Household-specific targeting of agricultural advice via mobile phones: Feasibility of a minimum data approach for smallholder context

The objective of the study was to identify a viable trade-off between low data requirements and useful household-specific prioritizations of advisory messages. At three sites in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania independently, we collected experimental preference rankings from smallholder farmers for receiving information about different agricultural and livelihood practices. At each site, was identified socio-economic household variables that improved model-based predictions of individual farmers’ information preferences. The study used the models to predict household-specific rankings of information options based on 2–4 variables, requiring the farmer to answer between 5 and 10 questions through an ICT interface