Originally posted on the GBI Portal – Page 28

Did you make the shortlist? Kenya’s Tandaa Digital Grants Doubles

Nearly 150 companies and individual submissions made the shortlist for Kenya’s Tandaa Digital Content Grant. The Tandaa Digital Content Grant, a competitive campaign to unearth and finance web and mobile-phone apps developers, was unveiled last year by the Ministry of Information and Communication, through the Kenya ICT Board.

At its inception 15 grantees benefited—companies, individuals and groups of varying sizes. But this year the Kenyan government will double direct funding through grants.

The renewal of this successful initiative will see 30 awards being doled out to shortlisted candidates in varied categories. The Ministry of Information and Communication says the highly attractive Tandaa Digital Content Grant is worth up to US$50, 000 for companies, US$10, 000 for individuals and teams, plus a matching grant of US$150, 000 for established companies.

The grant is further evidence of Kenya’s bold and thoughtful ICT policy framework, which is increasingly backed by solid initiatives. It will further stimulate ICT innovation and could spur greater economic growth. ICT already account for five cents in every dollar of Kenya’s annual income. The policy is solid to the extent that it tackles the key hindrance to the expansion of Kenya’s ICT sector: financing. Companies, particularly start-ups, that specialize in web and mobile solutions face major hurdles in their quest to access funding. The risky nature of their ventures, getting innovation to market successfully, also heightens the perception of risk in financial circles.

However, the challenge of financing mobile-innovation must be tackled in a more meaningful way: a sustainable solution, not simply grants. A mixture of subsidized loans, and targeted finance for micro and medium size technology firms is necessary for a potent long-term strategy to find a toehold. Grants have a place in the overall strategy, but they are not central to the long-term financing challenge.

For further information, please go here.

November 21, 2011/by actualize

GBI Highlights, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

GBI Tech Series: “Bringing Telecomms to the Rural Edge”

GBI hosted its monthly Tech Series last Thursday, this time focusing on “Bringing Telecommunications to the Rural Edge.” Speakers shed light on the need, challenges and opportunities involved in the process of expanding connectivity to rural areas and promote development.

Ian Walter of Altobridge discussing low cost telecommunications solutions.

Photo credit: Laurie Moy

Ian Walter, Vice President of Technology at Altobridge, presented on “Low Energy, Low Cost Wireless Communications for Remote Communities,” an overview of the remote communities market and its size, key challenges and opportunities ensuring remote locations have access to affordable mobile and voice connectivity.

With the number of mobile subscribers set to exceed 6 billion by 2014, operators need to find innovative and cost-effective ways to expand connectivity to 2.1 billion living in rural areas, based on World Bank estimates.

“A combination of competition between the equipment vendors, government subsidies and initiatives such as the GSMA’s ultra-low cost handsets have combined to drive down the network and handset cost for service providers but site, backhaul and power costs remain high,” said Walter speaker on the key challenges of expanding connectivity in remote communities.

“None of the above initiatives address the operational costs that operators face when deploying sites in remote communities”, he added.

The solution is the solar powered Altobrige lite-site, which enables mobile network operators to bring mobile connectivity to remote communities at low cost. Meeting the needs of up to 1200 subscribers, the Altobridge lite-site has been specifically designed to optimize satellite bandwidth and minimize power consumption.

Troy Etulain speaking about USAID's connectivity project in the DRC

Photo credit: Laurie Moy

One project that will put these technologies into the field is headed up by Troy Etulain, Senior Advisor for Media Development at USAID. Mr. Etulain spoke about “Low-Cost Cellular Infrastructure in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: LRA Affected Areas”, a case study on expanding connectivity in remote conflict areas.

Etulain offered contextual background on the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a militant group operating in Central Africa accused of widespread human rights violations, including murder, abduction, mutilation, sexual enslavement of women and children, to name but a few.

According to Etulain, the project’s goal is to empower civilians with the communications infrastructure to monitor and report LRA activity. This consist of partnering with public radio to report LRA incidents on a daily basis and installing on top of church buildings—for safety and higher access points—a base transceiver station (BTS) or cell site, a piece of equipment that facilitates wireless communication between user equipment and a network.

Eric White, ICT Sector Economist for GBI, showcased the “Broad Applicability of Low Cost and Low Power Telecoms Solutions,” that advance development such as mobile apps used in agriculture, health, and education.

