Author: Susan Thomas

Human Centered Design – from the eyes of a self-taught designer

Posted on by Susan Thomas

The first time that I heard the term ‘human-centered design’, was when I was doing my PhD and felt that it was another one of those buzzwords – what is being done is simplistic, but is made to sound complex. I did not know then that I would end up using it extensively at my work with Digital Green, and quite successfully too. What has encouraged me to write this series of blog on HCD is that I have used it for over 2 years in my work, which has given me enough time to reflect and make my own meaning of the process. Through these blogs, I capture some of that journey.

Scaling-up and HCD at Digital Green

At Digital Green, a lot of work is centred on developing pieces of training for field-level workers in producing localized videos on agriculture, health and nutrition, and showing those to rural communities. The videos are shown in small groups using a battery-operated pico projector and facilitated by field-level workers. As we scaled, our concern, similar to several organizations’, was maintaining the quality of our training. As we hire more and more trainers, how do we make sure that all of them are training field-level workers effectively? As trainers give more and more training, how do we know what field-level workers are actually learning to an optimal level?

We were looking to develop an innovative training system, where there was some amount of standardization, assurance of quality and learning for the ‘users’ – the field level workers. Several ideas were discussed, pilot projects proposed, strategy documents were written, ‘trial’ training videos made…but somehow things were not moving, and they did not seem quite right. We soon found that there was little space for iterations because there was a confidence that what we are proposing after brainstorming in our office conference room, is going to work with the field-level workers. Thankfully, we decided to change our approach.

Notes from brainstorming sessions

 

What worked for us to get it off the ground

I am a participatory researcher, and when my colleague introduced me to IDEO’s human-centered design approach, it immediately clicked. We extensively used their field guide to help us design our training system. But before I get to how we used it and what came out of it, I want to talk about how we even got started with using it.

One of the biggest questions about some methods, tools and techniques is that if they have been proven to work, then why are more and more people not adopting it? The answer is often the obvious one – it simply does not suit their context and environment. Similarly, every non-profit and its systems might not lend themselves to successfully using HCD, howsoever much they believe in its impact. In our case, it worked for us. The reason for it was a mix of two main ingredients: Attitude and Resources.

ATTITUDE

  • Being open to change. Innovation is the cornerstone of HCD. Even if you are “participatory” in your regular work, but not open to creating something completely different, HCD might not work at all. It is an uncomfortable position. We all tend to get used to our regular ways of working (even if they are inefficient or not as effective). In organizations, even a small and simple-looking change might require changing hard-set systems and processes. If an organization is intrigued to try it and make it successful, it has to be open to changes at several levels. Innovation cannot happen in isolation. Being open to change was what helped us wade through the murky waters of innovation.
  • Being quick to change and iterate. You cannot want to be innovative and yet be bureaucratic in your way of working. The two just do not support each other. Non-profits can sometimes be more bureaucratic than government agencies, members can pick apart issues more than seasoned academicians, and decisions might never be taken, agreements never reached. At DG, we kept a pretty small team, which was able to work independently, throw away bad ideas, create iterations of prototypes and move on. We committed ourselves to be open to what we learn, and change as we need. This wasn’t without serious arguments on viewpoints of different team members though! It’s funny how quickly we start loving our ideas, and feel such a pain when we figure that it not working. But things which are not working… throw away we must!

