By Joyous Tata and Richard Githaiga, given at the 2015 MEAS Symposium

1. Modernizing Extension and Advisory Services(MEAS)
Symposium, 2015
“Strengthening Extension and Advisory Services for Lasting Impacts”
20 F Street Conference Center, Washington, D.C., June 3-5, 2015
Delivering the Farmbook Suite:
Review of MEAS Pilot Project in Kenya
Dr. Joyous S. Tata and Richard K. Githaiga

2. What is Farmbook Suite?
 Consists of three ICT tools currently available
i. Map & Track
ii. e-Learning (SMART Skills curriculum)
iii. e-Biz Planner (formerly known as Farmbook)
 One tool in study to be developed : Farmer
feedback
 All tools being shifted onto Android platforms
 Integrated data from all three Apps, stored and
analyzed in the cloud

3. Piloting eLearning in Kenya
Farmbook training in Nyeri, Kenya 2013
• Demand driven
• Capacity building
• Training
• Mentoring
• Evaluation
• Field agents train
farmer groups
• Map and Track to
monitor training
delivered

4. Evaluating the MEAS project
 Goal – Assess the challenges
and impacts of the Farmbook
Suite
 Research Hypotheses
1. Trainers – No significant
difference between the impact of
extension staff trained to use
Farmbook on farmer livelihood
and extension staff who have not
received the training
2. Farmers – No significant
difference in productivity
between farmers who have
participated in Farmbook
training and farmers who have
not participated in the training
 Data – questionnaires, focus
groups, field activity reports,
review workshops
Business planning with women farmers

5. Preliminary results
 Farmbook well received by
extension agents but they
are constrained by:
 Lack of devices
 Lack of funds to bring agents in
to county capital to get phones
installed and trained
 Sufficient funds to cover license
costs
 At the sub-national level in
Kenya, counties have
expressed interest in using
Farmbook for:
 Farmer registration
 Service delivery tracking
 Developing business plans with
farmers
Extension agents with farmer group

6. Thank you!