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Intensive Training to Use the Krishi Katha Service
IND -19 -1263Last modified on December 19th, 2025 at 10:12 am
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Abstract
PxD is working with the West Bengal Accelerated Development of Minor Irrigation Project (WBADMI) to implement a mobile phone-based extension system, Krishi Katha, for smallholder farmers belonging to the Water User Associations (WUAs) formed under the ADMI project across West Bengal. The service uses a two-way Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platform with “outbound” push calls and an “inbound” hotline service.
This experiment tested whether training farmers to use the Krishi Katha inbound service, and reminding them how to use it, improves the outcomes of service engagement, knowledge about pesticides used to tackle various pests and diseases, and adoption of recommended practices involving seed treatment and fertilizer application. Farmers were randomly assigned to three treatment arms at the WUA level so that some farmers had access to the inbound service only, some had access to both inbound and outbound services, and some received an additional package of intensive training and encouragement interventions. We find that the intensive training interventions significantly improved farmers’ use of the inbound service, but did not improve knowledge and adoption outcomes. -
Status
Completed
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Start date
Q2 Jun 2019
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End date
Q4 Dec 2019
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Experiment Location
West Bengal, India
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Partner Organization
ADMI
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Agricultural season
Kharif
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Experiment type
A/B test
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Sample frame / target population
Water User Associations (WUA's) with at least three registered members in PxD's Krishi Katha service
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Sample size
5,000
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Outcome type
Service engagement, Farming practices, Input adoption, Knowledge
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Mode of data collection
PxD administrative data, Phone survey
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Research question(s)
Does training and reminding farmers to use the Krishi Katha service increase their platform engagement and improve their knowledge and adoption of recommended practices?
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Research theme
Agricultural management advice, Communication technology, Message narration, Message timing and frequency, Service design
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Research Design
Farmers were randomly assigned to three treatment arms at the WUA level:
T1 “Inbound only” (n = 99 WUAs): Farmers had access to the inbound service only, meaning that they could call into the Krishi Katha service, but did not receive the weekly advisory push calls. This group was the control group.
T2 “Inbound and outbound” (n = 175 WUAs): Farmers had access to the inbound and outbound services, meaning they could call into the Krishi Katha service and also received weekly advisory push calls.
T3 “Inbound and outbound + Intensive training” (n = 178 WUAs): In addition to the inbound and outbound services, farmers received a bundle of intensive training and encouragement interventions including:
- In-person training from PxD field staff to demonstrate the features of Krishi Katha service and to train farmers to use it. (107 WUAs)
- Remote training from PxD call center staff to explain the features of Krishi Katha service and how to use it. (178 WUAs)
- Training reinforcement SMS message two to three days after field and remote training, to remind farmers about the training and to encourage them to use the Krishi Katha service. (178 WUAs)
- Important questions asked by farmers, curated by PxD agronomists and broadcast as additional voice calls to all T3 farmers in their respective blocks every week for 13 weeks. (178 WUAs)
- Endorsement messages recorded by Presidents/Vice Presidents/Secretaries of participating WUAs to build the farmers’ trust in the Krishi Katha service. (87 WUAs)
We used PxD administrative data to measure farmers’ pick-up and listening rates for the outbound service and farmers’ access to features in the inbound service from July 1, 2019 to November 27, 2019. We conducted a baseline survey of 1,067 farmers prior to the intervention to measure their initial knowledge and adoption levels, and then an endline survey of 1,739 farmers in December 2019 to measure their knowledge and adoption rates.
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Results
We find that the interventions in the T2 “Inbound and outbound” and T3 “Inbound and outbound + Intensive training” groups, when compared to the T1 “Inbound only” control group, led to a statistically significant positive effect on farmers’ use of the inbound service. The intensive interventions in T3 generated a greater impact on farmer engagement than T2 interventions did, with higher use of the inbound service by T3 farmers than by T2 farmers. T3 farmers in the intensive training group were 11 percentage points (pp) more likely to call into the inbound service than farmers in the T1 control group, which had 28% of farmers calling in on average. T2 farmers were 2 pp more likely to call in, even though they did not receive dedicated training. Similarly, farmers from the T3 intensive training group were 6.5 pp more likely to ask a valid question compared to 1.5% of T1 control farmers. T2 and T3 groups had a higher probability of making an unsuccessful call (blank call) by 12 pp and 18 pp respectively (baseline proportion: 19%). A potential explanation for this result is that interventions in T2 and T3 made farmers more interested in the Krishi Katha service, so more of them dialed in to try it out.
Contrary to the objective of the intervention, farmers in the T2 and T3 groups were slightly less likely to answer the knowledge questions correctly in the follow-up survey compared to farmers in the T1 group, although these effects were not statistically significant. T2 and T3 farmers were also slightly less likely to report adopting recommended practices, relative to T1 farmers. Due to the technical nature of the advisory recommendations about fertilizers and which pesticides to use and which to avoid, we speculate that farmers in T2 and T3 may have been overwhelmed by the quantity and complexity of the information they received with the interventions.