Low Cost Video Production for Agricultural Development via USAID and others

Some of you may know that I am involved with the ICT and New Media student group at my school (SIPA's New Media Task Force). I took the time to explore a low-cost video toolkit from USAID recently, and posted about it at the New Media Task Force blog. Since it has to do with communicating agricultural ideas, a topic I just mentioned last time, I thought I would cross-post it here too. Enjoy!

Interested in utilizing video in your projects around the world? USAID recently released a great toolkit: Integrating Low-Cost Video into Agricultural Development Projects. The guide includes sample videos, worksheets, and more. What I really like about the toolkit is the way it is organized. You can learn about: 1) how organizations are using video around the world; 2) how to assess the usefulness of video for your own organization's objectives; 3) how to make the videos; 4) how to disseminate the videos; 5) how to track impact; and 6) technical considerations. Working your way through the guide can help you figure out your objectives and what options are best for realizing them. If video is a means to your organization's ends, then you can learn from the guide and other organization's experiences how best to utilize it as an (agricultural) development tool.

The guide highlights some great organizations, including:

Digital Green: Working in India (and now starting in Ethiopia), DG has a really cool model that I think is a great fit for agricultural development. Here's a  breakdown:

The Digital Green system consists of four primary elements:
1. Using a participatory process for local video production;
2. Employing a human-mediated instruction model for video dissemination and training;
3. Deploying a hardware and software technology platform to exchange data in areas with limited internet and electrical grid connectivity; and
4. Utilizing an iterative model to progressively address the needs and interests of the community using both web-based analytical tools and interactive voice response (IVR) phone-based feedback channels.

The founder and CEO was at SIPA last year to discuss the organization's philosophy and experiences (and to recruit!). [Blogger's note: if Digital Green happen to stumble across this post, feel free to save one of those jobs for me in May 2013. Cheers! -Chris]

Agro-Insight: they have an interesting model as well:

Their model is based on the zooming-in, zooming-out (ZIZO) method, which considers both local and regional relevance when developing videos to maximize the number of farmers likely to be impacted by each video. The ZIZO approach revolves around five key principles:
1. Identify a generic topic of regional relevance;
2. Learn about context diversity through participatory research;
3. Develop videos with farmers and local field workers;
4. Test videos in various contexts and fine tune them; and
5. Scale-up and scale-out.

InsightShare: they focus on participatory video and offer up their own guide: Insights into Participatory Video: A Handbook for the Field

Video may be a technology you have mastered, but its application can be difficult. We all must investigate all options for a specific program, to avoid the following description from the USAID toolkit:

IT IS NOT UNCOMMON for development practitioners to find themselves enamored by the latest technology. Most of us know of at least a project or two that discovered that, for one reason or another, the technology that they thought would be a game changer ended up as an absolute failure. FAILFaires, which provide an opportunity for international development practitioners to share information about unsuccessful mobile and ICT interventions, have sprung up as an opportunity to learn from what went wrong. Video is no stranger to such failure. A common anecdote goes something like this: “We gave our beneficiaries video cameras, but they never used them. I’m not exactly sure why.” The truth is that effectively using video for development is never as easy as simply handing out cameras.

Hopefully this guide can help us all avoid such experiences...

Share and Share Alike

One difficulty that Seeds of Life is constantly dealing with is technology diffusion (which I had not expected). Well, I had expected the challenge of disbursing new seed varieties and farming techniques from the capital to the rural farmers around the country. But it is the poor transfer of knowledge of people and organizations at the same level as each other which was somewhat surprising (the organizational struggles are not too surprising, at least when I am in one of my more cynical moods, but very damaging to development). For example, Seeds of Life has been running a version of the “Drums on Farms” program for a few years now. The program uses relatively cheap metal drums that are air-tight and store approximately 200kg of seed/grain. Seeds of Life uses drums manufactured by a local company as well (East Timor Roofing). Farmers love these drums, and many of the seed production groups utilize them for community seed storage. Yet at recent seed production group meetings, where representatives from each of the 40 informal seed production groups (per district) met in the district capitals to share experiences and provide feedback, Seeds of Life quickly learned that very few participants knew how to remove the seeds from the air-tight drum. There is a simple circular opening at the top which is sealed (see photo), yet many groups were confounded when it came time to remove a small amount of seed (rather than dumping out all of the seed). 

