Cotonou, Benin
June 11, 2009
Two-thirds of rural women
creatively applied ideas illustrated by videos demonstrating
improved food processing techniques compared to less than 20
percent who attended training workshops
Conventional media, radio and
video, are powerful, accessible and relevant forces of
agricultural innovation and transformation in Africa than
usually considered, a study published in this week’s issue of
the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability
reveals.
The study undertaken by the
Africa Rice Center
and Benin’s University of Abomey however finds that the power of
radio and video programming is not adequately recognized and
accorded due attention by Africa’s policy-makers, stifling its
potential to unleash farmer innovations.
“Farmers’ innovations are often shaped by capital limitations
and mainly rely on locally available resources, of which
knowledge is a key one,” says Paul Van Mele, a scientist at the
Africa Rice Center. “Video proved a powerful, low-cost medium
for farmer-to-farmer extension and to expose rural communities
to new ideas and practices.”
Titled The power of video to trigger innovation: rice processing
in central Benin, the study examined the impacts of educational
videos featuring early-adopting farmers demonstrating the use of
new technologies and techniques. The study found that when women
watched videos featuring fellow farmers demonstrating new
techniques, they showed better learning and understanding of the
technology and creatively applied its central ideas.
Innovation levels of 72 percent were recorded in villages where
women were introduced to improved rice processing techniques by
videos compared to 19 percent among farmers who had attended
training workshops. When women who had attended training
workshops watched the videos, the innovations recorded shot up
to 92 percent.
Indeed, the study found that watching videos spurred greater
innovation than did conventional farmer training techniques.
Notably high levels of creativity (67 percent) were recorded
among women who did not have access to the rice processing
technology featured in the video.
“The adaptations by Benin women to improve rice processing after
having watched the video illustrate the power of video to
quickly stimulate creativity among rural people, who are often
seen as much more passive technology consumers,” says Van Mele.
“Besides being more powerful, video was also able to reach more
people than conventional training workshops.”
Drawing lessons from a similar rural learning initiative
undertaken in Bangladesh, the Africa Rice Center with a wide
range of partners is using local language videos to train
farmers on various facets of rice production and processing in
Benin, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, among other
countries.
By last year, the rice videos had been translated into 20
African languages, and were being used by more than 400
community-based organizations across Africa to strengthen their
own capacity in rice technologies.
The videos, which are disseminated through mobile cinema vans or
local organizations, have been viewed by about 130,000 farmers
across Africa unleashing their creativity, reaching thrice as
many farmers as do face-to-face farmer training workshops.
Partner organizations in various countries are combining the
videos with radio programming to reinforce the lessons and
knowledge. In Guinea, one radio station, Radio Guinée Maritime
has aired interviews with farmers involved in this program
reaching some 800,000 listeners, an experience which has been
replicated in Gambia, Nigeria and the refugees of Northern
Uganda.
In order to effectively capitalize on the potential of radio and
video technologies in Africa, the study recommends broadening
the common outlook on innovations beyond the traditional
research and extension systems to include localized farmer
innovations too. “Local innovations better reflect the realities
of rural people than do outside techniques,” say the study
authors. |
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