Digital Green: A Rural Video-Based Social Network for Farmer Training (Innovations Case Narrative: Digital Green)

Abstract

who aspires to become a star. The window these platforms provide into the lives of others is inspiring people to pursue their dreams as they see peers dance, sing, invent, and cook their way to fame. People living in rural communities in emerging parts of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa learn and are motivated by their peers in similar ways. Although they may not have access to the Internet or bandwidth or even electricity, these individuals learn by observing their neighbors’ fields, by asking others about the crops they grow and how they grow them, or inquiring about neighbors’ health issues and how they treat them. Development agencies, from government departments to the NGOs that work with these rural communities, are critical catalysts in this learning process. The Digital Green approach, currently deployed in India, Ghana, and Ethiopia, was founded in the belief that video can be a powerful tool to increase the effectiveness of agricultural extension, but that its benefits cannot be fully realized unless it is instituted through a process of localized content creation, facilitated dissemination, and institutionalization within broader extension processes.