programming, GeoPoll also shared real-world case studies of GeoPoll’s work in those topic areas. In particular, the GeoPoll team presented our past work in public health (outlining the over 10 simultaneous projects that GeoPoll implemented during the Ebola crisis) and demoed GeoPoll’s data dashboard feature. A demo of what was shared in the course, for the “Assessing the Economic Impacts of Ebola” project, is available on GeoPoll’s website. Data collected in the study is also available for export and analysis on this page.

TechChange’s course educates international development professionals about the application of mobile phones in development programming. TechChange is a professional development organization that offers online courses in the areas of technology and social change, helping practitioners in the fields of public health, emergency response, and monitoring and evaluation learn how to utilize technology as a tool through specialized online courses.

“The “Mobiles for International Development” certificate course is offered online on a repeating basis, and has been featured in the New York Times.  Interested participants should visit the TechChange website for updates and to review earlier courses online.”

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