One of East Timor Roofing's air-tight drums, with the single opening on top.

In one particular meeting, only one participant knew how to do it. Timidly at first, she raised her hand when asked who was able to easily remove the seed. She described a process that Seeds of Life had seen in another far-away district, where a can is tied with string and then submerged into the seed with a stick, using the string to then remove the now-full can. The technique is simple and utilizes locally-available materials, yet very few people knew of this technology(*). Staff here note this lack of diffusion is due to the insular nature of communities in Timor-Leste, with the smallest administrative unit (Aldeias) being no more than a family cluster of houses. Little is shared between families, they say, and distrust that extends back through the opposing sides during Indonesian occupation is always present. I suppose that is where the role of government comes in, to spread knowledge beyond family and party boundaries…

Example of one way to easily remove seed/grain from the storage drum.

The lack of people-to-people knowledge sharing in Timor-Leste is mirrored by the lack of organization-to-organization sharing. In particular, there is no sharing of experiences amongst (international) NGOs. Despite the resounding success of this small-scale storage via drums, many NGOs have launched their own programs over the last few years to find a different solution, including large-capacity silos and similar community-level storage facilities. They wasted time and money on projects that proved unsuccessful, while the proven solution was being implemented by other NGOs all along. Without coordination between NGOs, no one program director will know what intervention has been tried before, or who is doing something similar nearby. And even if they do coordinate, once they leave they often take that knowledge with them, as there seems to be no institutional memory at many NGOs. Certainly this problem is not limited to Timor-Leste, but perhaps Timor-Leste could follow other countries lead and implement government agencies to coordinate amongst NGO programs. Still, it would be in the best interest of the NGOs themselves to do more research and establish best practices. Some agencies started to do this a few years ago, and agencies working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries continue to work on it, but more of an effort should be made by all.

(*) And it is a “technology,” a word we too-often confuse with necessitating “high-tech solutions” to problems. There are other terms, such as “appropriate technology,” but I think just “technology” can suffice.

Cute Kids and their Farm Produce

While visiting a Seeds of Life contract farmer (part of the formal seed production process), the farmer and his wife insisted on showing off two of their most-proud achievements: their bountiful harvests and their adorable children (not in that order). And I could not resist sharing with you!

Here is the head-sized sweet potato:

and the three-times-a-child's-height cassava:

Seeds of Life Press Coverage

AusAID had a nice write-up about Seeds of Life's impact on one farmer's livelihood. You can read it here. In case the link does not work (might be temporary), here is a screenshot:

Also, Seeds of Life Research Adviser Rob Williams was recently awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his 10 years of ag work in Timor-Leste. Pretty exciting!

Treasure Trove of Madagascar Research Papers

While reading about dahalo in Madagascar (*), I stumbled across a wide-ranging collection of research papers about Madagascar. So I thought I would take a break from Timorese musings and share it with you all: the source is the SIT Study Abroad program, and by searching for Madagascar you get such amazingly-titled, exhaustively-researched papers as:
-Guano Exploitation in Madagascar, in which the author abandons a study on chemical fertilizers (little used in Madagascar), and instead investigates guano: "the organic fertalizer at the center of a complex web of interrelated environmental, cultural and economic interactions"
-Western Influence, Latent Racism, and their Impact on Access to Health Care in Madagascar, which details the causes and (healthcare) effects of Merina racism
-Malagasy Conceptions of Good Governance and Democracy, written in 2010 so it ought to be an interesting take on the level of interest Malagasy have for government post-2009 coup
-The Flavor of Money: The Vanilla Industry and the Economy of Antalaha, all the Gasy Vanilla you can handle
-and my favorite title: Romancing Dahalo: The Social Environment of Cattle Theft in Ihorombe, Madagascar,
which starts with a slighlty-incorrect recounting of the tragic Peace Corps Volunteer death in the early nineties (there was no Peace Corps in Madagascar in 1990, and every time I hear that story it is slightly different, though never any less horrific), and seems to be a commented version that was uploaded (weird but kind of funny)... but it looks fascinating! 


As you might have guessed, I have not read these yet, only downloaded a few and skimmed them. But take a look at the treasure trove yourself, I bet you will find an interesting and unexpected Madagascar-related paper!




(*) The dahalo story is of increasingly-serious attacks in the south. Here is one article, and as always check Tananews for updates. And Romancing the Dahalo was the article I stumbled across...

