Precision Development (PxD) is a global nonprofit organization that acts as a bridge between smallholder farmers and the innovations they need.

PxD designs, tests, iterates and scales services that enable farming households to manage risks and increase their incomes. They also advise governments on digital agriculture strategy.

Their primary innovation has been providing high-impact digital agricultural information to smallholder farmers via mobile phones. Evidence from randomized evaluations shows that PxD’s services improve farmers’ production, profits, and climate resilience and are extremely scalable and cost-effective to deliver to millions of farmers. For instance, a recent study of our flagship service in India estimates that in the long run, every $1 invested in the service will generate agricultural profits of $9 – $15.

The Opportunity
Roughly 570 million smallholder farmers, owning less than 2 acres of land, produce 30% of the world’s food. However, farmers in low—and middle-income countries (LMICs) typically harvest just 25-45% of their land potential (FAO). Climate change amplifies these challenges, bringing unpredictable weather patterns and shifting growing seasons that disrupt crop yields and livelihoods. These fluctuations jeopardize food security, farmer livelihoods, and the well-being of farming communities. Smallholder farming households are home to 80% of the world’s poor, and improving their livelihoods is one of the most promising solutions to global poverty (FAO).

While numerous cost-effective agricultural innovations exist to help farmers, these solutions don’t often reach the right people at the right time. Private markets often lack incentives to scale these innovations, and LMIC governments often lack the capacity or resources to deliver them. For instance, only 6-21% of farmers in India have access to in-person government agricultural extension (Cole and Sharma, 2017; Cole et al., 2024).
PxD’s Role

PxD acts as a bridge between smallholder farmers and the innovations they need. They design, test, iterate and scale services that enable farming households to manage risks and increase their incomes. Our flagship innovation delivers high-impact, actionable digital agricultural information directly to smallholder farmers via their mobile phones.

In 2024, PxD’s services reached over 18 million farmers across Asia and Africa.