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| The digital Green project is developing a participatory framework for agricultural extension | |||
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Strategy: Video Annotations
Digital Green increases the impact of a single agricultural extension officer by putting TVs and DVD players into the hands of a designated ‘animator’ in each village where they work. The role of the animator is to show DVDs of good agricultural practices in their village, stopping the video for discussion and questions. Thus the animator's skill in faclilitating discussion around the video materials is an important factor in determining the success of Digital Green in a given village - but at the same time there are not sufficient resources to provide the animator with extensive training in these skills.
This work has focused on adding annotations to the videos using subtitling, in an effort to provide support to the animator in creating this interaction. The annotations consist of questions that the animator can ask the audience, or topics that the animator should discuss with the audience. We are also investigating the use of simple laminated paper sheets that incorporate snapshots from the videos and short textual details to help animators and farmers recall information from the video content. These sheets outline the process of adopting a particular agricultural practice or technology with ingredient lists and step-by-step instructions. Mediators use these review sheets when interacting with farmers who wish to adopt a practice in the field after attending a video screening. A few of these sheets have been translated into English: azolla, jeevamrutha, jowar, kitchen garden, paddy seed treatment, ragi seed treatment, and vermicompost. People involved: Natalie Linnel, Rikin Gandhi, Kentaro Toyama, Richard Anderson, Padmavathi, Lingaraj, Jairam | |||
