Farmer education gets a boost with agri videos

BANGALORE, INDIA: From crop rotation to organic farming practices, local farmers are always interested in learning the latest agricultural practices. The trouble is how to transfer this information in a language and medium they can understand. And more importantly, convince them to adopt better farming practices.

It’s taken an aeronautical and astronautical engineer from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), U.S., Rikin B. Gandhi (28) to find a suitable medium. Gandhi is the founder of Digital Green which disseminates targeted agricultural information to farmers using participatory video and mediated instruction.

“Many farmers in developing countries often lack knowledge that could immediately improve their livelihoods. To educate such a vastly scattered adult population, two key areas need to be developed: locally relevant content production and distribution,” explains Gandhi.

Digital Green’s work takes agricultural extension – or farmer education – programs to new levels. Incubated at Microsoft Research India, Digital Green is an independent NGO which partners with other organizations, universities, governments, and NGOs across South Asia and Africa. Funded by the Gates Foundation, Rikin’s Digital Green has been 10 times as effective, per dollar spent.

For coming up with an innovation that clearly touches the grassroots, Technology Review India, published by CyberMedia, is honoring Gandhi with the social innovator of the year title. This will be presented during EmTech 2010, the emerging technologies conference in Bangalore. During the conference, Technology Review publisher and editor in chief Jason Pontin will also unveil the eagerly anticipated India TR35 list of top 20 innovators under the age of 35.

The EmTech 2010 has generated a lot of interest from companies. These include innovative companies like GE Global Research that along with Yahoo! India is supporting sessions focused on Innovation. Technology bellwether known for innovation culture, Wipro, is backing Technology Review’s effort of recognizing young innovators under the age of 35, called India TR35. Strand Life Sciences and Elsevier are partnering ‘Innovation Live!’ sessions at EmTech.

Rikin Gandhi’s videos have succeeded in engaging the attention of farmers, because he has taken the trouble to understand what clicks with them.

“One of the clearest things I observed was the degree to which farmers sought videos featuring people similar to themselves. Like viewers of reality television, farmers made snap judgments of a person’s occupation, education, and station, apparently based on language, clothing, and mannerism. The effect of a local mediator during screening was also significant,” says Gandhi.

Rikin spent six months in rural Karnataka to discover how best to use locally produced videos. Over the next two years he established scientific evidence that the technique works.

“Rikin held ad hoc screenings in the middle of village roads, and he video recorded agriculture experts as well as farmers. When he felt he had something that was actually helping farmers, he came back to get advice on how to evaluate the system,” says Kentaro Toyama, former assistant director of Microsoft Research India.

Using cost-realistic technologies such as TVs, DVD players, and camcorders, Digital Green cultivates a hub-and spoke-based ecosystem of educational, entrepreneurial, and entertaining content.

“Rikin is a rare individual who has both the smarts, the discipline, and the drive to push constantly to achieve his goals. He had the rare ability and willingness to work at the remotest village and also analyze the data that he was gathering. I think it is this combination that is unique,” reflects Rajesh Veeraraghavan, a PhD student at the School of Information at UC Berkeley.