With enrollment coming to a close, myAgro’s field leadership team is getting ready to take on the next step in our model: payments. Last week, the leadership teams in Senegal and Mali gathered to take part in payment preparation trainings. Taking place just before the end of enrollment, the trainings focused on how to encourage farmers to make payments in a way that’s adapted to farmers’ activities and needs. The results of these trainings are that as many farmers as possible are able to finish their myAgro packages and increase their harvests and income.
The training in Senegal (see photo) consisted of discussions, idea-sharing activities, and role plays designed around building the capacity of the field team to encourage farmers to make payments towards their packages.
“We’re currently learning the profiles of all types of farmers and savings groups, and for each one we’re learning different metaphors and strategies to use to best target them,” explains Assane, Field Coordinator of the Bambey district.
The team brainstormed how to talk to these different farmers, such as older farmers with many fields or women with smaller plots of land, in order to maximize their chances of completing their packages.
“These strategies we’re learning will help farmers with financial planning,” Assane adds, “They aren’t used to financial planning where they need to pay little by little each week to reach a goal. But thanks to myAgro, they have guidance to reach their payment goals; and if they reach their payment goals, they’ll have a good harvest.”
In addition to learning to strategically target farmers, the team was trained on coaching skills, such as active listening, how to ask the right questions, and how to challenge and motivate the person being coached. This event was the kick off for the preparation of payments, which will continue as field leadership trains agents, who will then train vendors using the coaching skills they learned.
