Digital Green

Rikin Gandhi (v-riking@microsoft.com), Rajesh Veeraraghavan (rajeshv@microsoft.com), Kentaro Toyama (kentoy@microsoft.com), Randolph Wang (rywang@cs.princeton.edu)

Digital Green is an agricultural training and advising system that seeks to benefit rural farmers by disseminating targeted information through digital videos and phones.

A geographically-dispersed, culturally-diverse rural population of farmers remains disconnected from expert information that could improve the sustainability of their livelihoods. Various extension systems have been tried before, however, we aim to build a system that can scale agricultural advising support to even the smallest subsistence farmer. Digital Green bootstraps on the local expert knowledge of existing NGOs and farmers by capturing and distributing the widest selection of content in the most targeted, practically-oriented format – videos.

Pilot experiments in the field began in September 2006 through an NGO, called Green Foundation, which promotes sustainable farming practices in southeastern Karnataka. We are actively compiling a repository of videos that includes testimonials of progressive farmers, field demonstrations led by agriscientists, interactions amongst farmers, and market-based opportunities. The library currently contains over 90 locally-produced videos in the Kannada language. These recordings are minimally-edited prior to screenings, which are shown to individuals on a laptop, small groups using a TV and DVD player, and communities through the village cable network. Unlike attempts to use traditional mass media to broadcast agricultural information, Digital Green is local and relevant. Farmers are motivated to adopt a new practice when they see a fellow villager, living in similar circumstances, experience its benefits. Extension staff is available to provide field support and mediates screenings of Digital Green videos to permit feedback. Digital Green improves the productivity of the extension staff by diminishing the logistical challenges of disseminating agricultural innovations at the grassroots.

Digital Green has demonstrated early success in the popularization of sustainable farming practices in the three villages in which the system is currently deployed. Digital Green aims to scale its system to offer relevant agricultural extension services to a much wider population of farmers.

A series of field experiments have been conducted to understand the nature of agricultural extension and to better design Digital Green. The following provides a raw list of the experiments that were attempted.

Disclaimer: These “experiments” capture largely isolated events involving a small number of villages (<3) and farmers (<200) over a short span of time (<3 months). The “results” are anecdotal in nature and should not be construed as representative samples.

Note: Symbols ↓↑ are used to denote an initial estimation of future potential in the approach.

1              RECORDINGS    

1.1          Taping farmers without intermediaries, such as experts or staff ↓          

1.2          Taping farmers at screenings to get feedback ↓              

1.3          Taping farmers with low-skill intermediaries ↑ 

1.4          Taping farmers with medium-skill intermediaries ↑       

1.5          Taping farmers interacting with each other without any intermediary ↓               

1.6          Taping farmers interacting with each other when supervised an expert ↑           

1.7          Taping farmers interacting with each other when supervised a non-expert ↓    

1.8          Taping regular interactions between staff and farmers ↓            

1.9          Taping staff and experts without farmers ↓      

2              THEMES              

2.1          Taping farmer innovations ↑    

2.2          Taping farmer mistakes ↑          

2.3          Taping farmer testimonials ↑   

2.4          Taping farmers of both genders ↑         

2.5          Taping meteorological information ↑    

2.6          Taping cost-benefit information ↑         

2.7          Taping entrepreneurial content ↑          

2.8          Taping classroom lectures ↓     

2.9          Taping large field events ↓        

2.10        Taping comparative exhibitions ↑          

2.11        Taping concepts ↑         

2.12        Taping step-by-step demonstrations ↑               

2.13        Taping completed showcases ↑              

2.14        Taping different versions of the same practice ↑            

2.15        Taping non-farming village content ↑   

2.16        Taping new farmers ↑ 

3              SEQUENCING AND SCHEDULING             

3.1          Sequencing content in village shows ↑

3.2          Regular screening scheduling ↑               

4              SCREENINGS     

4.1          Cable television ↓↑     

4.2          Netflix-style video exchange ↑               

4.3          Farmer-led television ↑              

4.4          Schoolhouse television ↓↑      

4.5          Middle of street television ↑    

4.6          Awareness event television ↑ 

4.7          Indoor house television ↓↑

4.8          Outdoor house television ↑

4.9          Individual field screening ↑       

4.10        Group field screening ↑              

4.11        Political leader television ↓↑   

5              MEDIATIONS    

5.1          Hole-in-the-wall television ↓    

5.2          Low mediated television ↑        

5.3          Medium mediated television ↑               

5.4          Highly mediated television ↑    

5.5          Peer mediated television ↓↑  

5.6          Handouts television ↑ 

6              TIMINGS             

6.1          Afternoon television ↑               

6.2          Night television ↑          

6.3          All day and night television ↓↑               

6.4          On-demand television ↑