E-KOKARI - Providing information to farmers in Niger through an Interactive Voice Response Platform

E‐KOKARI is an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platform, developed in Niger, which enables farmers, breeders and buyers to access information, advice, warnings and market prices in the  field of agriculture and livestock. When a user dials a short  number from his phone he can access a voice menu in the main  local languages (French, Hausa and Zarma) of the country, which  guides him/her according to his/her needs.  A prototype was developed and tested during a period of 10  months in the course of 2017, but the practice still needs to be  implemented and evaluated in the field.

In Niger, more than 80% of the population lives in  rural areas and has poor access to accurate and  timely information to improve their agricultural  practices. In addition, according to UNICEF, about  70% of the adult population is illiterate, which  means that they cannot read and often do not even  speak French, which is the official language of the  country. However, currently the information  available for farmers is mostly written and in  French, which results in limited use by farmers and  breeders. Up till now, most of Niger’s farmers and  breeders remain without access to the necessary  information to improve their production. 
On the other hand, the use of mobile phones and the  number of mobile phones in Niger has been  increasing every year. More and more farmers now  own or have access to a mobile phone. In 2015, on a  total population of about 20 million inhabitants, 7 184 270 mobile phones were in use. In 2016, this  number increased to 7 719 981 mobile phones.  In this context, and to bring answers to the cited  problems, E-­KOKARI was developed to help  farmers, breeders and buyers to get access to  information, advices, alerts and market prices in  their own local language by using a mobile phone  (smartphone and normal mobile phone). All the  data available on the platform are also voice  recorded in the local languages and the users can  get access to the information by dialing a short code  on their phone and navigate through a simple menu  to obtain the information they need.