Blog Mapping Minds: How can cognitive mapping transform agro-advisory services?

Young farmers in Kenya are turning to digital agro-advisory platforms such as Shamba Shape Up and iShamba to enhance practices and market access. A 2023 study explored how farmers engage with these platforms, revealing trust and actionable value as key factors for impact.

By: Shalika Vyas, Zeena Oberoi, Marylin Moin, Aashyan Durazi and Liza Ayoo

There are many agro-advisory services, all vying for farmers’ attention in this age of information overload. In 2023 alone, the average person consumed nearly 74 GB of data per month - a testament to the age of attention economy. Kenya, with its rapidly growing digital landscape and young population, offers a unique lens into this dynamic. The gig economy thrives, with young people increasingly engaging in digital spaces for work, learning, and entrepreneurship. This shift is also influencing agriculture, as farmers - especially the younger generation - leverage mobile platforms, apps, and SMS-based advisories to improve their practices and connect to the markets. 

Agro-advisory services - critical for fostering sustainable agriculture, are not immune to this competition for engagement. They must compete not only with entertainment and social media but also with other educational and commercial content. Yet, while their importance is undisputed, a pressing question remains: How do we make agro-advisory services not only interesting but also impactful? How can they capture attention in such a crowded digital space while ensuring the advice provided translates into actionable outcomes for farmers? 

Understanding how farmers and youth interact with the digital ecosystem is key to designing agro-advisories that resonate and drive meaningful change. Impact studies on agro-advisories focus on quantitative metrics like reach or adoption rates. These numbers, while useful, often miss the nuance of how farmers perceive, process and act on the advice they receive. What’s missing is an understanding of the why - the cognitive pathways that drive farmers' decisions.  

Why does a farmer trust one message over another? Why do some act, while others hesitate?

To bridge this gap, we used participatory research and cognitive mapping, exploring how farmers interact with platforms like Shamba Shape Up and iShamba - the biggest and most popular farming-focused edutainment platforms in Kenya. These tools, which disseminate farming advice through popular media and SMS, offer a wealth of opportunities to transform agricultural practices. However, the key to unlocking their potential lies in understanding farmers as decision-makers - complex, dynamic, and deeply influenced by context. 

Unpacking farmers’ minds 

Our research was designed around three core themes, each using a combination of exercises to uncover farmer’s decision-making processes: 

  • Brand association: Through free word elicitation and mapping, we explored farmers’ instinctive emotional responses (System one thinking) alongside their more reflective, analytical evaluations (System two thinking). Words like "trust," "reliable," or "relevant" often surfaced. This exercise included questions such as "What’s the first word that comes to mind when you hear Shamba Shape-Up or iShamba?". Localized vignettes (brief, relatable stories) helped participants project their beliefs and experiences, giving us a nuanced picture of how the brand of Shamba Shape-Up is perceived.
  • Effectiveness through storytelling: In group settings, farmers shared actions they had taken - such as testing new planting techniques or adjusting their livestock care - spurred by advisory messages. The conversations revealed not only the utility of the advice but also the emotions (confidence, skepticism, pride) that accompanied these changes. 
  • Challenges and opportunities: What stands in the way of using these services effectively? What could make them better? These direct questions were informed by the earlier exercises and drew on participants’ candid reflections. Farmers shared struggles with accessibility, financial resources or relevance of content, and offered suggestions for improvement. 

The path forward 

In an age where attention is a scarce commodity, agro-advisories must go beyond simply delivering information—they must engage, inspire and drive meaningful action.  The future of agro-advisory services lies in becoming trusted, indispensable information sources for farmers—tools that deliver not just information but real, actionable value.  

By aligning services with the realities of farmers' lives, we can build greater trust, higher adoption, and ultimately, more impactful outcomes. For example, the cognitive mapping exercises in this study already provide clues for design improvements. Leveraging such user-centric insights to create farmer-centered solutions will continue to be a crucial research focus moving forward.

Cover Image: Real-time weather updates from ishamba—because every decision counts in agriculture- Photo credit: ishamba 

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