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Good practice

Digital Green — Video-Mediated Agricultural Extension

India · Bengaluru · See the India profile

Since 2008, Digital Green has trained community mediators to produce and screen localised farming videos, reaching 2.3 million+ farmers across 10 countries — with peer-reviewed RCTs in Ethiopia and India honestly reporting mixed and null adoption effects.

2.3 million (77% women)
Farmers reached (by 2020)
+6 pp over 64% control baseline
Adoption of promoted practices (Ethiopia RCT)
+17 pp
Extension attendance (Ethiopia RCT)
not statistically significant
Adoption index effect, year one (Bihar RCT)
Digital Green — Video-Mediated Agricultural Extension

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Digital Green
Period
2008–present
Keywords
agricultural extension, farmer digital literacy, video-based training, rural development, ICT4D

Context

Digital Green, spun off from Microsoft Research India as an independent nonprofit in 2008, trains local community mediators to produce and screen short videos of farmers demonstrating agricultural practices, operating in India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Brazil and Zimbabwe. CGIAR documented more than 6,000 localised videos in 50 languages screened by 17,000 frontline workers to reach 2.3 million farmers, 77% of them women.

Results

Two peer-reviewed RCTs report mixed findings: in Ethiopia, adoption of promoted practices rose 6 percentage points over a 64% control baseline and extension attendance rose 17 points, but yields did not improve significantly and knowledge gains faded by the second year; in Bihar, India, there was no statistically significant effect on a standard adoption index in year one, with modest yield gains (12-18%) emerging only under Bayesian re-analysis.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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