The GBI Tech Seminar Series is hosted monthly at USAID headquarters and covers a range of topics from connectivity and telecommunications access to content and applications. A video of this months program will be available online shortly.

November 21, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture Markets, Extension Service, Food Security, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Sustainable Agriculture

The mFarmer Initiative: USAID joins hands with others for Ag. Devt.

Photo Credit: USAID

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in collaboration with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and GSMA have launched a global initiative to facilitate the rapid scaling of the use of mobile phone networks to provide poor farmers with valued agricultural information.

The mFarmer Initiative aims at developing a global, shared database of digital agricultural information; a challenge fund to promote innovative partnerships between operators and public or private agriculture extension service providers; technical assistance; sharing of best practices; and impact evaluation.

At a recent webinar organized by USAID to introduce the mFarmer initiative, Judy Payne, the ICT Advisor for USAID’s EGAT and Africa Bureaus reiterated the interest of USAID in supporting agriculture in the developing nations through the Feed the Future (FTF) program. She explained that the selected countries for the mFarmer initiative in Africa are priority countries for the FTF program. According to Judy Payne, USAID is a partial funder together with BMGF. She strongly encouraged USAID missions and implementing partners working in Africa to take full advantage of the opportunity given the funding from the agency and the importance of the initiative to help increase productivity and income of smallholder farmers. She cited the involvement of one of USAID’s FTF implementing projects for Africa as a partner in submitting an application during the first round of the Challenge Fund.

The mFarmer initiative has an ambitious vision of success to help about 2.2 million poor farmers in developing countries increase their productivity and incomes by receiving actionable, high quality, relevant and timely information and advice through mobile phone service networks by 2015. These services are delivered via sustainable and scalable business models without on-going donor support and reflect significant private sector investment. They complement other delivery channels, reflect feedback from farmers, and are based on a growing body of shared digital agricultural content.

The introduction to the mFarmer initiative webinar, which was the first in series of webinars to focus on the initiative, was attended by over 40 participants across the globe. Other presenters at the session include Smith Fiona, mAgri Program Director, GSMA Development Fund, and Natalia Pshenichnaya, mAgri Business Development Manager, GSMA Development Fund. Access to the recorded presentation of this webinar could be found here.

Also, an upcoming online forum to initiate discussion around the types of partnerships that are conducive to creating sustainable and scalable mobile information and advisory services for farmers will be help between November 21st and December 1st at e-Agriculture website. Subject Matter Experts to help lead the discussion include:

Sharbendu Banerjee, Director of Business Development, CABI South Asia-India
Hillary Miller-Wise, Country Director, TechnoServe Tanzania
Collins Nweke, Project Manager, Tigo Tanzania
Judy Payne, ICT Advisor, USAID
Fiona Smith, Director, GSMA mAgri Program
S. Srinivasan, CEO, IKSL

GSMA, is an association of 800 mobile operators serving over 95 percent of the market in developing countries. It helps its members adopt new approaches to provide valued information and services to their customers. In 2009, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) made a grant to GSMA to catalyze mobile operators’ investment in these innovative mobile services, evaluate their impact, and facilitate experimentation with sustainable and scalable delivery models.

November 21, 2011/by actualize

Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Women in Development

GBI’s Anti-Trafficking App Contest Featured on CNN

This morning, GBI’s Stop Human Trafficking App Challenge, was featured on CNN as a part of their Freedom Project Series. The was created to respond to one of today’s most pressing development challenges – sex and labor trafficking. Launched by GBI Alliance partner, NetHope and the Demi and Ashton Foundation, the contest challenged technology developers from Russia and the region to design mobile apps to help Russian civil society organizations raise public awareness of trafficking and deliver prevention messages and services to vulnerable populations and victims.

November 18, 2011/by actualize

Democracy & Governance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Syria: Virtual activism sustains global attention

Anti-government protesters have continued to take to the streets despite the crackdown

As international pressure mounts on the Syrian government to end the “bloody repression,” activists are using social media to ensure continued attention on events on the ground.

The UN estimates that more than 3500 people have died since protest started in March and there is a growing fear of civil war with the Free Syrian Army, formed in July, carrying out a number of attacks on government troops including ambushes. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that the international community hopes for a peaceful resolution and calls on all parties to end violence.

The popular Sham News Network, a grassroots news organizations that emerged during the Syrian revolution to aggregate and publish news footage–started an initiative that asks individuals to submit videos in solidarity with Syrian protesters, reports Global Voices.

