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| The digital Green project is developing a participatory framework for agricultural extension | |||||||
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Overview: Distribution The principal means of disseminating content from the DG database is shipping DVDs to a village. Villages are provided a minimum of a TV and DVD player that is operated by NGO field staff and managed by local farmers. Villages usually do not have a public place in which farmers regularly gather, so the TV and DVD player must circulated around different areas of a village, which include bus stands, temples, schoolhouses, panchayat offices, storefronts, individual homes, and streets. Farming is a physically demanding occupation that starts early in the morning when power cycles allow irrigation wells to start filling and ends late in the evening after one’s family and animals have been fed. Most are willing to take only a short diversion from this daily routine between the hours of 7 to 9 pm. In addition, political and socioeconomic differences within village communities are prohibitive to gathering all the farmers together in one place at one time. The night showings usually involve small groups of about 10 to 20 farmers that are willing to come together at a common place within short distance of their homes. These groups serve as informal farmer training schools in the evenings and are complemented by field programs in daylight hours. Several small groups are formed within a single village to show content on a regular basis, based on the availability and interests of the group. Since the screening locations preferred by each small group may differ, though, multiple screenings are scheduled each week on a rotational basis.
An obvious question is whether farmers will adopt new practices by just watching TV. The short answer is no. The long answer starts by noting that effective extension provides not only training, but also mechanisms for personalized advising and feedback. Farmers are difficult to engage during nighttime outdoor screenings, however, a few do ask for clarifications, express interest in a particular method, or request physical visits to their field. The TV allows an operator, who may not be the best teacher of the content, to provide farmers with comprehensive and accurate knowledge about a particular practice. Video clippings average 10 minutes in length. Short videos encourage the production of clear descriptions of practices and help maintain the attention of a fluid audience, which may come and go during an outdoor screening in the night. Extension workers use the Digital Green system as a tool to support their regular duties. Since staff members come from various backgrounds, videos are used to train and standardize their interactions with farmers. In addition, staff is shown how to integrate the DG system into its extension activities through “teacher training” sessions. Training introduces staff to the system, content availability, and proper screenings techniques. Staff members are shown how best to generate interest in a community through locally-produced clippings; field commonly asked questions of farmers; pause, skip, or repeat screened content; maintain records of farmer interests; reiterate critical information; encourage audience participation; etc.
Since even TV and DVD screenings do not scale to a vast, geographically-dispersed population of farmers, alternate methods of disseminating the DG content are desirable. The two supplementary approaches currently used for distribution include a DVD exchange and local cable. In a village of 200 households, 100 own TVs and 50 subscribe to the services of a village cable operator. Many households that possess DVD players prefer the on-demand ability to view clips of their individual interests, as many times as they like, in the shelter and privacy of their homes. Enthusiastic farmers in several villages have taken DVDs to show to their friends and family, and have even arranged public screenings for their communities using their own TV and DVD players. The frequency of this sharing is remarkable considering the high value placed on these commodities. DVDs are circulated amongst farmers and the extension staff provides a human mode for feedback and support. Since DVDs are distributed amongst a scattered population that cannot be easily visited on a regular basis, viewers are provided a contact phone number to ask questions, request additional content, or schedule a visit with extension staff. Activities of extension staff are detailed in video clippings to introduce farmers to the services available to them. DVD exchanges are possible with farmers that develop an interest in DG content, but larger sections of a community could be better exposed to content through village cable networks. The additional value provided by using cable networks depends on its pervasiveness. Though cable service may be available, many households may purchase their own DVD players rather than subscribe to a service that costs between Rs. 50 to Rs. 100 per month and delivers few channels. Depending on the availability of the service, local farmers are best capable of assisting in providing access to the cable network. Village cable networks are typically managed by a part-time farmer, who serves as the cable operator. Though an operator could be paid to display content at rate of about Rs. 100 per night, there may be some difficulty in validating that the videos are actually being shown. Instead, DG benefits from an operator’s proximity to the greater farming community. Locally-produced agricultural and entertainment content helps provide an initial willingness to screen the content. Community pressure with increasing participation, perhaps even including the cable operator, sustains the show. Since technical hurdles may require operators to use a preexisting channel, one should be wary of upsetting other community members by displacing other programming. Community and cable operator feedback should be used for amicable scheduling.
Though the use of a cable network has been mentioned as a means of distributing DG content, it is important to recognize the differences between DG screenings and broadcast television and radio agricultural programs. DG screenings on cable are narrowcast in a village based on a relevant set of societal and agricultural conditions. Significantly, the content often includes participants from the same village. Though the applicability of a method may be wide, DG content intentionally targets a smaller audience closer to the location of tapings. Farmers identify personally with others in their community and are inspired to participate in this rural version of YouTube. Traditional broadcast programs allow only a small number of one-way streams that are consumed by a vast number of content consumers. But broadcast models are poor ways of delivering customized content and allowing two-way exchanges. One important advantage of the Digital Green approach is that is allows high-bandwidth, any-to-any, point-to-point communication, which in turn enables a high degree of content customization and rich two-way exchanges. In addition, a staff of extension workers at the grassroots level provides an accessible human resource, which physically visits farmer fields, produces local content, and moderates screenings. Our vision is to build a web-like network, targeting the vast segment of the society in developing countries like India that is beyond the conventional web with information that can be applied today. Instead of relying on the costly infrastructures of traditional broadband, satellite, or even computers, the Digital Green system uses inexpensive devices like DVDs, TVs, DVD players, and camcorders. | |||||||
