Printing:A S S E S S I N G T H E I M PA C T O F S E N D I N G I S K A W E AT H E R U P D AT E S O N S M A L L H O L D E R FA R M E R S ' A G R I C U LT U R A L P R O D U C T I V I T Y I N G H A N A

Rebeka Ramangamihanta | Master of Development Practice | University of California, Berkeley

Client

Scope of Work

DESIGN

•Questionnaire covering background of Ignitia’s customers, economic impact of the weather SMS

COLLECT

•Interview (25-40 minutes) and collect background, agricultural input and productivity data

REPORT

• Clean and analyze the data collected

•Report the results of the assessment

Methodology

Who are Iska end-users?

Recommendations

Other observations

Contact

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SIZE OF THE FARMS IN ACRES

Percentages of farmers by their farm size in acres n=59

Rebeka Ramangamihanta’18Master of Development Practice (MDP) Candidate & Global Development Fellow

Focus on impact evaluation and data analysis B.A in Economics and International Relations

Email: ramangar@berkeley.eduLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeka-ramangamihanta/

Many thanks to

§92% of respondents reported that Iska optimize farmer’s timing for fertilizer, weedicide, and insecticide §81% of Iska farmers reported increase in income

§ The messages keep the farmers safe“Since I received the messages, I now plan when to go to the farm or not. Since it is a forested area, when it rains heavily, the trees come down and it is windy, so I stay at home.”

§85% of Iska farmers think Iska is affordable §Benefits do not differ between men and women§Iska also help other occupation and responsibilities

§ Iska helps with the decision to bring an umbrella, fishing or beekeeping activities etc.

§Iska benefits the entire community§Farmers shares information with family, neighbors, colleagues

§ Famers benefit from Iska SMS“Yes, it helps me. Before the messages, I used to farm less. With the messages, I am sure it will rain tomorrow when it says it will rain tomorrow. It encourages me to farm large.”

§Iska allows farmers to plan their day“With the cocoa, as you do the transplant, you need the rain. If I get the information that it will rain tomorrow. I will make sure to would transplant/nurse in time.” “It helps especially with the maize. You have to harvest it dry. We harvest the maize, some pests spoil the maize when it gets rained on. With the messages, we do not harvest until it is dry.”E.g. 91 % of the respondents changed the way they sow their seeds based on the messages

Impact of Iska SMS

Securing Water for Food (SWFF) SWFF is a business accelerator that provides grants and mentorship to startups working on climate-and agriculture-related issues in developing countries.Ignitia A.B Ghana is a Swedish SWFF grantee that sends short message system (SMS) weather forecast called Iska to farmers in selected countries in West Africa. Ignitia sends Iska updates daily, weekly and at the start of every rainy season in Ghana.

§ SWFF should choose a different indicator to measure the Iska customers (subscribers vs. frequent users)§Ignitia ought to address the feedback from the Iska users on improving the services (eg., accuracy)§Ignitia should have more aggressive marketing in Ghana

§Clustered and called 1,934 phone numbers from 6,300 randomly selected farmers representative of the Ignitia’s customer base between 2015 and 2016§Interviewed 59 Iska farmers and traveled to 8/10 regions in Ghana to identify Ignitia’s current customer base in Ghana, gather data on input and output change, affordability of Iska and collected feedback on how improve the services§Cleaned the data with STATA package §Conducted a before and after analysis of the production

§45% of Iska farmers are small holder farmers §18% of the famers were women§61% of Iska farmers had another occupation other than farming (e.g.: business, construction, administration etc.)§Only 4% of Iska subscribers frequently use it for farming

§90% of phones phones were off, some were incorrect, other were busy and 5% were not farmer

Limitations

§Children helped their parents with reading the messages bypassing the illiteracy barrier for farmers§The larger farms benefit more from Iska because Iska help them to maximize their resources at a higher scale

§ There was no control group§ There were sampling errors. The sample included farmers who had only used Iska for less than a year and others who had been using Iska for multiple years § There was recall bias

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INCOME RANGES

Income differences after Iska n=22

Rebeka and maize farmers selling their maize at the Sunyani Maize Market in Brong-Ahafo region in Ghana

Maize farmers in Zebilla, Upper East Region, Ghana chanting to encourage themselves while working

Figure 1: The percentages of farmers by their farm size

Figure 2: Farmers' income difference after receiving Iska messages