Digital Green: Improving Agriculture Extension through Video Instruction

1. Outline Digital Green • Video and mediated instruction for agriculture extension

2. Agriculture Extension Dissemination of expert agriculture information and technology to farmers “Training & Visit” extension popularized by the World Bank in 1970s Face-to-face interactions of extension officers and farmers 100,000 extension officers in India Extension agent-to-farmer ratio is 1: 2,000 610,000 villages in India with average 1,000-person population Typical extension officer salary is Rs. 4,000 per month Extension officer “commuting” between farms 2

3. Agricultural Social Networks ? Main source of information about new technology and farm practices over the past 365 days (India: NSSO 2005) 3

4. The Problem How can the speed and effectiveness of agriculture extension be improved at a reasonable cost? Extension officer on-field demonstration 4

5. Digital Video for Extension Video provides… • Resource-savings: human, cost, time • Accessibility for non-literate farmers 5

6. Parameters Varied Early Experimentation Early Experimentation Background of actors in video, Types of content, Location and timing of screening, Method of dissemination, Degree of mediation, Background of mediator, etc. Background of actors in video, Types of content, Location and timing of screening, Method of dissemination, Degree of mediation, Background of mediator, etc. Six months in field trying various combinations Over 200 days of surveys, ethnographic investigation, and iterative design 6

7. Digital Green System Participatory content production Video database Mediated instruction Structured sequencing 7

8. Participatory Content Production Introduction to innovations Standard extension procedure Rough “storyboarding” Repetitive pattern; easy to learn Minimize post-production Local farmers on their own fields Reduce perception of “teachers” Promote “local stars” Digital Green System 8

9. Digital Green System Video Database Online video database (http://www.digitalgreen.org) >250 videos of ~8 minutes each Quality-control, minor video editing, and metadata tagging Indexed by type, topic, locale, season, crop, etc. Distributed via DVD 9

10. Digital Green System Mediated Instruction • Local mediator • Performance-based honorarium • Human engagement • Field questions, capture feedback, encourage participation • Balance genders • On-demand screenings • Choice time and place • Not “stand-alone” kiosk • Support and monitoring • Daily metrics and feedback • Official extension staff 10

11. Digital Green System Structured Sequencing Practices with longer-term visible rewards Community Assessment Practices with short-term visible rewards Group Participation Audience Awareness Season Location Time 11

12. Experimental Set-Up Preliminary Evaluation 9-month study • 20 villages in Karnataka: • Language: Kannada • Crops: Ragi, banana, mulberry, coconut • Population: 50-80 households • Irrigation: 10-20 households with access • Television: 15-20 households • Metrics: • Knowledge: Before-and-after • Attendance: Farmers at each screening • Interest: Intent to take-up a practice • Adoption: Number of households taking up each new farming practice or technology • Classical GREEN (8) • Same as usual Expert Research Assistant • Digital Green (8) • 3 sessions per week • Cost: • Rs. 9,500 ($240) for TV/DVD per village • PC / camera costs shared • Extension officer shared • Mediator salary • Accountability: • Daily metrics and feedback • Official extension staff Extension Officer Local Mediator Local Mediator Local Mediator Farming Community Farming Community Farming Community • Poster Green(4) • Same as Digital Green with local mediator, but no TV/DVD • Mediator makes posters and holds regular group sessions 12

13. Digital Green: Early Results 7 times more adoptions over classical extension Sustained local presence Mediation Repetition (and novelty) Integration into existing extension operations Social homophily between mediator, actor, and farmer Desire to be “on TV” Trust built from identities of farmers and villages in videos 9 months: 12 villages, 3 nights a week, 1,000 regulars 13

14. Cost-Benefit Note: Decreasing amortized cost of hardware with time and scale Digital Green is at least 10 times more effective per dollar spent than classical extension! 14

15. Digital Green System Network Effect • Viral Web 2.0 in the Web-less world • Content ecosystem: education, entrepreneurship, entertainment • Cost-realistic access: TVs, DVD players, and camcorders • Reinforce existing social networks to diffuse innovations through communities • Local “idol” competitions to be a better farmer 3 1 15 2

16. Discussion Gandhi, R., R. Veeraraghavan, K. Toyama, V. Ramprasad. Digital Green: Participatory Video for Agricultural Extension, in Proc. IEEE/ACM Int’l Conf on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD2007) and in Proc. Annual Meetings of American Society of Agronomy (ASA, CSSA, and SSSA), 2007. At reasonable cost, potential ten-fold increase in effectiveness of agriculture extension via Digital Green Current one-year experiment to isolate the effects of DG “social engineering” Future work - Research Create more motivational “currency”, without money Improve mediation by annotating videos Build instant feedback mechanisms Develop an easy-to-use platform for sharing content - Practical Spin-out an independent NGO to scale Digital Green 16