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

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 local 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 \textit{and} smartphone users in Sub-Saharan Africa.

University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States