Temporally Relevant SMS Reminders Can Reinforce Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices

Abstract

Declining soil health is a major challenge for African smallholder farmers, and they often struggle to align their intentions to improve soil health with on-farm behaviors. Using a longitudinal dataset from 170 smallholders in Western Kenya who participated in an NGO-led soil health training, we assess the extent to which short message service (SMS) messages that are targeted toward soil improvement behaviors can enhance sustainable agricultural practice adoption. On average, farmers that received timely SMS messages targeted to specific sustainable practices adopted 0.44 more practices in their gardens during a 1-year period (p < .05), ceteris paribus. We also tested whether framing related to community social norms were effective, but we did not find evidence that social norm framing improved practice adoption rates more than SMS reminders. Our findings suggest that agricultural extension can benefit from well-timed and topically relevant SMS messages to maintain farmer engagement and motivate practice adoption.

Keywords

reminders salience text messages soil health Africa

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