A statement taken from one of the videos posted to the SyrianSitInYouTube account states, “I am in solidarity with the Syrian people. I reject the brutality and killing that the Syrian authorities are committing against the unarmed Syrian people. And because silence is participation in this crime, I declare my participation in the Syrian Sit-in on Youtube.”

So far the initiative has received 275 videos from across the Arab world, as well as from the United States, Germany, Iceland, and Canada.

For instance, Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of Icelandic Parliament and NATO Parliamentary, contributed a video post, in which she says, “I wish to express my solidarity and my support to the brave Syrian people that have been protesting day after day, month after month, against all odds.”

At a meeting held in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, on Wednesday, the Arab League’s 22 members suspended the Syrian government and gave Bashar al-Asad’s regime three days to end the violent repression. The Arab League has urged Syria to allow an international contingent to monitor the process or face sanctions.

The Syrian government is increasingly isolated as key allies such as France have now withdrawn their ambassadors and neighboring Turkey is calling for immediate action from the international community. According to BBC, France, Britain, Germany and a number of Arab states are to submit a draft resolution calling for a vote in the UN General Assembly condemning the violence.

November 17, 2011/by actualize

Climate Change, Environment, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

When Drumbeats Change, Dancing Steps Must Change!

Photo Credit: Drum Beat

An interesting principle being used by smallholder farmers in Nigeria (particularly female farmers) to fight the global climate change within their own means is a Hausa proverb, “In Kidi ya Chanza”, which means “when the drumbeats change, the dancers have to change their steps.”

“Change In Drum Beats” – Climate Change

While farming remains a predominant occupation for the rural people of Northern Nigeria, the increasing effects of climate change is being felt in almost all areas of their farming activities. The land is becoming drier due to shorter and unpredictable rainfalls; increasing flooding resulting in crop destruction when the rains finally come; the quality and quantity of forage of the livestock is being affected; and the changes in temperature is directly affecting both crops and livestock. At the same time, the strength of their local knowledge, innovations, skills, experiences, observations and insights that used to help them overcome these challenges in the absence of scientific resources is becoming archaic, due to the same effect of climate change.

“Change In Dancing” – Information Communication Technologies

Over time, the change in ‘drum beat’ has been noticed by the local people. With support from the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa Program; the African Radio Drama Association (ARDA) in partnership with Farm Radio International and the University of Guelph, initiated a project that uses “edutainment” approach of combining entertainment with educational messages for climate change. The project has developed this special “In Kidi ya Chanza” Radio Drama Program aimed at raising awareness and providing information to smallholder farmers in northern Nigeria about climate change adaptation. Currently, there are a number episodes of drama with specific focuses that are airing weekly on several radio stations and broadcast to an estimated 20 million listeners in four northern Nigerian states targeted by the project.

The drama involves music and storytelling, which can both entertain and educate. They imitate real life and can be a vehicle for demonstrating actions to highlight comparisons and consequences. Through multi-dimensional characters, drama can credibly portray models of responsibility, community leadership, and self-efficacy, and at the same time present new social norms to drive behavior change. Episodes also encourage household discussions of otherwise difficult topics, and encourage the audience to be part of the whole process of change without being bombarded with too many messages. The listener would usually empathize with the characters and would not feel talked down to, as useful information is given out by characters they grow to love in the course of the drama.

The impact of the program is huge with a recent study conducted by the University of Guelph showing that about 78% of respondents were familiar with the radio drama; 84% of female and 68% of male listeners stated the program increased their awareness of climate change adaptation; and the vast majority (92.8%) of respondents who gained awareness from the program reported that they took action.

Photo Credit: Radio for Development

In Nigeria and other parts of Africa, radio remains an important and trusted medium for the majorities of smallholder farmers who have easy access and regularly listen to programs. Apart from being affordable, radio is appropriate because it does not necessarily rely on electrical power to operate, making it highly accessible medium. Over 85% of Nigerians have access to a radio set, making radio an effective medium for the broadcast of this series of programs.

November 17, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture Markets, Extension Service, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Information Revolution Changing the Face of African Ag.

Photo Credit: ECX

A 2-day conference on African Commodity Exchanges has ended in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa with the call for an Africa wide commodity exchange as well as more exchanges in African nations.

At the heart of this conference, even though not upfront, was the key role that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are playing in transforming businesses within the agricultural sector in Africa. The success stories surrounding the operation of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) system attest to the fact that ICTs can be enabling factors in almost every sector once the necessary steps are taken to integrate these technologies into the sector.

