Login to view full entry:
The Effect of a Language Prompt on Farmers’ Platform Engagement
KEN -18 -1395Last modified on October 29th, 2025 at 12:03 pm
-
Abstract
PxD operates the MoA-INFO platform in collaboration with Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture to provide free agricultural recommendations to farmers via SMS. To recruit farmers to the service, PxD worked with Safaricom (a large Kenyan phone company) to send SMS messages to owners of mobile phones in rural areas, with a keyword in English and Swahili (“FARM” or “SHAMBA”) that they could use to register their phone number. Farmers who texted the keyword to the MoA-INFO platform were sent a registration survey.
Safaricom sent messages in the language that users chose for the keyword to register their phone number. We tested whether giving users the option to switch languages affects the likelihoods of their registration on, retention in, and engagement with the system. When given the chance, 22% of users chose a different language from their keyword language. Having the option to switch the language increased the probability of completing the registration survey on the first day, but did not lead to a sustained increase in engagement. -
Status
Completed
-
Start date
Q3 Jul 2018
-
End date
Q3 Aug 2018
-
Experiment Location
Kenya
-
Partner Organization
Kenya Ministry of Agriculture
-
Agricultural season
Long Rains
-
Experiment type
A/B test
-
Sample frame / target population
MoA-INFO Platform Users (farmers)
-
Sample size
97,091
-
Outcome type
Service engagement
-
Mode of data collection
Partner administrative data
-
Research question(s)/hypotheses
1. Do farmers switch between English and Swahili languages?
2. What effect does having the option to switch have on the likelihood of (a) completing registration on the first day, (b) opting-out of the platform, (c) accessing the menu, and (d) engaging in the FAW monitoring activity (an interactive element on the platform)? -
Research theme
Communication technology, Message narration
-
Research design notes
This experiment tested whether prompting users to select a preferred language at the beginning of an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) call affects engagement. Participants were randomized into two groups:
- Treatment group (n = 48,312): Received a first message asking for their preferred language before proceeding to the content questions.
- Control group (n = 48,779): Did not receive the first message of language selection and proceeded directly to the registration survey content questions.
Randomization was conducted at the individual level. The final sample comprised 97,091 participants.
-
Results
From the treatment group, 22.64% of farmers receiving messages in Swahili switched to English, and 22.29% of farmers receiving messages in English switched to Swahili. Receiving the language prompt made users 3.7 percentage points (pp) more likely to complete the registration survey on the first day but less likely to interact further with the system. Across the full sample, treatment group users were 6.4 pp less likely to access the menu (statistically significant at the 10% level) and also less likely to access the FAW monitoring activity (not statistically significant). Receiving a first message about preferred language had no statistically significant effect on whether farmers opted-out of the platform.