RESOURCES

  • Tenacity to keep trying even after failing several times. Though this might sound like an attitude, it is not just about having a belief in innovation and keeping an open mindset. It is also to do with funding. How many non-profits have funding that allows them to try and fail? Then try again and fail? It is such an oft-discussed topic that I can probably add nothing new. But, after all, with project targets always chasing you, how many times can you fail? We, luckily, had an empathetic donor, who was happy for us to innovate, who wasn’t asking us why we were failing, but rather what we failed at and how we addressed it. I doubt that without such support, we could have tried being innovative.
  • Right human resources. Now, I am not a trained human-centered designer. But I am trained in qualitative and participatory research. Our team also consisted of people who had done IDEO’s online course and we had required subject experts. I am not entirely sure how successful it would have been with an internal team which just tried to follow the guide. There is a lot of stuff written by scholars and practitioners on how participatory methods and training can be treated by researchers/trainers as a technical process and not an empowering approach. The same can hold true for HCD as well. The IDEO.org’s guide does focus a lot on ‘Mindsets’, before it gets down to ‘Methods’, presumably to help people not fall into that same trap. It also suggests building an interdisciplinary team. But, like funding, several non-profits suffer from a lack of good trained human resource. For us, getting the right people together helped like nothing else – a team which knows which are the right methods in which situation, to get to a workable solution.

With these four main things in place, we started on our HCD research. What are the things that worked for you and your team? What do you think about settings and contexts that support HCD?

A Country on the Cusp of a Digital Revolution in Agricultural Development

Posted on by Susan Thomas

Last month, I was in Dhaka, Bangladesh with my colleagues hosting an event on “Exploring Agriculture Innovations in Bangladesh to Improve Food Security” on behalf of Feed the Future’s Developing Local Extension Capacity (DLEC) program, which Digital Green leads in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), CARE International (CARE) and the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS). Bangladesh is one of the countries in which DLEC is operating to measurably improve extension programs, policies and service delivery by creating locally tailored, partnership-based solutions and by mobilizing active communities of practice to scale this work. The event in Dhaka was one such community event, and invited representatives from development, research, donors, government and the private sector with an interest in leveraging (mostly digital) technology to strengthen the agricultural extension system in Bangladesh. The number and caliber of attendees exceeded our expectations, and the level of dialogue about and enthusiasm for digital innovations was inspiring. This event made it clear to me that there’s a real opportunity to transform extension in Bangladesh.

I asked myself what is it about Bangladesh’s enabling environment that makes it so ready for this digital revolution? According to the 2016 analysis that DLEC conducted of the extension and advisory services environment in the country, “information and communication technologies (ICTs) and digitization are already viewed [by key actors in the country] as important tools to extending extension’s reach.” Furthermore, the government has introduced initiatives such as Digital Bangladesh, to digitize systems and structures down to the smallest rural administrative and local governments over the next three years, demonstrating a conscious effort to overcome the digital divide as a means of lifting people out of poverty. Additionally, there are over 118 million mobile phone subscribers; in a country with a population of 163 million, this is an exciting opportunity to connect people to each other and to the services and information they need. There is a growing momentum to design tools that leverage digital access to reach and empower more people to improve their lives, as evidenced by the numerous recognized digital projects in agriculture in Bangladesh, such as the A-Card digital finance solution for farmers from AESA, the remote-sensing technology for water management from CIMMYT and the Farmer Query System that uses smartphone pictures to diagnose plant disease from mPower.

I am really excited that DLEC is contributing to this revolution, in conjunction with the USAID Agricultural Extension Support Activity (AESA) Project, by launching Digital Green’s farm-to-market aggregation and transport service in Bangladesh. Under the program, farming communities select a farmer leader/aggregator, who coordinates with peer farmers to arrange transportation based on the quantity of crops harvested and provides critical market information, such as commodity prices. The aggregator uses a mobile application for record keeping and provides SMS receipts to his fellow farmers for transparency. Thus far, we have reached over 2,300 people in 76 villages, creating 30 youth agri-entrepreneurs since the program began in April, and farmers have shown a willingness to pay a portion of both the aggregator and transport costs. (Watch this video to find out more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-OMXQxi1NA)