“A sleepy eyed farmer miles away from the nearest road braves the morning chill to load his donkeys with his lentil harvest. On his way to market he checks his mobile to see if the network is reaching him – because receiving a text message now from the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) could save him hundreds of birr,” said the former World Bank economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin who is the CEO of the Ethiopia’s state-owned commodity exchange.

According to Dr. Gabre-Madhin, ECX is as much an ICT revolution as it is an economic transformation. The platform is a communications technology, from the real time price tickers found across the country to the Interactive Voice Recognition mobile telephony for rural farmers, that makes the exchange work. ICT applications currently being used to facilitate exchange of commodities and make information accessible to the users include over 100 price tickers, 20 trading centers, 50 warehouses, 2000 market information kiosks, and 50 data display boards.

Dr Gabre-Madhin stated that access to price information allows farmers to maximize profits and if farmers can get the same information about the national market trends that well-established and endowed exporters and processing firms have, that changes how the game is played. She concluded that with the ECX, the share of the final export price that now goes back to the farmer has gone up from something like 38% to close to 70%.

The conference which was co-organized by ECX and UNDP brought together participants from about 14 Africa countries including Ghana, Zambia, Rwanda, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and South Africa with market regulators, policy makers, national and international banks, the US securities and exchanges commission, development institutions, investors, farmer organizations and technology companies.

But while the ECX is being held up as a model, many other African countries disagree with the concept of states controlling the market. But the Ethiopia’s top government economist Newal Gabre Ab insisted that every country is different when it comes to economic policy and in Ethiopia, where farmers are among the poorest in Africa, the success of the ECX is the result of careful state planning.

November 15, 2011/by actualize

Democracy & Governance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mobile phones to lead a revolution in sub-Saharan Africa?

Social-media-driven Arab Spring uprisings brought an end to long-standing dictatorial regimes. If the movement is to spread south of the Sahara, it will be triggered by mobile phones.

A recent report by the GSM Association (GSMA), a global group representing the interests of mobile operators, claims that Africa is now the fastest growing mobile market and the second largest in the world with over 620 million mobile connections as of September, a figure expected to reach 735 million by the end of 2012.

“The mobile industry in Africa is booming and a catalyst for immense growth, but there is scope for far greater development,” said Peter Lyons, Director of Spectrum Policy, Africa and Middle East, GSMA.

The booming mobile industry is not only contributing to overall economic development but it is also empowering citizens.

For instance, the GSMA report estimates that the mobile ecosystem employs over 5 million Africans and contributes US$56bn to the regional economy, equivalent to 3.5% of total GDP.

Through m-Agri applications, farmers are able to access vital agricultural information, training, and advice on pests, diseases, weather, fertilizers, and best farming practices. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, 65% of the population on the continent relies on subsistence farming. This underlines how crucial mobile connectivity can be to the livelihoods of most Africans.

Community Health Workers (CHWs) in UN’s Millennium Villages in Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya receive professional training through m-Learning modules accessible on their mobile phones. CHWs do not have to travel in urban areas where they would have to pay exorbitant fees for an education.

Mobile technology is changing the way healthcare is delivered on the continent. In Rwanda, m-Health applications enable health workers in the field to use mobile phones in data collection related to outbreak of contagious diseases, for instance, and report the information in real time.

In Kenya, mobile phones have made money transfer as quickly and as easily as sending a text message. The most successful m-Banking initiative, and the first to operate on a large scale is, M-Pesa, a joint venture between mobile phone giant Vodafone and Kenya’s Safaricom. The M stands for mobile, and Pesa is Swahili for money.

The report credits market liberalization policies, foreign direct investment, rollout of mobile network infrastructure, affordability of mobile phones, and substantial regional economic growth for the mobile industry boom.

It is clear that a digital revolution is already underway and as mobile phones promotes information exchange within and among nations, and continue to empower citizens in the process, African will demand more from their leaders. That is a good enough reason to hope for revolutionary changes towards democratic governance.

November 14, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Environment, Environmental Compliance, eWaste, Natural Resources Management, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Pollution Prevention

Nigeria’s Mobile Phone Base Stations Go Green

Photo Credit: E-Site

Bharti Airtel, an international telecommunications company, has announced a deal with Ericsson, a leading provider of mobile telecommunications equipment, to use Flexenclosure’s green energy solution called E-site for upgrading an initial lot of 250 mobile phone base stations powered by diesel in Nigeria.