The Only Test That Matters

Sweet Taters!

During some “field visits” (the literal kind where you actually go and stand in farmer’s fields) last week, I was able to observe one of Seeds of Life’s most important research components… the taste test! As the research teams analyze how well a new variety grows in certain soils, and document its productivity levels and pest-resistance, at the end of the day they only really care about one thing: will farmers adopt it? Last Thursday they tested sweet potato varieties in Betano, a southern coastal district. Farmers, students, and staff were brought in to sample different varieties. Included in these varieties were two local types, two recently-introduced types, and about 8 “new” types. They ranged from big to small, from cylindrical to awkwardly-shaped, and orange to white. The orange types were of particular interest to Seeds of Life because of their nutritional value (malnutrition is a major problem here in Timor-Leste). The tasters sampled each variety as many times as they liked, which allowed for the ultimate test: which plate was empty first. Tasters were given a survey for more quantitative results, where they remarked whether they liked the variety, if it was wet/dry, if it crumbled in the mouth, if it was stringy, and if it was sweet or not. Then they had to select if they would plant it, and eventually pick their two favorites and explain why. In some parts of Timor, people greatly prefer white varieties, because of their appearance. In Betano though, taste was the ultimate deciding factor, and one local variety and one new variety emerged as favorites. It was interesting to hear the influencing factors on farmers’ decisions, for instance when one farmer said he loved the yield potential of the variety (around 20T/ha) but disliked the texture and therefore would not plant it. Increasing a crop’s productivity is meaningless if the population refuses to grow it, and it is useful to remember local preference when considering seemingly great nutritional or other agricultural interventions [such as my old friend Moringa with its bitter-tasting (to some!) leaves…]

All development requires teamwork

Can't please 'em all!

Probably the most important tester

The Importance of Slow Project Growth (or, "Slow and Low, That is the Tempo")

As part of my summer internship requirements, I am submitting regular (weekly-ish) updates to my program. I thought I would post them here as well (and file them under Reflections). The first is below, and for more on Seeds of Life and its mission check out their site here.

Just over a week into my time with Seeds of Life in Timor-Leste, and what impresses me most is the speed of the program’s implementation: slow. It is slow and methodical… We are now in the third 5-year phase of the program that aims to create a sustainable supply of high-quality, high-performing seed for the major food crops. The first phase focused almost entirely on research, introducing and rigorously testing various varieties in research stations throughout the country. The program also emphasized increasing the capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) staff to do this research themselves. The second phase continued these tests, but also began on-farm trials to demonstrate to farmers, NGOs, private enterprises, and others the seed quality and the advantages over existing varieties (in some case, 50% increases, with no inputs used). The third phase continues to build upon the earlier two, expanding the “formal” seed production into a contract-farmer system for producing certified and tested high-quality seed, while also expanding to farmers’ groups to produce “informal” seed for their own (and their community’s) use. Along the way, MAF workers have grown with the program. Seeds of Life is a respected brand, and its slow yet deliberate build-up has created good-will with farmers. Seeds of Life began as a small research program with a specific aim of improving seed security and a small national footprint; now it is considering business training and input options (like fertilizer) and continues to slowly expand its national footprint. The result is a program run by staff, foreign and Timorese, who dedicate themselves to the mission of improving food security. The other result is a program that has an effect beyond seed production, including policy issues. Last week a new project (beef cattle) team came to the office to learn from Seeds of Life, and our main researcher was asking them why they were not starting bigger than their five-village pilot study. The new team’s answer (paraphrased), “Because we want to emulate Seeds of Life: start small and focused, and grow to a well-rounded and complete food security intervention.”

Ze Germans Grow Big Moringa Leaves!

Well I've settled in to Timor-Leste nicely, and hope to share some of my experiences, as well as more about my program. But before I write anything detailed, I just wanted to share the biggest Moringa leaves I have seen on tree seedlings. These come from the Baucau office of GIZ, the German development agency. Their office includes a nice drip-irrigation operation and vegetable production. They are also involved in a youth-employment project.

 But what caught my eye were these huge Moringa leaves:

The GIZ district director told us the seeds were an improved variety, fast-growing, big-leafed, and still maintaining the nutritional qualities of Morniga. The seeds were from this big three-year-old tree.

Oh, and despite the title, all staff at the office were Timorese, not German!