
Flicker of Farmer
Digital Green
By Dr. Anamika Ray
Introduction
It can be said that seeing
is believing. Technology when combined with social organizations can
effortlessly facilitate the diffusion of innovations. With the help of hi-tech boom in media, by the
end of 2016, Digital Green aspires to reach one million farmers across eleven
thousand villages in India and other parts of South Asia along with Sub Saharan
Africa (Annual Report 2012).
Digital Green aims to
empower as well as to improve the livelihoods of rural communities especially
in farming sector by engaging target audiences in a process of knowledge
exchange. Though the concept of
participatory communication is not novel, participation in a digital platform
like producing localized videos and disseminating them through human mediation
can be considered a new paradigm for rural development. The videos are produced
‘by the community.’ The topics of these audiovisual resources are based on the various
needs and interests ‘of the community’. The videos are screened ‘for the
community’. Digital Green, a nonprofit international organization, has made this
possible. This approach has been found
to be ten times more cost effective, per rupee spent, than traditional
agricultural extension services.
With the help of
local public, private, civil society organizations and the engagement of local
communities, Digital Green has produced over 4,000 videos in more than 28
languages, reached 4,000 villages and over 400,000farmers. Emphasizing on the
knowledge exchange of improved practices and technologies pertaining to agriculture,
livelihoods, nutrition, and health, the organization has selected nine states (Uttar
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh,
Telangana, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh) of India and parts of Ethiopia, Ghana,
Mozambique, Tanzania, and Afghanistan in association with 20 partners.
The Background
India, like most
developing countries,depends upon agriculture for their existence. Agricultural
extension often represents a major part of government policies. But as technology has pervaded certain parts
of society, the digital divide among farming communities has expanded.
Considering this context in 2008, Digital Green was started to involve communities
in development (especially on agriculture extension) by combining social
organization and technology. The use of participatory video for information dissemination
on various improved practices of livelihood and agriculture by Digital Green represents
a unique strength, where the adoption of new process for increasing
productivity has become very easy for the farmers.
Reason Why DG
·
Dearth of required knowledge on farming
·
Asymmetric access to information in rural communities
·
Continuous land degradation
·
Increasing transition to high-value agricultural production
·
Decreasing rate of public investments in agricultural development
·
Trend toward liberalization of agricultural trade
Though India has the second largest number of extension workers, it
cannot be ignored that due to a variety of factors, such as increasing debts,
farmers are forced to sell their land in loss and some even take the extreme
decision of suicide. In this context, Digital Green came into existence with
the idea to support agricultural communities through proper training, problem
solving consultancy, direction for suitable marketing and knowledge exchange.
Source: Digital Green
How Digital Green Works
The organization’s
approach involves three key elements: Initiation, Production, and Diffusion.
Initiation: This is basically the stage of background
research and training. It includes mobilization, situation analysis, and capacity
building. In this stage, the preliminary work is to select villages and
understand the local context, identify resource persons from the community that
can be engaged, and prepare a project plan. Video to pics are decided through focus
group discussions. Digital Green then
provides training on video production, mediated video screening, and feedback
and data management to the local community resource persons. They are taught
how to handle video camera, write storyboards, edit videos, handlepico
projectors, facilitation skills, and data capture and analysis protocols. As a part of data management, Digital Green
introduces its management information system, called Connect Online Connect
Offline (COCO), Analytics Dashboards, Videos Library, and Farmer book.

Diffusion: This stage includes activities
including video dissemination, farmer adoption, and community usage data and
feedback recording. Videos are
distributed to community groups, mostly women-led self-help groups, using a
battery-operated pico projector. These
screenings are facilitated by a member of the community who pauses and rewinds
videos and engages community groups in an interactive discussion based on the
presented content. There typically are
6-8 such groups in each village which each are comprised of 10-15 farmers that
attend one video screening every fortnight.
The videos that are screened are sequenced based on geographic and time
sensitivities related to agricultural cycles.
At each screening, mediators record farmer attendance, questions, and
interests and afterwards which practices farmers actually applied on their own
farms. This data is recorded in
COCO. Digital Green also has quality
assurance protocols for gauging mediator performance and cross-validating the adoptions
that mediators report.
Conclusion
Digital Green is reshaping agricultural
development by building a social network of community members learning and
sharing locally relevant knowledge with one another through technology. Digital
Green also has established relationships with other organizations, like IRRI
and ICRISAT, to bring together research and extension partners on a common
platform. Digital Green has extended its approach for agricultural extension to
issues related to community mobilization, financial literacy, health, and
nutrition. The organization received the Manthan Award in 2012 and Rs. 3 crores
as Global Impact Award from Google in 2013. With 75 team members, Rikin Gandhi
(CEO of DG) is the man of the noble success of the organization. This 33 years
old Indian American boy is the anchor of Pan India Movement, which is called
Digital Green. He was awarded IFA Norman Borlaug Award by the International
Fertilizer Industry Association in 2012.
References
Annual Report & Audited Financial Statements
2012. (n.d.).
Retrieved June 10, 2014, from
http://www.goal.ie/uploads/GOAL_2012_Annual_Report_1.pdf#page=12&zoom=auto,-19,444
Digital Green Best Practice Documentation. (2011, June). Retrieved June 12, 2014,
from http://indiagovernance.gov.in/files/Digital%20Green.pdf
Digital Green Best Practice Documentation. (2011, June). Retrieved June 12, 2014,
from http://indiagovernance.gov.in/files/Digital%20Green.pdf
Digital Green - Annual Report 2010-11: Our Progress. (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2014, from
http://digitalgreentrust.org/projectprogress10
Digital Green - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved June 25, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Green
Digital Green. (n.d.). Retrieved June 10, 2014, from
http://www.digitalgreen.org/about/
Digital Green. (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2014, from
http://www.digitalgreen.org/connect/
Key Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2015 from
http://www.digitalgreen.org/analytics/overview_module
Press Releases. (n.d.). Retrieved June 25, 2014, from
http://www.fertilizer.org/PressRelease
SOP. (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2014, from
http://www.scribd.com/doc/138870439/SOP
Dr. Ray was an Assistant Professor in Mass Communication at
Gauhati University, Guwahati; Sikkim Central University, Gangtok; Cotton College, Guwahati, and associated with about 10 Universities and Institutes of Higher Education of India and beyond. This article has been reviewed by Mr. Rikin
Gandhi, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Greens and he can be reached at
rikin[at]digitalgreen[dot]org. Photo Credit: Digital Green.
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