Digital agriculture
Planting and weather advice by phone
Short seasonal messages in Kinyarwanda, sent to farmer groups by SMS and WhatsApp. When to plant, what is moving through the district, and what the nearest market paid last week.
- District
- Nyamagabe
- Period
- 2026
- Status
- Ongoing
- 340
- farmers on the list
- 26
- messages sent per season
This started as a WhatsApp group for one training cohort that did not want to stop talking after the season ended. It now runs as a seasonal service for several groups.
What goes out
A planting window when the forecast firms up. A pest warning when one is confirmed nearby. A market price note on the day before the main market. Nothing else, because a channel people mute is worth nothing.
Who writes it
Field staff draft in Kinyarwanda and a district agronomist reviews anything technical before it goes out.
What we are testing
Whether farmers who receive the messages plant closer to the recommended window than those who do not. The first full comparison covers the 2026 A season.
Newsletter
Field notes from Rwanda
A short email every month or so. Training reports, harvest results, and what we learned along the way. No noise.