The contract enables Ericsson to be responsible for implementation and maintenance services for all the sites. “The new green and highly cost efficient base station solution makes not only environmental sense, but also financial sense for our customers, enabling the efficient deployment of services to previously unserved or under-served areas,” Ericsson Head of Sub-Saharan Africa Region Lars Linden said.

Airtel has successfully tested the solution in Kenya and has experienced significant reduction in diesel usage and CO2 emissions against a round-the-clock diesel powered site. The company also believes that the ‘green’ mobile initiative will improve operations and minimize base stations’ environmental impact.

Flexenclosure is a Swedish start-up that develops innovative solutions for energy-efficient mobile phone coverage in developing nations. The advanced control system of the E-site solution assures the storage of optimal power from the alternative energy sources (solar or wind) and the process is efficiently managed through the utilization of its battery bank.

The company estimates that there are 40,000 mobile phone base stations in Africa, and most of those rely on a diesel engine for power. Each base station takes anything up to 5200 gallons of the increasingly expensive hydrocarbon soup each year to ensure that people will be able to use their mobile phones. That’s around 210,000,000 gallons of diesel every single year, which isn’t good for the environment or the profit margins of the mobile providers. The technology has the potential to lower diesel usage by up to 80% – that’s a saving of 169,000,000 gallons of diesel each year for African telecommunication companies and that’s the byproducts of burning 169 million gallons of diesel that won’t be entering our atmosphere.

November 14, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Extension Service, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

“Agriculture Goes High Tech” – A Decade of Digital Video!

Photo Credit: Penn State Extension

It is over 10 years now that the Commonwealth of Learning Media Empowerment (COLME) program hit the media with the headline “Agriculture Goes High Tech With Digital Video”. This came up as a result of the success of their pilot project that used digital technology to produce farm instructional videos in Ghana and Jamaica for extension purposes.

Ever since, agriculture has gone up from one level of “high tech” to another where we now use thousands of “apps” for agriculture, even in the remotest part of the world. But what is the progress made so far in the development and implementation of digital video technologies in agricultural extension over the years? Have we been circling around the same principle with different technologies over the years? Is there a room for improving the application of videos in agriculture? What are some of the similarities and differences between some of the models used or being used by the implementing agencies?

I believe the incorporation of high techs in agriculture is not just to “romanticize” it but to ensure the benefits of the users – mostly rural farmers who are disadvantaged by virtue of their location (see my previous post on “Rurality”). As a result, the premise for the COLME program at the time was based on a feasibility study conducted in Jamaica that showed that agricultural extension workers had access to training but the system of ‘disseminating’ the information to farmers was not effective or efficient. Ever since (late 2000), the use of videos in capturing and disseminating agricultural information has progressed with several improved models currently being used by farmers all over the world. These models could be classified into either using videos to transmit scientific knowledge and innovations to farmers or using videos to share practices and experiences between and among farmers.

Below are few models that worth mentioning as I reflect on the future of digital videos in agricultural research and extension:

1 – Commonwealth of Learning Media Empowerment (COLME) and Communication of Scientific Knowledge

Beginning from the COLME program, the use of digital video has improved extension services delivery over the traditional radio technology, which is use to support face-to-face information delivery to farmers. The COLME program acknowledged that using videos instead of radio could improve the efficiency and effectiveness of agricultural extension delivery. In collaboration with the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) in Jamaica, COLME assisted agricultural extension workers to use low-cost video production tools to develop training materials on good farm practices. Improvement is seen in visual content for demonstration to farmers, step-by-step training methods watched by farmers, and increasing access to content by illiterate farmers who could not read.

This was an excellent innovation at the time with emphasis on scientists using video technology to improve the delivery of their innovations to farmers. Scientists capturing their own demonstrations on videos and sharing them with farmers resulted in improved farm management practices by the farmers who were invloved.

2 – PROLINNOVA (PROmoting Local INNOVAtion) and Sharing of Local Knowledge and Innovations

Around the same time as the COLME program, PROLINNOVA an NGO-initiated multistakeholder program that promotes local innovation in ecologically oriented agriculture and natural resource management (NRM) also started using videos to capture and document farmers’ local knowledge and innovations. With the emphasis on farmers’ local innovations, PROLINNOVA went a step ahead of the COLME program to not only disseminate external content through videos but also utilize internal innovations. Approaches such as Farmer Led Documentation (FLD) and Participatory Innovation Development (PID) have been used extensively in the developing nations to demonstrate the effectiveness of user-led innovation for sustainable development, and the advantages in building strong farmer-extension-researcher partnerships.

