Interactive Voice Response: Its Growing Role in Agricultural Extension Services

Photo Credit: Joan Lewa

Event Information

From India and Ethiopia to Malawi and Madagascar, interactive voice response (IVR) is increasingly being used by agricultural extension services. Often detested by Americans because of overuse in customer service lines ("Your call is important to us..."), IVR does not have the same reputation in developing countries. In fact, it overcomes language and literacy barriers, is being used by millions of farmers, and mobile network operators are signing up across sub-Saharan Africa to allow each farmer a handful of free calls monthly.  

This webinar explained what interactive voice response is and provided an overview of software platforms that help organizations launch and operate IVR services relatively easily. Participants then learned more about how two such services from Awaaz.de and Health Network International (HNI) work; how messages are crafted and monitored; and ways IVR is being integrated with other means of delivering agricultural information.  

Speakers

Judy Payne

Judy Payne (moderator)

(Moderator) USAID Bureau for Food Security

Judy Payne is USAID’s ICT Advisor for Agriculture, where she helps USAID missions and their projects around the world use information and communications technologies as a tool for economic growth and agriculture development. Her work includes helping USAID’s implementing partners find ways to use ICT-enabled approaches to increase their projects’ success in sustainable and scalable ways.

Rikin Gandhi

Rikin Gandhi

Digital Green

Rikin Gandhi is chief executive officer of Digital Green. He studied the use of technology for agricultural development in Microsoft Research’s Technology for Emerging Markets group. He has a master's degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from MIT and a bachelor's degree in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University.

David McAfee

David McAfee

Human Network International

David McAfee is the President and CEO of Human Network International, a non-profit organization he co-founded in 2007. HNI’s mission is to provide organizations and individuals the opportunity to use information and communication technology in innovative, productive and sustainable ways. In 2010 HNI launched the 321 Service, a search engine where there is no Internet. HNI is currently scaling up the 321 Service in 15 African and Asian countries. Mr. McAfee has over 25 years of development experience beginning in Peace Corps in Gabon. Mr. McAfee was the PSI Director in Rwanda and Madagascar and Regional Director for southern Africa.

Neil Patel

Neil Patel

Awaaz.De

Neil Patel is the Co-founder and CEO of Awaaz.De. Born and raised in California, Patel holds bachelor's degrees in computer science and business from UC Berkeley, and a doctorate in computer science from Stanford University. He completed his dissertation on a mobile voice-based social platform for small farmers in India to access and share agricultural advice. The system was a success, and organizations across India (agriculture, health, education, women's empowerment, labor, microfinance) asked him to help apply the same technology to their own information dissemination and communication needs. Working with his advisor, UC Berkeley Professor Tapan Parikh, led Patel to the founding of Awaaz.De.

Event Registration Information

Spotlight Event

Online and In-person Event
United States

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