I left Dhaka feeling inspired by all the ground-breaking digital solutions I learned about that are working to strengthen the agricultural sector in the country. Although most of these solutions are being tested only on a small scale and are not well-coordinated, there is evidence of a growing technology sector and encouragement from the government to leverage more ICT tools. The question for me then is, what is our role as organizations that work in agricultural development in coordinating these solutions and encouraging their uptake so we can measurably improve the country’s extension system for smallholder farmers? This is a pivotal time to mobilize this active community and promote the cross-learning of these effective approaches across sectors from public to private, from government to farmer organizations. DLEC can help catalyze the scaling of these proven approaches and leverage the existing enabling environment within Bangladesh, but it will take cooperation among all the actors if we are going to see the emergence of a modern, ICT-enabled extension and advisory service system that creates significant impact in the lives of smallholder farmers. Given the environment in Bangladesh, I think this is achievable and something DLEC will be working towards. What role will your organization play?

Breaking the Cycle of Debt

Posted on by Susan Thomas

 

“Watching the videos helps us to retain the information we see,” said Vijay Lakshmi, a smallholder farmer from the arid region of Andhra Pradesh in India. “When someone tells you, you tend to forget, but when you see it, it is in your mind for a long time.”

Lakshmi is a happy and welcoming middle-aged woman from Bollovaram village, a small community that depends on agriculture. She and her husband have farming in their blood. Even their grown children are both farmers. This lifestyle is so ingrained, she, her husband and their son all became Community Resource People for a National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) project, and now continue under the Department of Agriculture, Government of Andhra Pradesh.

In partnership with the NRLM, Digital Green is helping to train Community Resource People in video recording and facilitated screenings, so they can build the capacity of farmers to pull themselves out of poverty.

 

Coming from a farming community, Lakshmi understood a good deal about farming in her area, but in the past, like most the farmers in the area, she used the techniques her neighbors used, which included using chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Using this method meant she had to go into debt at the beginning of the season to buy the inputs, so she could plant her crops. After she sold her harvest, the debt had to be paid back.

“We were spending 20,000 rupees for chemicals. After the harvest, we paid that amount back to the agro-dealer, so we basically broke even,” Lakshmi explained. “My husband was upset about the amount we were spending. He proposed the idea to start farming organically, but the family did not support him because it was not a common practice in the village. They did not want to risk their only income by switching to organic farming.”

Lakshmi’s husband finally convinced them that it was not much of a risk because as it was, they were barely making any profit using the chemicals. They started slowly and it wasn’t easy at first. The family began to learn about organic farming from their neighbors, community resource people, and the video screenings. They started with an intercropping system. That year, there was a crop failure across the district, but using the organic methods paid off. They were able to yield 10 quintals of cotton. That made them realize the power of organic farming.

For the last five years, they have been using completely organic methods. They no longer go to the fertilizer shop. She saw videos on how to prepare botanical extracts, and how they help with pest management. They began to grow red gram (lentils) through these organic methods. They also use the post-harvesting techniques they saw in the videos for the lentils.

Through the project, the Community Resource People work with local smallholder farmers to produce videos on agricultural techniques and best practices for getting the most yield out of the locally grown crops. The videos are then screened to groups of farmers, during which questions and dialogue are encouraged. The Community Resource People then follow up with the farmers to see how they are implementing those techniques and the results the farmers see.

“We are selling the lentils now,” said Lakshmi. “The other farmers, using the chemical methods, are getting 70-80 rupees per kg and we are getting 120 rupees per kg. People now know the value of naturally grown grains and are willing to pay extra.”

Lakshmi and her family have seen the possibilities of these methods and became Community Resource People. They are all working across different districts promoting these natural farming practices among other farmers even in other states.

Reaping the Benefits of New Knowledge

Posted on by Susan Thomas

About a half hours drive outside the bustling town of Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh is the village of Bollavaram. In an area where agriculture is the main form of income, a group of the farmers here is learning how organic farming techniques can lower their expenses and increase their profits through a National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) project. In partnership with the NRLM, Digital Green is helping to train Community Resource People in video recording and facilitated screenings, so they can build the capacity of farmers to pull themselves out of poverty.
Through the project, the Community Resource People work with local smallholder farmers to produce videos on agricultural techniques and best practices for getting the most yield out of the locally grown crops. The videos are then screened to groups of farmers, during which questions and dialogue are encouraged. The Community Resource People then follow up with the farmers to see how they are implementing those techniques and the results the farmers see.

