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The Influence of Bayer-branded GeoPotato Alerts on Farmers’ Behavior and Perceptions

BAN -18 -1721

Last modified on December 19th, 2025 at 10:41 am

    Basic Information

  • Abstract
    mPower is a Bangladesh-based social enterprise that specializes in technology-based development solutions. As part of its mobile agriculture program, Agro360, mPower sends text messages with crop management recommendations and weather alerts to farmers to improve the efficiency of their crops’ cultivation and promote practices that mitigate the impact of climate change on their crops. PxD and mPower partnered with Bayer, a commercial input supplier, to test branded SMS alerts in the GeoPotato advisory service provided to potato farmers in Bangladesh. The partnership aimed to explore sustainable models for delivering digital advisory services, by testing how branded content affects farmers’ behavior and perceptions.

    This trial assessed whether Bayer-branded GeoPotato alerts influence farmers’ recognition of the brand, use of fungicide, and trust in the GeoPotato service, as well as farmers’ willingness to adopt recommendations. Farmers were randomly assigned to receive either standard alerts or alerts that included Bayer branding. The study measured outcomes related to brand recall, fungicide use, and trust in the service.

    Branded messages led to an 18% increase in the use of Bayer products, without undermining farmers’ trust in the GeoPotato service or their willingness to adopt its recommendations. However, the branded alerts did not have a significant impact on farmers’ ability to recall the Bayer brand or recognize its products. These findings support the potential of NGO partnerships with commercial input suppliers to sustain digital advisory services while boosting their product-uptake.
  • Status
    Completed
  • Start date
    Q4 Dec 2018
  • Experiment Location
    Bangladesh
  • Partner Organization
    mPower
  • Agricultural season
    _N/A

    • Research Design

  • Experiment type
    A/B test
  • Sample frame / target population
    Potato farmers who owned a mobile phone in the Rangpur district
  • Sample size
    1,547
  • Outcome type
    Input adoption
  • Mode of data collection
    Phone survey
  • Research question(s)
    Do recommendations of Bayer-branded fungicides in the GeoPotato advisory service increase the use of Bayer products without undermining farmers’ trust in the service?
  • Research theme
    Extension agents, Input markets, Social learning
  • Research Design

    A total of 1,547 farmers were randomly assigned to the treatment group or the control group. Both groups received the same core GeoPotato service, with the key difference being whether the fungicide advice included a brand reference.

    Farmers in the control group (n = 839) received standard alerts that recommended only the chemical composition of fungicides, without reference to any specific brand. Farmers in the treatment group (n = 708) received branded alerts that explicitly recommended fungicides from Bayer.

    • Results

  • Results
    The branded messages resulted in an 18% increase in the use of Bayer products (64.1% of treatment group farmers reported Bayer product use compared to 54.5% of farmers in the control group) without undermining the trust of farmers in the GeoPotato advice or their willingness to adopt its recommendations. These findings support the model of a partnership between the GeoPotato service and commercial input suppliers, such as Bayer, to ensure a sustainable source of funding for the service while increasing the exposure and sales of the supplier’s products.

    Farmers’ ability to recall the Bayer brand and their recognition of Bayer products were not significantly impacted by the Bayer-branded alerts.

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