Ten years in Kenya: reflecting on evidence, learning and what comes next

Ten years ago, PxD set out to answer a simple yet ambitious question: could rigorous evidence and mobile technology help smallholder farmers make better decisions—and could governments deliver it at scale? 

On 9 March, we gathered in Nairobi with government partners, researchers, and collaborators, an opportunity to reflect on what we have learnt and where the work goes next. 

Kenya: where PxD’s story begins

Kenya has shaped much of how PxD thinks about its work. Some of the earliest trials took place here, led by PxD’s co-founder, Michael Kremer, testing simple SMS messages to farmers about agricultural lime use.

Those experiments raised as many questions as they answered, but they pointed to something worth pursuing: that timely, practical information delivered well could support farmer decision-making. That early work has stayed with us.  

A decade of learning, openly shared

Over the past decade, PxD has run more than 36 randomized experiments with smallholder farmers in Kenya, in partnership with the Kenya Ministry of Agriculture, One Acre Fund, CABI, KALRO, and the Development Innovation Lab. The findings have not always pointed in the direction we expected. When farmers faced Fall Armyworm outbreaks, engagement with PxD’s two-way SMS campaigns doubled. Work with One Acre Fund suggested that removing real barriers often mattered more than how messages were worded. Each experiment has shaped the next and opened up new questions.
PxD recently launched an open-access Experiment Registry documenting all of our trials, including the ones that did not go as planned. We think the field moves further when evidence is shared honestly. 

Looking forward together

We are grateful to everyone who joined us in Nairobi.

The discussions that followed were a useful reminder of how much remains to be learned, and how much the next phase of this work depends on the partnerships built over the past decade. 

More learnings, films, and events will follow as we continue to reflect on what ten years of evidence means for the farmers and systems we work with.