Awareness of Promoted Practices

The indicator assesses the proportion of target farmers who are aware of the promoted agronomic practices and their main benefits (a similar indicator can be used for any other target group). Such data helps you design the focus of your promotion activities and evaluate their effectiveness and reach.

Determine the indicator's value by using the following methodology:

1) Prepare a list of the desired practices that you want to measure. Focus on the most important practices only – avoid being too ambitious. Decide how many agronomic practices (and their benefits) a respondent needs to be aware of to be considered as “aware of the promoted agronomic practices and their main benefits” (e.g. at least 3 out of 5 practices).

2) For each promoted agronomic practice, design the interview questions that you will use to assess whether the respondents are aware of it. Ensure that the questions are specific enough without leading the respondents to a particular answer. If you are concerned that the respondents might say what they think the ‘correct answer’ is (instead of what they really know), consider asking indirectly. For example, if you are promoting contour planting, instead of asking: “Are you aware of contour planting?” you can ask: “During the planting season, what can farmers do to prevent erosion on a sloping field?” If the desired response is not provided, the enumerators should probe at least once by asking, for example: “What else can they do during the planting season?” Strictly avoid asking very general questions, such as “How can you prevent erosion?” (There are many ways to prevent erosion and the respondent might not mention the one you are interested in, even if s/he knows about it).

3) For each promoted agronomic practice, design open-ended interview questions to use to assess whether the respondents are aware of its benefits. For example: “What would you say are the most important benefits of contour planting?” Keep probing: “What other benefits are you aware of?” At the same time, define 1) what the key benefits that farmers should know are; and 2) how many (or which) benefits the farmer needs to be aware of in order to be considered as ‘aware of the benefits’. Be realistic – avoid having overly high expectations.

4) Conduct interviews with a representative sample of the targeted farmers, always first asking them about their awareness of a given practice and then (only if they are aware) about the perceived benefits.

5) To calculate the indicator’s value, divide the number of respondents aware of the promoted agronomic practices and their benefits by the total number of interviewed respondents (excluding those who refused to answer one or more questions). Multiply the result by 100 to convert it to a percentage. 

Disaggregate the data by gender, location, age group, wealth category and other criteria relevant to the context and focus of your intervention.

1) It is recommended that you report separately on the percentage of respondents who:

  - i) are aware of the practice but not of its benefits and ii) are aware of the practice and at the same time are aware of its benefits

  - are aware of each of the different promoted benefits (for example, how many said that contour planting reduces erosion, how many said that it helps with retaining water, how many said that it helps with increasing yields, etc.)

Using such data can increase the effectiveness of any promotion activities.

2) It is very important that the enumerators are well trained in probing methods, so that the respondents mention all the benefits they are aware of. Without proper probing, it is likely that they might forget to mention some of the benefits they know. At the same time, the probing must be done sensitively, so that respondents do not feel pushed to mention more benefits. 

3) The choice of the benefits listed in a questionnaire should be finalized only after the survey is piloted, as the respondents might mention benefits that you did not think of when designing the survey. If the benefits are valid, include them among the pre-defined answers. At the same time, encourage the enumerators to also record any additional benefits that are not listed among the pre-defined answers but which the respondents mentioned during the survey. This data can help you when promoting the desired practices.   

4) Consider also collecting and analysing data on who people heard about the product / practice from. This might help you understand whether any changes in people’s awareness can be attributed to your intervention.

5) Coordinating the collection of this data with any promotion campaigns or initiatives will help you assess their effectiveness.