Michigan State Human-Centered AgTools

Agriculture remains the dominant economic activity for people (especially women) in rural Africa. Food production (planting seeds, weeding, etc.) is arduous and time-consuming. Prior efforts to develop technologies that assist farmers with this have primarily focused on mechanization. However, most African farmers continue to use hand tools; in particular, the short-handled hoe.  Other than replacing wood or stone with iron blades, hoe design has remained unchanged. Long-term use of these tools results in crippling lower back pain. To address this problem, we will use a human-centered design approach to develop new and improved hand tools for farmers. We will collaborate with local craftsmen to manufacture the re-designed tools. Our ultimate goal is to scale the human-centered design process; that is, to teach local craftsmen how to collaborate with smallholder farmers to design locally relevant tools that are safer for farmers to use and that also improve agricultural outcomes.

Smallholder farmers in rural Africa number around 33 million, represent 80% of all farms in the region, and contribute up to 90% of food production in some countries. Agriculture has long been the dominant economic activity for people (especially women) on the continent. Food production (digging, weeding, planting seeds, harvesting, etc.) is arduous, and time-consuming. Prior efforts to develop technologies that assist farmers with this work have primarily focused on mechanization. However, most African farmers continue to use hand tools. Smallholder farmers’ farms are typically too small to profitably support mechanization (e.g., the purchase and use of a tractor). Most farmers also lack the financial resources to switch to more labor-efficient technologies.   

The human damage caused by long-term use of hand tools is significant. To use them, women must constantly  bend and squat. This leads to body aches, especially pain in their backs, hips, and shoulders. Prior research suggests that weeding contributes to severe musculoskeletal pain disorders among African women.  Using hand tools for farming is also tiring—it takes a long time to complete a piece of land. Maintaining these tools is also expensive; they must be regularly sharpened. Smallholder farmers need well-designed, locally available, and affordable tools.

To address this problem—poorly designed tools for women farmers—this project will bring together young entrepreneurs (i.e., blacksmiths, welders and engineers) and women farmers in Kenya. Human-centered design (HCD), is a promising strategy increasingly used to develop locally relevant agricultural interventions. HCD’s focus on empathy, ideation, and evaluation is well suited for designing innovative tools that are safer for smallholder farmers to use. We will implement the three phases of HCD (understanding, ideation, and implementation) by developing and evaluating a collections of new tools to support, for example, weeding. During our understanding phase we will use group interview and observation methods to understand what agricultural tools farmers have and their experiences using them. Next, we will ask farmers to participate in design workshops (ideation phase). The co-design activities used in the workshops will include a sketching exercise. We will then share our findings from these workshops with local craftsmen and ask them to develop prototype tools, that are based on the outcomes from our understanding and ideation phases. We will then evaluate the new tools using survey and observation methods. We will assess farmers’ reactions to the prototypes; in particular, the new tools’ health impacts.

Our solution serves two populations: smallholder farmers and local craftsmen. We will use HCD—a process that supports understanding these populations' needs and that will also deeply engage them in developing  solutions to their problems. A unique aspect of our project is that we are not the designers.  Instead, the designers are local craftsmen who work in rural Kenya. Outcomes of our project will include new tools that, for example, might be lighter weight or made out of better materials than the existing tools farmers use. Such design modifications can result in tools that are safer for farmers to use, and that allow them to work faster. Ultimately, these new tools can improve agriculture production.

The new tools will be manufactured locally, and thus provide employment for small and medium-scale entrepreneurs (i.e., craftsmen). This project has the potential to provide this population with a new way to earn money. More broadly we hope to build capacity so that craftsmen can use  HCD to engage with members of their communities, design the niche technical solutions they need, and produce them locally.

By addressing the problem of poorly designed hand tools our project will benefit two  populations: smallholder farmers and local craftsmen. Significantly, we will provide both groups with knowledge about HCD; that is, knowledge craftsmen can use to produce improved tools and that farmers can use to communicate with craftsmen about the tools they need. Ultimately, by scaling the HCD process  craftsmen will have a new livelihood strategy and farmers will have  new tool that reduce the drudgery associated with food production.

