The Effect of Message Phrasing and Timing on the Use of the Fall Armyworm Monitoring Tool
KEN -19 -1414Last modified on October 29th, 2025 at 12:03 pm
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Abstract
PxD operates the MoA-INFO platform in collaboration with Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture to provide free agricultural recommendations to farmers via SMS.
The Fall Armyworm (FAW) monitoring tool helps farmers assess FAW damage in their fields and provides tailored advice based on their observations. Farmers can access the tool by texting the word “CHECK” (“ANGALIA” in Swahili). As of July 2019, 22% of platform users accessed the FAW monitoring tool but less than 9% of those users completed using the tool.
This A/B test tested whether variations in message phrasing and messaging time of day affected the uptake and completed use of the monitoring tool. Farmers were randomly assigned to receive either a regular invitation message that required them to go through multiple interactions to launch the monitoring tool, or an easy version that allowed farmers to launch the tool in one step. Message delivery time was also randomized across four time slots: 7AM, midday, 3PM, and 6PM.
The easy message led to a 2 percentage point (pp) higher response rate and a significantly higher completion rate than the regular message did. Messages sent at 6PM yielded the highest tool access rate, while midday messages, despite a lower response, resulted in the highest completion rate. These findings inform best practices for driving engagement with interactive advisory tools via SMS. -
Status
Completed
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Start date
Q2 May 2019
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End date
Q2 Jun 2019
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Experiment Location
Kenya
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Partner Organization
Kenya Ministry of Agriculture
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Agricultural season
Long Rains
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Experiment type
A/B test
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Sample frame / target population
MoA-INFO Farmers
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Sample size
40,000
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Outcome type
Service engagement
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Mode of data collection
PxD administrative data
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Research question(s)/hypotheses
1. What invitation message is the best for getting users to access the FAW monitoring tool and complete their use of the tool?
2. What is the best time of day to send these invitation messages? -
Research theme
Message framing, Message timing and frequency
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Research design notes
The total sample for this experiment was 40,000 MoA-INFO users, who were selected randomly from users that opted-in to receive maize messages in the 2019 long rainy season.
First, we randomized the message type between a regular message that gave the user a keyword to access the monitoring tool, and an easy message that bypassed the first question and took users directly into the monitoring tool. The chance of receiving the regular message was equal to the chance of receiving the easy message.
Regular message:
“Hi. Now is a great time to scout your maize for Fall Armyworm! Send CHECK to 40130 for help scouting your maize.”Easy message:
“Are you ready to assess the extent of Fall Armyworm damage on your farm and receive advice? You will need to go to your shamba. A. Yes, B. No”Second, we randomized the time of day that the messages were sent. Each user had a 25% chance of being sent their message at 7AM, midday, 3PM and 6PM.
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Results
Of the two different message phrasings, the easy message received a 2 pp higher response rate and a significantly higher completion rate than the regular message.
The 6PM message returned the highest number of users accessing the monitoring tool. The midday message had the lowest response rate but the highest completion rate of all the message timings. These completion-rate comparisons for the midday message were statistically significant in comparison to the 7AM message but not significant in comparison to the 3PM and 6PM messages.