Transforming lives of rural communities around the world by using digital platforms

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Agriculture ExtensionDissemination 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

Extension officer “commuting” between farms

3

0 5 10 15 20

OthersGovernment demonstration

BuyerCooperative

Extension workerNewspaper

TelevisionRadio

Salesmen (e.g., fertilizer, pesticide)Other progressive farmers

% farm households (n = 51,770)

Main source of information about new technology and farm practices over the past 365 days (India: NSSO 2005)

Agricultural Social Networks in India

Information needs of 360M farmers in India

alone

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

Digital Video for Extension

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Six months in field trying various combinationsOver 200 days of surveys, ethnographic investigation, and iterative design

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.

Early ExperimentationParameters VariedEarly Experimentation

21 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

Experimental Set-UpPreliminary Evaluation

Expert

Extension Officer

Farming Community

Farming Community

Farming Community

Research Assistant

Local Mediator Local Mediator Local Mediator

Poster Green(3)Same as Digital Green with local mediator,

but no TV/DVDMediator makes posters and holds regular

group sessions

Classical GREEN (8)Same as usual

Digital Green (9)3 sessions per week

Cost:Rs. 9,500 ($240) for TV/DVD per village

PC / camera costs sharedExtension officer shared

Mediator salaryAccountability:

Daily metrics and feedbackOfficial extension staff

15-month study

Audio Green (1)Same as Poster Green with

MP3 audio tracks from videos

7 times more adoptions over classical extension

15 months: 13 villages, 3 nights a week, 1,000 regulars

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

Digital Green: Early Results

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System Cost (USD)/Village/Year

Adoption (%) /Village/Year

Cost/Adoption (USD)

Classical GREEN $840 11% $38.18

Digital Green $630 85% $3.70

Poster Green $490 59% $4.15

Cost-Benefit

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Note: Decreasing amortized cost of hardware with time and scale

digitalGreen is at least 10 times more effective per dollar spent than classical extension!

Our Process

Research project at Microsoft Research

Scale up with NGOsNon-profit

in USA and India

12k villages, 100 k farmers

Extend to AfricaScaled to 6 Indian

statesIn partnership with

Govt. 1m farmers, 9 states in India

Institutionalization

Scaling up in Ethiopia Pilots Ghana, Senegal, Burkina Faso,

Malawi, Tanzania, MozambiqueAfghanistan

Extension systems strengthened across

developing world

Pilots with PATH in UP, SPRING in Odisha

Pilots with PCI in Bihar, RMNT in MP

603 villages, 46k HHs reached

Pilot with World Bank (SAFANSI) in Bihar, with

BIRAC in OdishaUSAID project in Bihar, Jharkhand & Odisha

LSHTM RCT in Odisha, SPRING Expansion in Niger, Burkina Faso,

Senegal

Reach 200K women across 2k villages,

Agriculture

Health

Rural NetworkInformal social networks exist within rural communities

850K150K

1 MILLION People

85% 15%

Communities

Partners MobilizeFront-line workers of public, private, and civil society organizations bring farmers together as groups

10010K

1501K

12K Front-line workers

Communities

Partners

Digital AmplificationProduce and share locally relevant agricultural videos informed by farmer feedback and usage data

4k videos

28 languages

500k screenings

1m viewers

54% adoption rate

Communities

Partners

Digital Videos ExpansionProduce and share locally relevant agricultural videos informed by farmer feedback and usage data

2K Trainees

336 Collections

4 VTI/DG Courses

• Standardized online platform to access videosVideo Library

Works on Laptop, Tablet

Desktop, Phone

Multiple users can work at same time

Use any DeviceCustomize

Collaborate

Design custom forms and

integrate with existing systems

Explore data quickly both

offline & online

Extract data in multiple

formats for further use

User-friendly Extract

Search & Sort

Simple UI design for users with varied literacy

levels

COCO – Connect Online | Connect Offline

How to collect data in regions having

low internet connectivity?

Web-based MIS for challenged network environments

COCO seamlessly toggles between

Online and Offline modes while entering

or viewing data for uninterrupted usage

• Track, monitor and evaluate program performance• Use at multiple levels: country to village

Analytics Dashboards

• Assist Digital Green trainers through step-wise modules• Evaluate trainees – village extension workers - to inform learning

Virtual Training Institute – videos + mobile assessment

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