Articles
Digital Green Advances Indian Agriculture Through Viral Video
Digital Green uses a novel tactic to spread good farming practices in rural Indian village: make educational videos in which area farmers star.
09.27.10
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According to Rikin Gandhi, CEO of Digital Green, traditional agriculture training tools have been beset by two flaws: “The programs are either too generic because they aim to be highly scalable, or too costly because they require experts to provide advice on an individual basis.” Digital Green is trying a third way. Launched in 2006 under the Microsoft Research India umbrella, and turned into an independent NPO in 2009, Digital Green uses a novel tactic to spread good farming practices in rural Indian villages: locally made educational videos in which area farmers are the stars. “We were inspired by a sister project, called Digital StudyHall, that used video in improving primary school education in India,” Gandhi says. Both are built on the theory that there’s no substitute for visuals, especially in communities with high illiteracy rates. “A mantra of extension systems is ‘seeing is believing.’”
So far, the team has produced close to 600 videos, and they’re hoping to expand not only within India, but also in Africa. According to Gandhi, a bit of human nature has helped their work: “The appeal of appearing ‘on TV’ is incentive enough for some farmers to adopt a new practice.”