Farmers like Invi Krishna are reaping the benefits of this project. At first, Krishna was not interested in organic farming. Krishna’s family farmed land in Bollavaram for generations. His father was the exception. He became a teacher, but Krishna and his brother decided they would return to farming the family’s eight acres of land to support their families.

Two years ago, Krishna saw that one of his neighbors started farming organically and was saving money. He began attending a few workshops and meetings on the organic farming. Then, he started to attend the group screenings of the videos shown by the Community Resource Person on the farming practices.

“These videos help us to do more and more. If someone tells you how to do something, you hear it, but you don’t always take it in,” explains Krishna.

During the screening, he realized that he owned a cow, so the cow dung and urine used to make the organic pesticide and fertilizer would be free, so he began to slowly incorporate what he learned into his farming practices.

 

Krishna applied the lessons he learned in the videos on how to prepare and apply natural pesticide supplements to his rice and maize. The cow dung and urine and a few other ingredients are mixed, dried, made into flakes and then applied to the soil before sowing. The mixture is reapplied when insects are spotted in the crops. Since using this method, Krishna’s costs for pesticides have gone down. There is a nominal amount of investment for a few natural ingredients, such as cane sugar to enhance fermentation.

Krishna realized that when he was applying the chemicals pesticides, he would get seven to eight quintals per $.40 invested. Using the natural method, he would get 10 quintals per $.40 investment. Now, he uses this organic pesticide on all his crops. He also continues to attend the video screenings to learn new methods.

“With the videos, we see it, and it’s not just seeing the video. We see them as a group, so there is a lot of discussions. It gets absorbed into our brains,” says Krishna. “I watch the videos two or three times, then I put it into practice. It becomes my knowledge.”

Reducing Time and Increasing Profits for Farmers in Bangladesh

Posted on by Susan Thomas

An unpredictable summer storm in southwest Bangladesh last April caused many farmers, like Abdul Mannan, to make some tough decisions. The government of Bangladesh estimates about 1.2 million tons of rice was lost because farmers were forced to harvest their paddy crops sooner than expected, which created a labor shortage and an increase in labor wages. The farmers had to decide whether to harvest the remaining paddy or take the time to sell their already harvested crops before they were lost?

The decision is a question of return on investment. Do they spend on harvesting the rice, which is usually their most profitable crop, or use that time to sell their vegetables? Abdul was one of the lucky farmers who had joined Feed the Future’s Developing Local Extension Capacity (DLEC) programs new initiative. In conjunction with the USAID Agriculture Extension Support Activity Project (AESA), DLEC launched Digital Greens Loop program in Bangladesh. Under the program, farming communities select a farmer leader/aggregator, who coordinates with peer farmers to arrange transportation based on the quantity of crops harvested. The aggregator uses a mobile application for record keeping and provides SMS receipts to his fellow farmers for transparency.
Abdul Mannan, a farmer in Bangladesh who has benefited from Digital Green's vegetable aggregation project Loop

In the past, it would take Abdul three days to sell his produce. He would rent a tricycle/rickshaw van to take his produce to the market at a cost of BDT 1.25 per kilogram. Now, the aggregator weighs, packs and hauls this produce to the market directly from the farm. Abdul saves fifty percent on transportation cost because the aggregator hires a larger motorized vehicle and the cost is shared among all the farmers.