HCD is generally applied to developing innovative digital technologies. Here, we will apply it to redesigning an important nondigital technology—handtools. The innovations farmers may not need to be radically new and high tech. Gradual improvements to the technologies they already had may be sufficient. By narrowly focusing on digital technologies, designers  risk overlooking other significant technologies in peoples’ lives and, more broadly, the ways technological innovation has existed on the continent long before colonialism and the arrival of digital technologies (e.g., mobile phones).

Human-centered design is also referred to as user-centered design and design thinking. It is a process that originates from research conducted in ergonomics, computer science, and artificial intelligence. It has evolved from an engineering-based approach that just considered the user, to one that broadly encompasses placing our understanding of people, their concerns, and their activities at the forefront in the design of new technology.

Central tenets of HCD include developing empathy for users, understanding users’ contexts, iterating continuously (e.g., refining ideas based on user feedback), and embracing ambiguity (e.g., it is difficult to anticipate or control outcomes of the approach). The approach generally involves three phases: developing an explicit understanding of users, generating and prototyping design ideas, and evaluating them with end users.

While HCD has traditionally been applied to consumer challenges, it is increasingly being used to address global development issues (e.g., sustainable food systems).

HCD has long been used to develop successful products.

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To date ~150 farmer and 12 craftsmen have participated in our project. IN one year, we anticipate doubling this money and they scaling our approach up to 3000 farmers and 75-100 craftsmenm

We are working to secure funding so that we can continue to work with the farmer groups to assess the human health impacts of the redesigned hand-tools. Future research will investigate the health impacts of the tools; we will use the findings to improve their ergonomics. We will also conduct an economic analysis of the tools to determine the equilibrium point between affordability for the farmers and profitability for the craftsmen.

To make our project sustainable, we are engaging with government officials and polytechnics to explore methods for teaching craftsmen about HCD, and to support their efforts to fabricate more tools for farmers.

Our project began in June 2017. A small grant ($50,000) from Michigan State University, that encourages innovative and equitable partnerships between Rural Outreach Africa, and African institutions supported our project.  Lack of funding is our primary barrier.

We are working to secure more funding.

Our project represents a constructive and genuine collaboration between Western academics—who have a combined 35+ years’ experience conducting design-oriented and participatory fieldwork in Kenya—and “Rural Outreach Africa” (or ROA), an established NGO with 30+ years’ experience developing and implementing projects which support more than 50,000 Kenyan farmers. Similar to the academic researchers, ROA’a activities are guided by a philosophy of participatory development.

Two researcher are university professors who conduct research in technology
and development. The other team member works as researcher and development practitioner for the project’s partner.

Our multidisciplinary project team includes design, agriculture, and business. This project builds on two team members’ combined 30 years of experience conducting research in East Africa, experience developing commercially available mobile apps, and an ongoing partnership with Rural Outreach Africa.

Dr. Wyche’s educational and practical experiences are directly relevant this project.  Prior to earning her PhD in “Human-Centered Computing” at Georgia Tech, she developed commercially available housewares products and was awarded 12 ‘design patents’ for this work. She has also been conducting design-oriented research in Kenya since 2010. Her research has been funded by the NSF, USAID, Google, and Facebook. These funded projects have included working with local institutions, such as Mediae (a Kenyan broadcast company) to develop educational videos that teach rural farmers how to use their mobile phones. These videos were featured in “Shamba Shape-Up”, a popular Kenyan reality show, and were broadcast to nearly 8 million viewers in East Africa. 

Dr. Wyche has taught “Creating Human-Centered Technology” for 6 years, a capstone course that introduces MSU students to the design approach. She has also taught a condensed version of this course to students at a Kenyan institution (Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology).

Rural Outreach Africa (ROA), is an established NGO with 30+ years of experience developing and implementing projects that support more than 50,000 Kenyan farmers. See: https://ruraloutreachafrica.org

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To secure additional funding for our project.

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MIT's D.Lab