K.Arokiam. Innovative ICT and Knowledge Sharing Platforms for. Challenges. Global Consultation Global Consultation on

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1 K.Arokiam Global Consultation Global Consultation on Innovative ICT and Knowledge Sharing Platforms for Platforms Revitalizing for Agricultural Revitalizing Extension Agricultural and Education: Extension Opportunities and and Education: Challenges Opportunities and Challenges UNFPA 3-4 December consultation 2012 Concept Hall, Infosys Campus, Hyderabad 1

2 Digital Green uses social organization and technology to improve the efficiency of agricultural extension systems globally digitalgreen 2

3 Project at Microsoft Research 11,000 villages 1 million farmers Implementation in 4 Indian states 1,800 villages 125,000 farmers Extend to health & nutrition Ethiopia and Ghana Non-profit in USA and India Scaled to 7 Indian states WHERE WE WORK HOW WE EVOLVED 3

4 Agricultural Context 2 billion lives (1/3 rd of humanity) Dependent on 500 million small farms in developing countries with very low income Green Revolution had mixed results.. In Africa, mostly unsuccessful In India, increased yields, but rising input costs, declining soil fertility Indiscriminate use of technology partially responsible for current agrarian crisis A farmer from Yellachavadi village, outside of Bangalore 4

5 Information Sources for Farmers in India % farm households (n = 51,770) Other progressive farmers Salesmen (e.g., fertilizer, pesticide) Radio Television Newspaper Extension worker Cooperative Buyer Government demonstration Others Main source of information about new technology and farm practices over the past 365 days (India: NSSO 2005) 5 5

6 Agriculture Extension: Typical Example Extension officer commuting between farms Training & Visit: Face-to-face interactions of extension officers and farmers 500,000 extension officers in developing countries Extension agent-to-farmer ratio: 1:2,600 in South Asia 1:1,800 in Sub-Saharan Africa High recurring costs, weak accountability, underresourced, limited training digitalgreen 6

7 Extension and education programs should be designed to be as sustainable, relevant, scalable, and replicable as possible Will this program continue to succeed over time after external sources of funding are withdrawn? Can this model reach the next 50,000 farmers at a lower perfarmer cost? Overall goal: Lowest cost sustained adoption of effective practices Is the service demanddriven, effective and inclusive of the poorest SHF s and women? Does it allow for ongoing learning? Can this model be replicated in other contexts (geographies, etc.)? How do you rate the sustainability, relevance, scalability, and replicability of a particular system? How do you ensure that it optimizes for these principles? digitalgreen 7

8 Digital Green Extension System The Problem How can the speed and effectiveness of agriculture extension be improved at a reasonable cost? Extension officer on-field demonstration digitalgreen 8

9 Digital Video for Extension Video provides Resource-savings: human, cost, time Accessibility for non-literate farmers digitalgreen 9

10 Digital Green Extension System 1. Participatory content production 2. Video database 3. Mediated instruction 4. Structured sequencing digitalgreen 10

11 Digital Green System 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 digitalgreen 11

12 Digital Green System Video Database Online video database >2,400 videos of 8-10 minutes each Quality-control, minor video editing, and metadata tagging Indexed by type, topic, locale, season, crop, etc. Distributed via memory cards 12

13 Digital Green extension 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 13

14 Digital Green System Structured Sequencing Community Assessment Practices with short-term visible rewards Practices with longer-term visible rewards Audience Awareness Season Location Group Participation Time 14

15 Digital Green: Early Results 7 times more adoptions over Training & Visit model Mediation Repetition (and novelty) Integration into existing extension operations Social homophily between mediator, actor, and farmer Adoption Rate (%) Classic GREEN Digital Green Desire to be on TV Trust built from identities of farmers and villages in videos Apr 07 May 07 Jun 07 Jul 07 Aug 07 Sep 07 Oct 07 Nov 07 Dec 07 Jan 08 Feb 08 Mar 08 Apr 08 May 08 Jun 08 Cumulative 15 months: 13 villages, 3 nights a week, 1,000 regulars 15 15

16 Cost-Benefit System Cost (USD) /Village/Year Adoption (%) /Village/Year Cost/Adoption (USD) Training & Visit $840 11% $38.18 Digital Green $630 85% $3.70 Note: Decreasing amortized cost of hardware with time and scale digitalgreen is at least 10 times more effective per dollar spent than a Training & Visiting system 16 16

17 Digital Green System COCO Connect Online, Connect Offline digitalgreen.org/tech

18 Digital Green extension system Platform Robust system to share, track, and analyse data to manage operations and target interventions over time Analytics dashboard built on top of a simple yet robust data entry system that can toggle between online and offline connectivity modes 100,000 simultaneous offline users Offline mode 10x faster than online 18

19 Digital Green System Analytics analytics.digitalgreen.org

20 Digital Green extension system Videos videos.digitalgreen.org

21 Digital Green System Farmerbook farmerbook.digitalgreen.org

22 Digital Green extension system Wonder Village apps.facebook.com/wondervillage

23 digitalgreen