Once at the market, the aggregator negotiates for the collective to get better prices. Markets in Bangladesh are unregulated and have a long forward chain, making smallholder farmers vulnerable to market manipulation. Traders often charge 10 percent extra to cover transportation, loss, and wastage. With Loop, the aggregator has collective bargaining power–traders usually provide better prices and facilities when they can buy larger quantities. Because they are dealing in bulk, the traders charge less to cover loss and wastage. Abdul’s aggregator was able to negotiate three percent.

Abdul sold 335 kilograms of pointed gourd through the Loop program. He saved BDT 200 on transportation cost and earned BDT 620 in profit. Since he did not have to go to the market himself, he saved three days, which he dedicated to harvesting the remaining paddy crop.

Already working with thousands of farmers in India, the Loop initiative has a goal of reaching 1000 farmers, like Abdul, in Bangladesh before the end of the project.

think-cell: Powerpoint charting. Done right.

Posted on by Susan Thomas

think-cell is a presentation software that makes the task of creating professional PowerPoint presentations easy and efficient.

The think-cell software facilitates quick creation of complex charts and visualizations (such as waterfalls, Marimekkos and Gantts) and clean slide formatting/layouts in PowerPoint.

The software is offered for free to academic and nonprofit organizations. For additional information on think-cell visit www.think-cell.com

 

LOOP Mobile App Makes Farm to Market Linkages Easy

Posted on by Susan Thomas

The first time she sold her vegetable produce through Digital Green’s new Loop App, in February 2016, Veema Devi of Rajkhavampur village in Samastipur district, Bihar, India, was apprehensive that she would earn as much money as when she sold it herself. Though she had more produce available, she sent only radishes to the market through her aggregator, Devinder Singh. By early afternoon, Devinder returned with her earnings and receipt. The price was competitive, and Veema saved six hours by not traveling to the market herself. Veema now uses Loop regularly, selling radishes, okra, tomatoes, and other vegetables.


Veema devi, one fo the first famers to sell her vegetable produce through Digital Green’s Loop App

 

Smallholder farmers spend a considerable amount of time and money transporting their produce to the nearest market. However, they lack the volume and real-time, comparative pricing information that could yield better prices.

Digital Green launched a pilot project, Loop, in India’s Bihar state in August, 2015, to improve smallholder farmers’ access to markets and to help farmers realize the highest possible income from sale of their vegetables. Under Loop, farmers sell their produce through village level agricultural extension workers, who function as aggregators. Often farmers themselves, the aggregators reach out to fellow farmers to raise awareness about Loop and its operations, recruit farmers to participate, and operationalize Loop’s collection, transport, and sales transactions.

Aggregators collect produce daily, oversee its transport to and sale at market, and disburse payments to farmers. Aggregators are aided by Loop’s mobile application that enables them to record collections, sales, transportation type and costs, and trader details in the form of a digital ledger, and sends farmers receipts by text message when sales are completed. This is supported by an android mobile application by the same name.

A farmer in Bihar harvesting bhindi (okra) to be sent to the market through Digital Green's Loop model
A farmer in Bihar, India, collecting bhindi (okra) to be sold through Digital Green’s Loop App

Since the pilot began in August 2015 and until mid January 2016, nearly 1,492 farmers in 77 villages have used Loop to sell 2,672,553 Kgs of their produce. This project is operational in 2 districts, Samastipur and Muzaffarpur of Bihar.Â

Transactions of INR 31,320,419 have been carried out in 1,624 visits by the aggregators to 19 mandis in Bihar.

Beneficiary speaks

Anil Kumar Singh, 35, of Samastipur district, Bihar, India, lives with his wife Poonam Devi have two children who are in school. Anil Kumar has 2.5 bhiga (approx 1.5 acre) land where he grows vegetables like parwal, baingan, kheera etc. He used to go to the mandi (market) by a bicycle. “It was quite uncertain. I was able to sell the produce sometimes, on other days I used to spend the whole day there and come back home in the evening,” he shares. Carrying heavy the load of the vegetables sometimes his bicycle would break down on the way.

