eKichabi v2: Designing and Scaling a Dual-Platform Agricultural Technology in Rural Tanzania

TL;DR

This study advances agricultural information systems in Sub-Saharan Africa by designing and scaling a dual-platform directory (USSD for feature phones and offline Android for smartphones) in Kagera, Tanzania, backed by a 1014-household survey and a 9833-firm directory. It shows that smartphone penetration remains low in rural areas, making USSD-based access still essential, while Android offers richer interactions and retention when available. The work also demonstrates the potential of wakala (mobile money agents) intermediation to build trust and extend access for users with low technology comfort, though the approach requires careful selection and incentives for intermediaries. Overall, the findings inform scalable design principles for dual-platform agricultural information services and underscore the tradeoffs between reach, usability, and trust in low-resource settings.

Abstract

Although farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa are accessing feature phones and smartphones at historically high rates, they face challenges finding a robust network of agricultural contacts. With collaborators, we conduct a quantitative survey of 1014 agricultural households in Kagera, Tanzania to characterize technology access, use, and comfort levels in the region. Recognizing the paucity of research on dual-platform technologies that cater to both feature phone and smartphone users, we develop and deploy eKichabi v2, a searchable directory of 9833 agriculture-related enterprises accessible via a USSD application and an Android application. To bridge the gap in affordances between the two applications, we conduct a mixed methods pilot leveraging mobile money agents as intermediators for our USSD application's users. Through our investigations, we identify the advantages, obstacles, and critical considerations in the design, implementation, and scalability of agricultural information systems tailored to both feature phone and smartphone users in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Figures (4)

• Figure 1: Demographics stratified by comfort. Women are less likely to use USSD and self select into Comfort Group A; however, men and women are equally proportioned in Comfort Group B. Older people in our sample are less likely to be users of USSD and less comfortable on average. Over half of those in Comfort Group B visit wakalas at least once a month. District and grid connectivity are not correlated with comfort.
• Figure 2: A few screens from the USSD application demonstrating what a first time text search might look like; phone numbers and names have been obscured to preserve privacy. A: The first screen displays the 4 menu options -- category search, location search, text search, and help. B: After selecting the 3rd option, the user has 4 text search options -- by business name, location, products/services, or owner's name. C: The user is prompted to spell out part of the thing they are looking for. D: If there are many matches, or no matches for the provided spelling, the user is prompted to select the keyword that most closely matches what they were looking for. E: After selecting, the user will either be prompted to further filter by location, or in this case since there were only 5 results, be prompted to select businesses to look at directly. F: The first time a business is selected, the disclaimer will be displayed. G: Finally a detailed overview of the Business name, economic sector, owner name, location, and a contact phone number is displayed.
• Figure 3: Users navigate through USSD screens using numerical and alphabetic inputs for text-based search.
• Figure 4: A few screens from the Android application; phone numbers and names have been obscured to preserve privacy. A: The user can scroll through the businesses, favoriting, adding to contacts, calling and viewing more details, as desired. B: The user can filter the businesses by district, village, sector and sub-sector to make results more relevant. C: The user can find businesses via text search: a scrollable list of businesses dynamically appears as the search is being narrowed. D: The user can click on a business name to open a screen showing business name, owner name, phone number, location, sector, and sub-sector.