The strength of PROLINNOVA in the use of digital videos for agricultural improvement could be attributed to their use of local knowledge and innovations of the people. This I believe is key for the future use of videos in agriculture. When local farmers from one community watch farm management practices of their colleagues from another community, it gives them a better understanding of the process than the traditional extension service delivery.

3 – Agro-Insight and the use of Socio-Technical System in Video Production

The work of Agro-Insight in the use of digital videos for improving extension services delivery cannot be overlooked. As a dynamic enterprise that merges expertise from science, communication and arts to support sustainable agriculture and equitable trade, Agro-Insight works closely with institutions and organizations to enhance their impact on rural communities through reflective research and effective video, radio and print material production. In addition to the emphasis on local farmers activities, Agro-Insight aims at contributing to a more sustainable agriculture and trade by enhancing reflection and learning among farmers, the R&D community, agribusinesses and civil society.

The combination of R&D with local practices through videos is a plus with the Agro-Insight innovation. Rural farmers do believe in their local innovations but understanding these innovations through research, and seeking farmers view on the potency of these innovations in the current technological age is needed.

4 – Video Viewing Club (VVC) and Farmer Involvement in Production and Analysis of Videos

Another specific project that is using videos to improve agricultural production is the Video Viewing Club (VVC) of the Sustainable Tree Crop Production (STCP) program of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Using farmer training activities such as Video Viewing Clubs, local farmers are trained to collect data on their own farming activities, write scripts, edit and produce short videos/clips that cover a number of farm practices. The project, which started mainly within the cocoa sector, is expected to cover some other food crops such as cassava in the near future. Cocoa farmers in clubs are trained to document farm management practices in topics such pruning, black pod disease control, harvesting/pod breaking and fermentation techniques. These clips are viewed with experts and discussions take place for further explanation of issues arising from the videos.

VVC innovation is also unique by putting local farmers into small groups and training them to be in charge of the research process – observing issues in their communities, gathering data through interviews with their colleagues, writing scripts and producing videos. The most positive part of this innovation, I think, is the discussion that takes place between the club members, other community members and the scientists during the viewing of the clips. This will lead to greater understanding of the process and activities that have been documented.

5 – Digital Green and the Combination of Science and Technology in Videos

Digital Green is a newer approach to the use of digital videos in agricultural extension services delivery. It emphasizes a socio-technical system approach by combining the technologies with existing people-based extension systems to amplify their effectiveness. It taps into local social networks to connect farmers with experts to minimize the distance between teacher and learner. Videos are produced by farmers; of farmers; and for farmers across the field locations. The video production process is participatory, human-mediated instruction model for video dissemination and training, a hardware and software technology platform for exchanging data in areas with limited Internet and electrical grid connectivity, and an iterative model to progressively better address the needs and interests of the community with analytical tools and interactive phone-based feedback channels.

Digital Green is also utilizing farmers as a key resource in the documentation process. Also acknowledged by this innovation is the importance of the social processes rather than the technology. If the technology is to have impact, the social processes need to be well organized.

So what is the future of Digital Videos in Agricultural Research and Extension?

I believe there are a great number of projects and programs out there that are currently using videos in agricultural extension service delivery. These other programs as well as those mentioned above do all have one common goal – to improve knowledge sharing through digital technologies for increased agricultural productivity. These approaches are seen in agricultural experts developing scientific methods of farming through videos for farmers’ use; training farmers to use videos to document their farm management practices (not necessarily their local knowledge and innovations); and then training farmers to document their own local knowledge and innovations that could be shared with other farmers.

In addition to the use of videos in extension services delivery, videos are also being used in agricultural research work. The Power of Video in Research by ICT-KM at CGIAR argue that videos and the Internet have revolutionized the way in which an increasing number of scientists are now communicating ideas and the results of their research. There are easier ways now to use videos to record scientific results and then use them in farmer education. Videos are being used to efficiently convey large amounts of information and depict scientific procedures that would otherwise require pages upon pages of written text to achieve the same level of understanding; show things that take place over time as if they are face-to-face events; raise awareness of issues; document science and share new scientific methodologies that can help build capacity; and generate new applications and innovation.

November 10, 2011/by actualize

Case Studies

Contact Details

Quick Links

About

Expertise

Impact

Join

Sign up for Updates