Ritika Pandey of Digital Green speaking at the STARS Forum 7th Annual National Congress, shares results of pilots in providing and enhancing agriculture extension services to farmers. Very innovative use of video technology, video content from the farmers themselves have been highly effective in spreading knowledge, skills, and expertise between farming communities.

1. Transforming lives of rural communities around the world by using
digital platforms

2. 2
2
Agriculture Extension
Dissemination of expert agriculture information
and technology to farmers.
“Training & Visit” extension popularized by the
World Bank in 1970s
• Face-to-face interactions of extension
officers and farmers
100,000 extension officers in India
• Extension agent-to-farmer ratio is 1:
2,000
• 610,000 villages in India with average
1,000-person population
Extension officer “commuting” between farms

3. 3
0 5 10 15 20
Others
Government demonstration
Buyer
Cooperative
Extension worker
Newspaper
Television
Radio
Salesmen (e.g., fertilizer, pesticide)
Other progressive farmers
% farm households (n = 51,770)
Main source of information about new technology and
farm practices over the past 365 days (India: NSSO 2005)
Agricultural Social Networks in India
Information needs of 360M
farmers in India alone

4. 4
Video provides…
• Resource-savings: human, cost, time
• Accessibility for non-literate farmers
Digital Video for Extension

5. 5
Six months in field trying various combinations
Over 200 days of surveys, ethnographic investigation, and iterative design
Background of actors in video, Types of content,
Location and timing of screening, Method of dissemination,
Degree of mediation, Background of mediator, etc.
Background of actors in video, Types of content,
Location and timing of screening, Method of dissemination,
Degree of mediation, Background of mediator, etc.
Early Experimentation
Parameters Varied
Early Experimentation

6. 21 villages in Karnataka:
– Language: Kannada
– Crops: Ragi, banana, mulberry, coconut
– Population: 50-80 households
– Irrigation: 10-20 households with access
– Television: 15-20 households
Metrics:
– Knowledge: Before-and-after
– Attendance: Farmers at each screening
– Interest: Intent to take-up a practice
– Adoption: Number of households taking up each
new farming practice or technology
Experimental Set-Up
Preliminary Evaluation
Expert
Extension
Officer
Farming
Community
Farming
Community
Farming
Community
Research Assistant
Local Mediator Local Mediator Local Mediator
Poster Green(3)
Same as Digital Green with local mediator, but
no TV/DVD
Mediator makes posters and holds regular
group sessions
Classical GREEN (8)
Same as usual
Digital Green (9)
3 sessions per week
Cost:
Rs. 9,500 ($240) for TV/DVD per village
PC / camera costs shared
Extension officer shared
Mediator salary
Accountability:
Daily metrics and feedback
Official extension staff
15-month study
Audio Green (1)
Same as Poster Green with
MP3 audio tracks from videos

7. 7 times more adoptions over classical extension
15 months:
13 villages, 3 nights a week, 1,000 regulars
Sustained local presence
Mediation
Repetition (and novelty)
Integration into existing extension
operations
Social homophily between mediator, actor,
and farmer
Desire to be “on TV”
Trust built from identities of farmers and
villages in videos
Digital Green: Early Results
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Apr-07
May-07
Jun-07
Jul-07
Aug-07
Sep-07
Oct-07
Nov-07
Dec-07
Jan-08
Feb-08
Mar-08
Apr-08
May-08
Jun-08
Cumulative
AdoptionRate(%)
Classic GREEN Digital Green Poster Green Audio Green

8. 8
System Cost (USD)
/Village/Year
Adoption (%)
/Village/Year
Cost/Adoption
(USD)
Classical GREEN $840 11% $38.18
Digital Green $630 85% $3.70
Poster Green $490 59% $4.15
Cost-Benefit
8
Note: Decreasing amortized cost of hardware with time and scale
digitalGreen is at least 10 times more effective
per dollar spent than classical extension!

9. Initiation
Mobilization
Situational
Awareness
Training
Production
Topic
Identification
Storyboardin
g
Shooting Editing
Diffusion
Disseminatio
n
Adoption Reporting
Our Process

10. 2006 2008 2012 2014 2016 2019
Research project at Microsoft
Research
Scale up with NGOs
Non-profit
in USA and India
12k villages, 100 k farmers
Extend to Africa
Scaled to 6 Indian states
In partnership with Govt.
1m farmers, 9 states in India
Institutionalization
Scaling up in Ethiopia
Pilots Ghana, Senegal, Burkina Faso,
Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique
Afghanistan
Extension systems
strengthened across
developing world
Pilots with PATH in UP,
SPRING in Odisha
Pilots with PCI in Bihar,
RMNT in MP
603 villages, 46k HHs
reached
Pilot with World Bank
(SAFANSI) in Bihar, with
BIRAC in Odisha
USAID project in Bihar, Jharkhand & Odisha
LSHTM RCT in Odisha,
SPRING Expansion in Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal
Reach 200K women across
2k villages,
Agriculture
Health

11. Rural Network
Informal social networks exist within rural communities
850K
150K
1
MILLION
People
85% 15%

12. Communities
Partners Mobilize
Front-line workers of public, private, and civil society
organizations bring farmers together as groups
100
10K
150
1K
12K
Front-line
workers

13. Communities
Partners
Digital Amplification
Produce and share locally relevant agricultural videos informed by
farmer feedback and usage data
4k videos
28 languages
500k screenings
1m viewers
54% adoption rate

14. Communities
Partners
Digital Videos Expansion
Produce and share locally relevant agricultural videos informed by
farmer feedback and usage data
2K Trainees
336 Collections
4 VTI/DG Courses

15. • Standardized online platform to access videos
Video Library

16. Works on
Laptop, Tablet
Desktop, Phone
Multiple users
can work at same
time
Use any Device
Customize
Collaborate
Design custom
forms and
integrate with
existing systems
Explore data
quickly both
offline & online
Extract data in
multiple formats
for further use
User-friendly Extract
Search & Sort
Simple UI design for
users with varied
literacy levels
COCO – Connect Online | Connect Offline
How to collect data in
regions having low
internet connectivity?
Web-based MIS for challenged network environments
COCO seamlessly toggles
between Online and
Offline modes while
entering or viewing data
for uninterrupted usage

17. • Track, monitor and evaluate program performance
• Use at multiple levels: country to village
Analytics Dashboards

18. • Assist Digital Green trainers through step-wise modules
• Evaluate trainees – village extension workers - to inform learning
Virtual Training Institute – videos + mobile assessment

19. Get Involved @
Thank you