Check out the latest buzz on Digital Green in the media. Please contact the digital Green Team for additional details.
Science: Sustainable Goal
"Within the next 3 months, Digital Green will leave the fold and become an independent nonprofit organization. Gandhi's goal is to reach 3000 villages with farming techniques that can help villagers out of poverty." (pdf)
New York Times: Microsoft Goes Far Afield to Study Emerging Markets
"'The farmers love being on TV,' said Kentaro Toyama, assistant managing director of Microsoft Research India and the head of the Technology for Emerging Markets research group. 'This gives us some core knowledge about what works in this particular environment.'"
Guardian: Gadgets help draw world's poorest into global economy
"The Indian government also has nightly broadcasts about this, but we wanted to form local bases of knowledge, featuring local farmers sharing techniques and testimonials, which other farmers can identify with..Seeing their peers demonstrate the techniques also makes other farmers more likely to be persuaded - the film project has seen 70 to 80% of farmers adopting new methods, compared with 10 to 15% during the Green Foundation's previous outreach work, which didn't have ICT resources."
Forbes: Computing at the Bottom of the Pyramid
"Digital Green, which has now been spun off as a not-for-profit, is being implemented in 29 villages in three Indian states. On a recent day in May two dozen residents of the village of Banihalli, 50 miles southeast of Bangalore, were gathered in a courtyard to watch and discuss a DVD on worm composting."
Mail Today: Farmers' Techangel
"It is a Swades-like story that is proving to be extremely successful. Perhaps, it's Gandhigiri with a twist! This is the tale of an America-born Indian who has come to the country of his origin to help out Karnataka's farmers." (html or jpeg)
The Economic Times: Computer wizards join hands with sociologists
"Bill Gates may have stepped down from an active role at Microsoft, but he has been pursuing his passion to serve the world through his outreach programmes. During his tour of universities recently, he happened to talk about a 'Digital Green' programme initiated by the Microsoft Research Lab, India, in Kanakapura villages." (html or jpeg)
The Times of India: Microsoft helps farmers by creating videos on best practices
"We differentiate farming techniques with good results and those without and communicate the difference to farmers. An example is seeding technique. Random versus systematic seeding shows that the latter consumes less water, increases yield and occupies less space. The same is communicated to farmers." (html or jpeg)
The Hindu Business Line: Spread the farmer's word
"The project has helped to extend the efforts of GREEN Foundation. Raghavendra Rao, Chief Executive, GREEN Foundation, says they were doing it in the traditional way. They had field managers who went from farmer to farmer. But since they did not have too many staff, their reach was limited. But now because of Digital Green, they can reach out to more farmers. Rao says the response from the farmers has been good and the project has taken off well." (html or jpeg)
Stockholm Challenge WINNER
Digital Green won a Stockholm Challenge award! Digital Green was selected for a this year in the "Culture" category. The winners were not announced until the ceremony itself, on May 22, 2008. The Stockholm Challenge 2008 features a six category Award for ICT for Development projects. The best projects will win the prestigious Stockholm Challenge trophies and receive a 5.000 Euro stipend. Visit the Stockholm Challenge winners website for more details on the prize and check out Digital Green's Stockholm Challege entry submission.
Here is some related news on the prize ..
Official Press Release: "Digital Green works in harmony with local cultures, languages and people to help develop more effective farming practices by using simple video technologies."
Telecentre.org: "Digital Green works in harmony with local cultures, languages and people to help develop more effective farming practices by using simple video technologies."
Digital Empowerment Foundation: "2 Indian 1 SL initiatives win Stockholm Challenge Award 2008 - Digital Green & Jan Seva Kendra initiatives from India and Shilpa Sayura Project from Sri Lanka are among the winners announced in the Stockholm Challenge Award 2008."
Microsoft Research: "Digital Green Reaps Honor for Helping Improve Agricultural Efficiency"
Microsoft Unlimited Potential: "We're also very proud of a program Microsoft Research in Bangalore developed called Digital Green."
Software Enabled Earth: "Digital Green is a prime example of technology helping people live more sustainable lives and your colleagues on the environmental sustainability team applaud you."
"Digital Green aims to use the Stockholm Challenge money to extend the reach of the project. They hope to establish a network of partnerships with other grassroots extension programmes."