Anil Kumar, a beneficiary of Digital Green’s Loop model piloted in Bihar, India

“Now with the Loop vehicle things have become easier for us. Ranjit bhaiya (aggregater) comes and collects the vegetables to take it to the market. Earlier he used to collect it from our house, but now he collects it straight from the farm,” shares Anil Kumar. The time that he saves is used for working harder on the field spraying pesticides and watering the plants, which has helped him improve the yield as well.

“I have used the Loop vehicle at least ten times to send my produce like cabbage, cauliflower, green peas and parwal to the mandi. My vegetables are transported to various markets like Tajpur, Samastipur, Bihar Sharif mandis,” he adds with pride.

“When Ranjit Bhaiya returns from the mandi he comes first to give us the money and a receipt and I also get a message on my mobile phone. Now I dont face any problems in selling my vegetables and now I grow more vegetables than before. I get the payment sitting at home; I dont have to go chasing after them to recover the payment. I have complete trust on Loop,” shares Anil Kumar.

About Digital Green:

Digital Green is a not-for-profit international development organization that uses innovative digital solutions and community engagement to improve lives of the rural poor. Its early roots were formed as a Microsoft Research Project in Bangalore in 2006. The project was part of an effort to test different ways of using technology for social development. This project focused specifically on testing the use of participatory videos as a means of agricultural extension. The approach was substantially more effective as a means of extension than existing conventional agricultural extension programs.

Digital Green has pioneered the use of participatory videos to strengthen behavior change programs in the agriculture domain. Early research showed that this approach used in promoting better agricultural practices and technologies to farmers results in seven times higher adoptions and is ten times more cost effective than traditional systems to reach farmers with agricultural messages.

 

 

An Empowered Woman and a Prosperous Village

Posted on by Susan Thomas

Radha Devi and her husband, Dasrath Mahto belong to Rengalbeda village in Manoharpur block of West Singhbhum district, Jharkhand, India. Being small-scale farmers they depended on agricultural produce from a small farmland and a cycle repairing shop, their only source of income until 2014. Meeting expenses of the school for our children, Umesh and Priya, means we are always a bit stretched for money, shared Radha Devi. So as a supplementary source of income they tried rearing goats. However high death rates among the goats meant this was not a profitable venture either for them or others in their village.

In the year 2014 Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) was expanding its work in the area. They were selecting women from every village to be trained as Ajeevika Pashu Sakhis (APS). Radha Devi applied and got selected as well.

Radha Devi was trained as an APS in September 2014 and started her work in the field of Goatery. Initially, her husband was a little apprehensive about her work and doubted if she could manage. He also tried to stop her from working thinking that she may be blamed for the death of other peoples goats. But Radha Devi was not fazed. She de-wormed her own goats at first and all ten goats continued to be healthy. This instilled a lot of confidence in her and her husband. The villagers too needed a lot of coaxing and trust-building and Radha Devi did not give up easily. Her hard work had developed faith of villagers on her and they started calling her for examining their goats and poultry.

In April 2015 Radha Devi went on an exposure visit to the Goat Trust in Lucknow during a training, which further enriched her experience and profile. I had never been out of my village before this visit and had never been on a train before, shared Radha Devi.
In January 2016, she received the second level of training from JSLPS along with the training on Digital Greens approach and facilitated dissemination of videos.

Video dissemination and facilitation training have changed my approach to interacting with villagers. I am now using JSLPS-DG videos to disseminate knowledge. This made my work easy. People adopt the practice more easily after watching the video, she shared.
More and more families have now started rearing goats in our village now. 15 new families have started rearing goats this year, taking the total number of goat rearers in our village to 55. Poultry rearing has also become popular, with a total of 84 families of which 14 started this year, shared a proud Radha Devi.

The volume of her work has also increased compared to last year. This year alone she has de-wormed 700 goats; and vaccinated 600 goats, which is the record vaccination by an individual APS this year in JSLPS. As a result, there is a sharp decline in the death rates among goats and poultry and the villagers are happy with her work.

