N-Recommendation Pilot
This pilot is being planned to be tested with 117 wheat growing farmers of Guruwa block of Gaya district. Recommendation sent will be related to the amount of fertilizer(specifically urea) that the farmer should administer in her field during the season to have the right Nitrogen content in the soil.
N -Recommendation.xlsx - Google Sheets
My Drive - Google Drive - Video
The recommendation will guide the farmer on the amount of urea to be applied in Kgs/kathha mapped to different sowing dates. It is expected that the farmer will choose the rightful value to apply based on her sowing date.
Success Metrics
85% farmers read the messages and 20% react to any one message
25% farmers apply fertilizers as per the recommendation provided
How do we plan to measure success?
Farmers reading the message is being checked if the system can provide
Farmer reaction will be measured from the responses received. Any one response received from the farmer of any form will be considered as a reaction
Amount of fertilizer applied by the farmer will be mapped to the recommendation for those farmers who received the advisory. Any match will be attributed to the advisory sent
Frequency of sending the recommendation?
The recommendation will be shared twice or thrice during the season in sync with the timing of input application on the ground.
The first message on urea application will be shared in line with the sowing date around 20th Dec’21
2 days later a second message on Jeevamrutham/Ghanajeevamrutham will be shared as an alternative to urea for increasing Nitrogen content just in case availability of urea is seen as a challenge by the farmers.
Who creates the recommendation?
For this pilot messages will be created in-house.
Assumptions in designing the recommendation:
All the farmers are doing >3 irrigations
The application of fertilizer will be shared in Kgs/Kathha
Since information on DoS is not available the recommendation will talk about all the relevant weeks when DoS could fall
How will the messages be delivered?
Farmer phone numbers are available
Glific or Interakt platform will be used to push the recommendations on farmer’s Whatsapp. Decision will be taken by 15th Dec
Recommendations will need to be approved from Whatsapp
How does this pilot integrate to the overall vision of the project?
This pilot if success will show that advisory which is created based on the farmer’s available data in the system when sent to the farmer at the right time of application or practice can motivate her to adopt and thereby impact the overall project indicators.
This pilot will also show how the farmers of Bihar are reacting to interaction on Whatsapp and if this can be a channel for direct to farmer access.