FARA: Video based approach for agricultural learning content
"The video based approach has several important advantages to traditional forms of agricultural content, which is typically not in the local language, intended for a literate audience, uses expert terminology, lacks grassroots level practicalities, and remains inaccessible in a sea of scattered media. Farmers, by the nature of their occupation, rely on their auditory and visual senses and video, though not perfect, comes closest to capturing the scene in detail. Video creation tends to be faster and less expensive than other types of media, as advanced preparation in "lesson"-planning can minimize post-production editing. Video can compress the time needed to reveal the change. Video provides a means of bringing relevant demonstrations into the homes of farmers. Video also reduces the human resources required to follow-up with individual farmers and demonstrate time-consuming methods in the field."
Microsoft Research: Extends Reach through Partnerships
"The people who watch the videos find them more credible because they see a farmer they know who has the same problems they do and has adopted these practices," says Kevin Schofield, General Manager of Microsoft Research.
Microsoft Unlimited Potential: "We jokingly call the project 'Farmer Idol,' because the farmers almost compete to appear in future videos."
RisingVoices: Video as a citizen media tool
"Digital Green is a project of Microsoft Research that seeks to disseminate targeted agricultural information to small-scale, rural farmers in India through digital video. The system includes a digital video database, which is produced by farmers and experts. The content within this repository is meant to enable farmers to progressively improve their trade."
Carnegie Mellon: Bill Gates Unplugged - On Software, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Giving Back
"Sometimes the solutions aren't cool because of the technology. They're really cool because of the impact. One that I'll cite, we call Digital Green, which was done by our Indian research lab which has a particular focus on the needs of the 2 billion people at the bottom of the pyramid. They went out to the farmers and saw that a direct use of computing wouldn't be possible: no cell phone network and no electricity. The real problem is farming productivity. If you have a drought and didn't grow enough during the season before, you literally suffer malnutrition. This has a lifetime negative effect, or in the extreme case, even starvation. So, they saw that there were techniques that the farmers could apply to more than double their output. But, the current extension system just wasn't getting the message to them in the right way. The adoption rate for advances among smallholders was about 15%. What they did was use the advanced technology of DVD. They filmed farmers doing it the right way in the local language. After some editing, they took the best practices and hired people who were socially connected to the farmers to go out with a battery-powered DVD player and show the videos. What they found was a tripling in the adoption of these farming practices. That's a significant impact in terms of the nutrition and the ability to live through bad seasonal effects. In fact, they even created this wonderful dynamic where the farmers wanted to be in the videos. It's a lot like "American Idol". But, this is "Farmer Idol." "I've got this technique and you got to get me on there." That kind of competition is a wondrous thing to see."
UN-FAO e-Agriculture.org Global Example
"E-Agriculture is one of the action lines identified in the declaration and plan of action of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been assigned the responsibility of organizing activities related to the action line under C.7 ICT Applications on E-Agriculture. In 2006, a multi-stakeholder working group was set up to guide efforts in this area."
Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie: Southern India - The Spice of Life
Visit a tiny farming community where local farmers cultivate indigenous ragi grain using sustainable agricultural practices and make some gooey ragi mudde. This excerpt is from Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie "Southern India: The Spice of Life"
Chicago Tribune: Microsoft's Gates says computers not cure-all
..using "DVD players that can be carried in and are battery operated is about as high-tech as you need in order to take to farmers and show them best practices," Gates said. With DVDs, "the adoption rate is three times what it was when we weren't using this approach."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Gates urges help for 'bottom third'
"But a project supported by the Gates Foundation produced a DVD showing how some farmers were able to improve their yields with better practices, and workers could take a battery-powered DVD player and TV set to different villages to show that video."
The Record: BILL GATES ASKS YOUTH TO CHANGE THE WORLD
[Bill Gates] described a project where farmers' best practices were filmed. A DVD of their practices was made and taken, with a DVD player, for other farmers to see.
Local farmers adopted the practices more frequently than they had before, and were anxious for their own techniques to be recorded. "It was doing better than American Idol, except it was Farmer Idol."
The Daily Texan: Viewpoint: Opening the Gates
Gates generates and applies innovative solutions to Third World countries using technology. For example, his foundation takes simpler machines, such as DVD players, to villages in sub-Saharan Africa to show farmers new, more effective farming techniques. When the farmers utilize better techniques and see the beneficial results, they give a shot of adrenaline to their economies and create a competitive atmosphere, thus providing them with incentive to continue to achieve, Gates explained. This tried-and-true capitalistic mentality, when applied to a developing area, drives global progress.
Imprint: Technology for the world
[Bill Gates] discussed the power of technology to assist in developing nations, using an initiative from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to illustrate his point. The foundation, which has a focus on improving global health, development and education, used portable DVD players and videos made by the top farmers in the world to help educate farmers in Africa and so improve the yield of their crops.
