WhatsApp Guide for Nigerian Smallholder Farmers
Designing a simple, trustworthy way for farmers to communicate, learn, and stay safe online.
In Nigeria, smallholder farmers grow 90% of the nation’s food, yet they often work with limited access to formal training, agricultural extension services, or reliable information sources. WhatsApp, used by 95% of farmers, has become their primary digital tool, a place to ask questions, share advice, find buyers, verify information, and build community.
But with opportunity comes risk: misinformation, scams, language barriers, and inconsistent digital literacy threaten the reliability of these groups. This project set out to create something practical and impactful: a clear, culturally sensitive WhatsApp guide that helps farmers communicate safely, effectively, and collaboratively.
Client: Bop Inc (concept project)
Role: Strategic Designer
Skills: Social innovation, communication design, contextual research, behavioural insights, design for emerging markets
Impact Proof Point:
I translated barriers around digital literacy, misinformation, and community trust into a simple four-principle communication guide that helps farmers use WhatsApp safely and effectively.
Overview
Working with insights from Bop Inc. and Nigerian farmer cooperatives, we designed a simple, shareable guide that strengthens trustworthy digital communities. The result is a set of guidelines that farmers can easily apply every day, whether sharing crop advice, checking market prices, or learning from peers.
At the heart of the solution are four memorable principles:
Respect, Authenticate, Cultivate, and Articulate.
Together, they help farmers connect with confidence and avoid misinformation.
Challenge
Through research and interviews, several challenges became clear:
Many farmers have limited digital literacy or use basic feature phones.
Language diversity makes communication difficult across regions.
There’s high exposure to scams, fake products, and false agricultural advice.
Social media feels overwhelming without guidance on best practices.
Women farmers often rely on shared or borrowed devices to participate.
These barriers limit the potential of WhatsApp as a tool for learning, safety, and growth.
The key question:
How might we help farmers use WhatsApp more safely and meaningfully, without adding complexity?
Synthesis of insights revealing the key opportunities and impact points for improving farmer-to-farmer communication.
Approach
Our process began with analysing the social media landscape farmers operate in. We explored:
Digital Context
WhatsApp is used for:
verifying agricultural tips
buying and selling produce
collaborating with local networks
accessing new information and markets
Barriers & Risks
Farmers face challenges with:
literacy and language differences
scams and fake products
unstable network, costs, and access to smartphones
uncertainty about what is appropriate to share
Opportunity
Despite limitations, WhatsApp has potential to:
spread knowledge rapidly
connect farmers across regions
support peer learning
validate agricultural information
strengthen trust within cooperatives
These insights shaped a guide designed to be clear, memorable, and universally accessible.
Concept: A Guide Built Around Four Principles
We developed a simple, actionable framework farmers can use when interacting online. Each principle is represented visually on the poster and follows the natural flow of communication.
RESPECT
Encourage kind, open, and constructive communication.
AUTHENTICATE
Share only verified, trustworthy information, especially when offering advice or forwarding content.
CULTIVATE
Keep the group focused on farming, avoiding spam or irrelevant content.
ARTICULATE
Communicate clearly using photos, polls, and simple language to overcome literacy barriers.
These four pillars appear large and visually distinct on the poster guide to ensure they are easy to remember and follow.
Respect: Encouraging kind, open, and supportive communication within the group.
Authenticate: Sharing only trustworthy, verified agricultural information.
Cultivate: Keeping conversations focused on farming to reduce noise and spam.
Articulate: Communicating clearly using simple language, photos, or polls.
Outcome
The final deliverables include:
A clear WhatsApp best-practice poster, designed for print, sharing, and low-bandwidth environments
Regional QR codes, helping farmers quickly join their local WhatsApp communities
Additional pages offering deeper guidance with examples, written in accessible language
Real-life placement mockups, showing how the guide can appear in public settings like community spaces or bus stops
Together, these materials provide farmers with a trusted reference point that supports safer, more effective communication.
Extended guidance page offering clear examples of safe and effective WhatsApp communication.
Additional tips that help farmers navigate misinformation and stay safe online.
Impact
The guide creates value in three ways:
Knowledge
Farmers learn how to share information responsibly and verify agricultural claims before acting on them.
Safety
The community is better protected from fraud, fake inputs, and harmful misinformation.
Awareness
The guide helps reduce digital complexity, making online farming groups more accessible to farmers with different literacy levels.
Most importantly, the project strengthens trust within farmer communities, enabling WhatsApp to become a reliable space for collaboration, learning, and opportunity.
Billboard design bringing the guide into public spaces to reach farmers beyond digital channels. (Real-world mockup showing how the guide can appear in community environments such as bus stops.)