Radha Devi is happy and content while sharing, No doubt, goat rearing has added to the livelihood of villagers. Now the village is recognized for goats and people come directly to the village to buy the goats and villagers need not even go to market.
Apart from this, goat rearing has decreased the dependency of villagers on cow dung manure and everybody in the village is using goat excreta as compost in agriculture. Radha Devi has 31 goats of her own. The population of goat in her village has grown from 300 to 704 today and that of poultry is 1,300 with minimal or no deaths.

 

Working as an APS, I earn INR 3,500-4,000 on an average every month, which is an additional income to my family. I spend this money to buy milk for my kids and in their schooling, She shared with pride. Apart from this, my work has earned me a lot of social respect and now every villager recognizes my contribution, she adds.

Digital Classrooms for Farmers

Posted on by Susan Thomas

“A teacher must be a good facilitator, competent, knowledgeable, entertaining, inspiring, dedicated, strict, punctual,” this is everything that Poonam Devi, 26, aspires to be and hopes she is, as a video resource person (VRP) with JEEViKA, in her village.

Poonam Devi, a farmer and a VRP in Indra Village Organization (VO) of Kavilashi village in Saurbazar block in Saharsa wants to ensure a brighter future for her two children. She and Kisto Yadav (her husband) work very hard to achieve that.

Being a VRP is a responsibility that Poonam Devi takes seriously. “I used to provide knowledge on current seasonal crops through flipcharts, some flexes, paper, and pen or else by drawing lines on the land. I would emphasize the main points and discuss them in the SHG meetings. I would discuss the seasonal processes of Systematic Rice/Wheat Intensification (SRI and SWI) or any other enhanced method of preparing pesticides, composts etc. However, members would fail to remember the agricultural practices shared in the meeting,” shares Poonam. “In addition to this, I used to visit the members’ house to teach them again, which was time-consuming,” she adds.

In October 2014, Poonam attended the JEEViKA-Digital Green Dissemination Training and was introduced to the concept of learning through videos. Now, a handheld Pico Projector with videos in it had replaced the flip charts and pen and paper. Poonam was quick to learn about how rechargeable equipment which is portable, has good Audio-Video configuration can be played among community members. She enjoyed her new role as a teacher of a farmers Smart Class. She has learned the importance of pause and play while disseminating videos. She finds this digital learning environment for farmers to be very suitable for communities with low literacy levels.

She describes the video disseminations as a Classroom that she is proud to contribute to in increasing awareness about enhanced agricultural practices among her peers. She takes every opportunity to share information about the agricultural Package of Practices (PoP) with members during the self-help group (SHG) meetings.

I never thought I could ever even work on a laptop despite being a university graduate due to my families financial problems. But I feel proud that I am an agricultural extension worker armed with the latest technology, says Poonam. Just by watching the 8-10 minute long videos on agricultural practices on different subjects like seed treatment, preparation of nursery bed for different vegetables/crop, maintaining seed-to-seed or seedling-to-seedling distance, limiting the number of seeds to be sown at each point, I have learnt everything I need to know to share this knowledge with my farming community, she adds.

“The Pico Projector makes my job easier. It has helped me in nurturing the farmers’ knowledge on the skills required for farming with lower input cost. Some videos like Poshak Bageecha and Borey mein Sabji ki kheti (nutrition garden and sack farming) have been very popular and been adopted by my VO members and non-SHG members too have asked for it to be shown to them, shares Poonam with pride.

Poonam feels the farmers are like students who attend her dissemination session and the adoption verification is like an examination. When she goes to their fields for verification, she asks the farmers some defined questions as per the Syllabus.

Disseminating videos is just like teaching with technology for a greater impact on my community, says a proud Poonam.

