ORGANIZATION : Digital Green
CONTACT PERSON: Rikin Gandhi
COUNTRY : India
CONTACT : contact@digitalgreen.org
WEBSITE : www.digitalgreen.org
Established in 2008, Digital Green Foundation is a non-profit international development organisation that partners with local public, private and civil society organizations to share knowledge on improved agricultural practices, livelihoods, health, and nutrition, using locally produced videos and human mediated dissemination. The foundation is currently implementing projects in collaboration with over 20 partner organisations across 9 states in India and parts of Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Ghana, Niger and Tanzania.
Village-level extension agents, trained by Digital Green and its partners, produce and disseminate videos on locally relevant agronomic and livelihood practices to motivate and educate community members. The equipment used for video production and dissemination are low cost, durable and easy to use, and adaptive to diverse environments. A community video production team of four to six individuals in each district creates videos, averaging eight to 10 minutes in length, which are screened for small community groups twice a week using battery-operated pico projectors. The videos feature local community members as ‘actors’ who demonstrate a featured practice and vouch for its benefits.
An extension agent or prominent community figure trained as a facilitator mediates a discussion around the video screenings by pausing, rewinding, asking questions, and responding to feedback. Regular adoption verification visits are scheduled for gauging the impact of the dissemination on actual practices.
According to the organisation, this approach, has proven to be 10 times more cost effective and leads to 7 times higher uptake of improved practices and technologies as compared to traditional top-down extension services.
Since 2008 and as of April 2015, Digital Green has reached over 660,646 individuals across 7,645 villages through 3,782 videos, which showcase and demonstrate best practices. As many as 343,609 of the viewers have adopted one or more of the best practices promoted through these videos.
