Surveying social media users interested in agriculture in Kenya

Justification for a focus on Kenya was explained in the sectionExamining large-scale groups in social agriculture in Kenya. This section expands upon these findings with results from a survey of more than 300 participants taken from a wide sample of Kenyans working in agriculture using social media. Participants included a mix of genders, age groups, and occupations including farmers, agronomists and agricultural students. Using the survey we aimed to tackle some of the questions below:

A map showing which regions our 300+ survey participants came from in Kenya (hover over for more info)

How critical is Facebook to everyday agricultural livelihoods in Kenya? The survey found that Facebook was the most important platform for social agriculture in Kenya. However, audiences in North America and Europe increasingly want to leave or reduce dependence on Facebook. Is this finding mirrored in the survey results from Kenya?
How do people value different practices in social agriculture? As discussed in the previous section Examining large-scale groups in social agriculture in Kenya, marketing is a dominant activity on large-scale Facebook groups (at least by post volume). Information sharing is prominent (particularly information requests). What do users prioritize in their own minds when it comes to marketing versus information sharing?
What are users’ perceptions of trust and safety? Facebook has suffered a crisis of trust globally. Is this finding reflected in the experience of people using it in relation to their everyday agricultural work in Kenya?
How do different groups experience social agriculture in Kenya? Is the experience of social agriculture different for men than for women? Are there differences based on age, or type of occupation in agriculture (e.g., farmer vs. agronomist)?

Notes on survey method

Creation. Participants received a digital survey built on the microlearning platform Learn.ink. The survey’s appearance to participants appears in the example on the right. An engaging conversational user experience was mixed with images and videos to help achieve impressive completion rates. More than 300 survey completion were quickly and efficiently generated.

Sharing. A Facebook advertising campaign targeted users over 18 years of age living in Kenya with an interest in agriculture (i.e., the FBinAg audience specification used in earlier analysis). The other half of the total number of participants was obtained by asking a small group of Kenyan farmers and agronomists working on social media to share the survey with their own networks of agricultural contacts, targeting those that used social media for agricultural purposes.

Gender parity. The survey sample achieved close to a 50:50 split of male to female users. (Data showed that surveys delivered via social media campaigns in Kenya to the target audience naturally skewed 70:30 toward men without intervention). Two tools were employed to counteract this skew: (1) campaigns that exclusively targeted women on Facebook and (2) specific requests to individuals to source a 50:50 mix of men and women.

Survey example on the microlearning platform learn.ink

[Source: Learn.ink farmer survey (download chart data)](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTVM71b7sxny2vNwCqsblX7QLe241VAd2m_4rdLixxWgJavqCPe9X4eRDnayacaeGv_BYzefJeNV88R/pubchart?oid=281254995&format=interactive)

Source: Learn.ink farmer survey (download chart data)

Sample occupational mix. Participants included wide variety of individuals working in agriculture. This was reflected when users described their role in agriculture (as seen in the chart below). The three major occupations of users were:

Farmers (44%)
Agronomists (24%)
Students (14%)

Source: Learn.ink farmer survey (download chart data)

How critical is Facebook to everyday agricultural livelihoods in Kenya?

Overall, users reported that social media has been good for farming. Three-quarters of participants said that a time before social media and farming was worse than their current situation; only 7% thought farming was better without social media. This finding was consistent across gender, age, and occupation. In addition, when asked about the general experience of social media, people rated it over 4 out of 5 on average across every group.

This point should be reemphasized for a balanced analysis in what follows:

Source: Learn.ink farmer survey (download chart data)

220px-Facebook_Thumb_icon.svg.png

Social media is perceived as a net positive for farming in Kenya by those working in agriculture. This doesn't mean social media is working perfectly (as shown below), but there are lessons that should be taken from what is working well (as well as not so well) for agriculture.

Source: Learn.ink farmer survey (download chart data)