Haima’s journey of empowering farming families through videos

Posted on by Susan Thomas

When Haima Manjari Mahanta, a woman from Naikapani village of Pallahara block in Angul district of Odisha joined a Self- Help Group (SHG), she could hardly imagine that one day she would be instrumental in bringing smiles to the faces of many farm families in her village.

Haima decided to join Maa Kusumunali SHG in 2011 to meet the medical needs of her family. She became the president of the group within a very short span of time, surpassing many older women in the group because of her dedication and commitment towards various group level processes. She never hesitates to take initiative and because she demonstrated her leadership skills in many instances, she became the voice of many other SHGs in her village.

In 2012, she applied for the position of Community Resource Person (CRP) as a part of the Targeted Rural Initiative for Poverty Termination and Infrastructure, A world bank supported project (TRIPTI) and qualifyied and was appointed as CRP in her own village. She was responsible for encouraging and enrolling all the households under SHG structure. During that period she formed, nurtured and strengthened 10 new SHGs. In 2015, TRIPTI project was merged with Odisha Livelihood Mission (OLM) and Haima was re-appointed in the role of a CRP. As a part of her new responsibilities, she started promoting improved agricultural practices among the group members to enhance farm level income from agriculture. This proved challenging for her, since she had no training in conducting training on agriculture for the members due to her own limited exposure and knowledge on agriculture. I still remember those days. It was a difficult to convince the farmers to adopt any new agriculture practice due to my own limited knowledge on the subject, shared Haima.

Haimas relief can be seen in the broad smile on her face while narrating her experience of using the Digital Green (DG) approach when OLM started a partnership project with DG in her block during the early part of the year 2016. My task of promoting agricultural practices has become easier since then and convincing people to adopt them is no more difficult, shared Haima.

Digital Green trained Haima on the various processes involved while disseminating a video, including how to operate a pico projector and facilitate discussion during dissemination. She was quite excited to see and operate a pico projector for the first time during the training.

Haima shared that she has already disseminated 8 videos among 15 SHGs in her own village. Since she was already recognised in the community for her good work and due to her good facilitation skills, many of her group members have adopted at least one practice that they have seen in the videos. She has reported more than 450 adoptions among the members till date. Haima says that she is able to give ample time to other SHG related work since promoting agricultural practices through video based extension system has made her task easier and faster, instead of the practice of going door-to-door or farm-to-farm. She brings two groups together and disseminates a micro practice to 20 to 25 members within an hour. Before every dissemination, she watches the video 2 to 3 times at home to familiarize herself with the content, know the places where she needs to stop and initiate discussion and prepare for all possible questions that the viewers might ask during dissemination.

Haima is happy that she is able to add quality to her work as well as improve the rate of adoption, which has become more than twice of what she could achieve lasting the previous year when she was trying to convince the farmers without the videos. Haima shares with conviction that the factors contributing to her success are the visual medium of dissemination, local videos featuring local farmers as actors, the local dialect and the timely dissemination of the videos, i.e. during the actual time of practice.

Debaki Mahanta, another woman from the same village and a member of Maa Kusumunali SHG who regularly participates in video dissemination says that these videos have been of great help to all the farmers in the village to understand, remember and adopt the practice. And most importantly the facilitation by Haima during the video dissemination helps them to get new learning and clarify their doubts at the same time. Debaki appreciates Haima’s effort and encouragement to all the members to adopt the practices shown in the video. Debaki has adopted many practices that she has seen in the videos, such as, seed treatment, nursery raising and line transplantation in paddy. All these practices have helped her family to reduce expenses in paddy cultivation.

There are many such farm families in the village who have benefitted from the practices shown on the videos and they are grateful to Haima for her earnest effort in motivating them to adopt new practices. Haima is quite happy with her achievement and it is satisfying for her to see that her work has brought such happiness to many such farming families in her village.

This case study was originally compiled for Odisha Livelihood Mission’s Newsletter.