In Pursuit of Potential

September 12, 2022

Par Daisy Leigh, Country Expansion Manager

After preliminary research showed Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana to be the most promising countries to expand into, the next step for the NCE team was to conduct in-country research (ground truthing) to verify our findings. Atlas AI had proposed 20 villages deemed to be high potential.

This choice was informed by :

Which crops were grown (the variety of crops and to what extent) 🌽🌾🍅
The village’s location (distance from the [economic] capital)📍
Infrastructure (road network) 🛣️
Digital infrastructure (mobile network coverage, Mobile Money services) 📶📵
The presence of competition 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧

Atlas AI village potential evaluation map, Ghana

We used the following perimeters to verify our preliminary research findings :

3 countries
300 farmers per country
20 villages per country
60% female
20% leaders

Once our target population was defined we developed a questionnaire which sought to find out, among other things, farmers’ habits for acquiring inputs. Do they buy them? Where from? How do they pay for them? What support do they need to farm more productively?

To conduct the research, we established contracts with local market research teams in each country in order to verify that the 20 villages recommended by AtlasAI corresponded to our 5 criteria and proposed alternative villages based on their interviews with agricultural regional authorities and experience.

Training of field researchers in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire

The market research company was in charge of recruiting and training a team of surveyors in how to conduct the questionnaire. Much time was spent ensuring the questions were easy to understand and worded unambiguously.

Once the fine details were hammered out, the field research began. The surveyors established meetings with local cooperative leaders and established an agenda. Research was conducted very early in the morning to enable farmers to go to their fields and prepare their fields for the coming rains. Surveys ran throughout May (CIV) and June (GHA and NGA) and were conducted using the application SurveyToGo. This allowed data to be collected in real time and enabled the NCE team to provide feedback to the field research team on how answers were recorded. As well as monitoring the incoming data, both Fabienne and Daisy assisted in field research in CIV and Ghana.

Mme Ayaba Davodoun, president of the Coop-Kofida in the village of Bognonzra Côte d’Ivoire

In NCE’s 3rd blog article we’ll share the main takeaways from the surveys.