Master Of Science In Agricultural Information And Communication Management postgraduate personal statement example

Personal statement example

Every evening at the milk collection centre where I work as a records clerk, the system sends each supplier a text message showing the litres they delivered that day and their running total for the month. When the cooperative introduced these messages, I assumed farmers would simply welcome them. Instead, I spent the first few weeks answering questions at the counter. Some farmers could not tell which number was the day's delivery and which was the monthly total. Others had phones shared within the household, so the message reached a son in Nakuru rather than the woman who did the milking. One elderly supplier kept his own notebook and trusted it over the text. Nothing was wrong with the data. The problem was how it reached people and whether it made sense once it arrived. That gap between accurate information and useful information is what I want to study at postgraduate level.

My BSc in Agricultural Economics gave me a grounding in farm management, marketing and research methods. In my final-year project I surveyed smallholder dairy farmers in two sub-locations about where they obtained information on milk prices and on input costs such as feed and veterinary services. I designed a short questionnaire, piloted it with five farmers and revised several questions that people interpreted differently from what I intended, such as the meaning of 'regular' contact with an extension officer. Most respondents named neighbours, cooperative staff and radio before any formal advisory source, although my sample was small and not designed to be representative. The most useful lesson was methodological: asking where someone hears about prices tells you little unless you also ask whom they believe and what they do with the information afterwards.

My current job has extended that thinking in practical ways. Beyond recording deliveries, I reconcile weekly totals with the processor's figures and explain deductions to farmers when payments seem lower than expected. I proposed a simple change to the text message format, putting the day's litres first and the monthly total on a separate line, and the manager agreed to raise it with the software provider. It is a small change, but it taught me that communication design in agriculture often depends on details that nobody thinks about until a farmer is standing at the counter, confused. I have also started keeping a note of the questions people ask most often, which has helped me answer them more consistently.

Outside work, I am treasurer of a family chama that meets monthly. Keeping its accounts transparent for members of different ages and levels of comfort with mobile money has shown me how much trust depends on presentation as well as accuracy. I now share a printed summary at meetings alongside the group message, because several older members prefer paper. I also take photographs, mostly of markets and rural landscapes, and I have become interested in how images can explain a process, such as correct milk handling, more clearly than written instructions for some audiences.

I want to develop a more rigorous understanding of agricultural information systems, extension communication and the use of digital tools in rural settings, together with stronger skills in research design and evaluation. I am particularly interested in how information services can be tested with the people expected to use them, rather than judged only by how many messages are sent. I bring a sound economics background, everyday experience of the questions farmers actually ask, and a habit of paying attention to how people interpret information. I would welcome the chance to build on these through structured study and research, and in the longer term to work with cooperatives or advisory services on communication that farmers find clear and trustworthy.