Hiding in the coffee trees

‘Oh, what is that?’

‘It is a new sign that tells the weather information, brought to us by the mzungus (white people)’

‘That is really useful for me’

This is the start of the conversation we figured out some farmers had, when they were bringing their cherries to the coffee factory. Unfortunately, they did not have this conversation in English, but in Kikuyu, the local tribe language. So, we took the freedom to translate it ourselves. They were talking about the big wooden sign that we placed on the factory to test the part of the concept in which weather information is showed in a non-digital way.

The sign stood on a strategically chosen place, so that the farmers always needed to pass it. We tested it on two coffee factories and especially at one factory it was a big happening. Not because there was a sign on the factory, but because there were mzungus on the factory. Our presence took all the attention away from the sign. We ended up hiding between the coffee trees to see what was happening (we could actually do some picking in the meantime, if no one was near the sign). The factory manager was really proud of this new sign and she thought it was her task to inform everybody about it. Although it was nice that she was so involved, in the end we needed to ask her to stand away from the sign for a while, so we could see what was happening if the farmers were not informed or drawn to the sign by the manager. Luckily farmers also stopped at the sign when she was not there, and without exception they were positive about it. Several points of improvement came up, which we will process when we get back to the Netherlands.

At these same factories we tested the computer interface we designed with the factory managers. Before this test we had no clue if the managers were able to use a computer, but now we found out that they have enough experience to operate a program like the one we designed and more importantly: that they actually all have a computer at the factory. Of course the program is not yet perfect, so we found a few points of improvement.

On Wednesday we visited the Nyeri Hill farm, which is about the size of 400 smallholder farms. Paulien had already been there before, but for Jaimie and Wilco it was interesting to see the differences between this professional, structured coffee estate and the smallholder farmers we had visited before. The field manager of the estate reviewed our design and commented on it and together we figured out how our design could also be useful for coffee estates.

 On another note: we are happy to inform you that we have a visitor here in Kenya. Our coach from the TU Delft is now in Nyeri. He joined us on one of our testing days. He was lucky, because this was the day that we had two focus groups. These were held on two different factories, so he was able to attend the focus groups and to see the factories.

So with our coach there as well, we tested our wireless weather information system with some farmers (2 groups of 5 and 6 farmers, both groups received different types of messages) and we discussed the results and experiences these farmers had. Overall the system was well liked and also understood by the farmers. We got good insights in how they were using it and how we could improve it. All farmers were asking us when it would be officially operational, but all we could reply for now is that we hope it will be as soon as possible.

Next to improvements we could make, we also learned a lot about the context of our system and ways of implementation. For example, we saw that the position of the smallholder farmer is really weak compared to the power the marketing agents and buyers have. A whole new research towards positions of all stakeholders could be very useful, but unfortunately not in our reach during this project. Still, it is good to see our project in the bigger picture.

In our first visit to Kenya we told all the farmers that we would return to Kenya and so we did. Only this time we did not need to do interviews with all the farmers again. To not upset them (if you visit one, the word spreads) we paid a visit to all the farmers to bring them the photos of the first trip. The farmers really enjoyed having us over again, even if it was for only a short while.

At the end of every meeting we were asked the question: ‘When do you come back?’ It is hard to look a person in the eye and tell him that you are most probably not coming back, even if you really want to. We needed to explain several times that we are only doing this project for a half-year and that after that the company will take over. (But if we come to Kenya again, we will most certainly visit those nice farmers again!)