Technology for Emerging Markets research group

1
Outline

• Introduction
• Technology for Emerging Markets research group
• Why the BOP is different
• In general, for computing, and for Microsoft
• Warana Unwired
• SMS text-messaging information system for a
  sugarcane cooperative
• Digital Green
• Video and mediated instruction for agriculture
  extension
• Looking forward
• Vision for Microsoft

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Agriculture Extension

• Dissemination of expert agriculture information
  and technology to farmers
• Training Visit extension popularized by
  governments and World Bank in 1970s
• Face-to-face interactions of farmers and
  extension agent
• 100,000 extension officers in India
• Extension agent-to-farmer ratio 12,000
• (610,000 villages in India of average population,
  1,000)
• Typical extension officer salary
• Rs. 4,000 per month

An extension officer commuting between farms
3
Agricultural Social Networks
?
Main source of information about new technology
and farm practices over the past 365 days
(India NSSO 2005)
4
The Problem
How can the speed and effectiveness of
agriculture extension be improved at a reasonable
cost?
http//www.naukri.com
5
Digital Video for Extension

• Video provides
• Resource-savings human, cost, time
• Accessibility for non-literate farmers

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Parameters Varied
Early Experimentation
Early Experimentation
Background of actors in video, Types of content,
Location and timing of screening, Method of
dissemination,
Degree of mediation,
Background of mediator, etc.
Background of actors in video, Types of content,
Location and timing of screening, Method of
dissemination,
Degree of mediation,
Background of mediator, etc.
Six months in field trying various
combinations Over 200 days of surveys,
ethnographic investigation, and iterative design
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Digital Green System

• Participatory content production
• Video database
• Mediated instruction
• Structured sequencing

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Participatory Content Production
Digital Green System

• Feature extension officers showing farmers new
  techniques.
• Standard extension procedure
• Rough storyboarding
• Repetitive pattern easy to learn
• Minimize post-production
• Local farmers on their own fields implement
  practice on camera
• - Reduce perception of teachers
• - Promote local stars

9
Digital Green System
Video Database
Online video database maintained
(http//www.digitalgreen.org) gt200 videos of 8
minutes each Quality-control, minor video
editing, and metadata tagging Indexed by type,
topic, locale, season, crop, etc. DVDs burned
for dissemination
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Digital Green System
Mediated Instruction

• Mediator selected in each village
• Humans engage farmers
• Field questions, capture feedback, encourage
  participation
• On-demand Screenings
• Choice time and place
• Not a stand-alone kiosk
• Support and monitoring by official extension staff

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Digital Green System
Structured Sequencing
Audience Awareness Season Location
Community Assessment
Time
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Experimental Set-Up
Preliminary Evaluation

• 9-month study
• 16 villages in Karnataka
• Ragi, banana, mulberry, coconut
• 50-80 households each
• 10-20 with access to irrigation
• 1/3 of households with TV
• Kannada-speaking
• Metrics
• Knowledge Before-and-after
• Attendance Farmers at each screenings
• Interest Intent to take-up a practice
• Adoption Number of households taking up each new
  farming practice or technology

• Controlled Comparison
• Classical TV extension (8)
• Same as usual
• Digital Green (8)
• Full DG system
• Rs. 9,500 (240) for TV/DVD player per village
• 25 increment in extension officer salary to pay
  mediator
• Daily reporting of metrics
• Support and monitoring by official extension
  staff

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Digital Green Early Results
7 times more adoptions over classical extension
Continuous local presence Mediation
critical Repetition (and novelty)
required Integration into NGO and government
departments extension operations Social
homophily between extension officer, mediator,
and farmer Desire to be on TV Strong
interest in identity of farmers in video to
verify effectiveness
9 months 8 villages, 3 nights a week, 1,000
regulars
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Digital Green System
Network Effect

• Viral Web 2.0 in the Web-less world
• Content ecosystem education, entrepreneurship,
  entertainment
• Cost-realistic access points TVs, DVD players,
  and camcorders
• Reinforce existing social networks to bring
  communities together
• Local idol competitions to be a better farmer

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2
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Cost-Benefit
Digital Green is 9 times more effective per
dollar spent than classical extension!
Cost
Effectiveness
Note Decreasing amortized cost of hardware with
time and scale
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Continuum of Technology
On-Demand Group Content Production
Distribution
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Discussion
Gandhi, R., R. Veeraraghavan, K. Toyama, V.
Ramprasad. Digital Green Participatory Video for
Agricultural Extension, in Proc. IEEE/ACM Intl
Conf on Information and Communication
Technologies and Development (ICTD2007), 2007.

• At reasonable cost, potential seven-fold increase
  in effectiveness of agriculture extension via
  Digital Green
• Current one-year experiment to isolate the
• effects of DG social engineering
• Future work
• - Research
• Create more motivational
  currency, without money
• Improve mediation by annotating
  videos
• Build instant feedback mechanisms
• Develop an easy-to-use platform
  for sharing content
• - Practical
• Spin-out an independent NGO to scale
  Digital Green

18
Thank You

• Lead Researchers
• Rikin Gandhi
• Rajesh Veeraraghavan

• Collaborators
• Vanaja Ramprasad (GREEN Foundation)
• Randy Wang
• Kentaro Toyama
• Many others at GREEN Foundation