E-TRAIL
A
platform called Farmerbook is helping farmers connect, share tips as part of a
larger initiative to raise morale and awareness within the community
Jatrimani
Mahanta, 38, has a social networking profile that features regular updates
about her work life, her latest achievements and new projects that she has
undertaken.
Every
time she turns to her page, her profile picture gives her a thrill. It’s an
ordinary photograph. But for Jatrimani, a farmer and high-school graduate from
a remote village in Orissa, it is thrilling nonetheless.
Jatrimani’s
profile is on Farmerbook, a nine-month-old social networking platform for
farmers set up by New Delhi-based non-governmental organisation Digital Green.
In
her village of 120 houses with no school and just one daily bus service, the
mother of two tends a 4acre farm with her husband, sowing rice, ginger,
ladyfingers, sunflowers and bitter gourd.
Until
a few months ago, problems she faced with her crop or questions she wanted to
ask could only be referred to fellow villagers. Now, on Farmerbook, she is
connected to 2 lakh farmers across six states — Bihar, Madhya Pradesh,
Kanataka, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.
A
video showing her adopting new practices in her fields, now uploaded on the
site, has already been viewed nearly 6,000 times, on Farmerbook, YouTube and
digitalgreen.org, the website of the non-governmental organisation behind the
social networking platform.
“It
feels good to know that so many people, especially fellow farmers, are reading
about the work I do on my farm and maybe benefiting from it,” says Jatrimani.
Her
video shows her adopting new techniques in her fields — techniques taught to
her by local NGO Varrat (Voluntary Association for Rural Reconstruction and
Appropriate Technology). It was through Varrat that Jatrimani was introduced to
Farmerbook.
A
NOVEL IDEA
Digital
Green and Farmerbook were founded by former pilot Rikin Gandhi, 31. Born and
raised in the US, he studied aerospace engineering at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, qualified as a pilot, then gave it all up after
visiting rural India on a proposed business venture.
That
proposed business was biofuel, and when the venture failed, Gandhi decided to
stay back as part of Microsoft Research India’s Technology for Emerging Markets
team, a project aimed at understanding whether there was a role for technology
among smallscale farming communities.
“Our
failed biodiesel venture gave me my first glimpse of the potential for sharing
knowledge among farmers,” says Gandhi. “My work with Microsoft showed that the
video approach was more effective and more cost-effective.”
The
NGO began by touring villages to create video footage of new practices being
taught to farmers. The videos sparked interest not just among farmers but also
among local NGOs and government bodies and soon Digital Green was building a
network of shared digital resources.
“Whenever
we screened the videos for other farmers, in NGO or panchayat offices, the
first questions were who is this farmer and where is she from,” says Gandhi.
“Since we were already keeping a manual record of the names and basic details,
we thought it would be nice to create an online platform where the same
information could be shared.”
The
NGO currently has a team of 62, including software engineers and communications
experts. Their projects are funded by agencies from around the world, including
the USbased Ford Foundation and certain Indian government bodies.
Currently,
the farmers do not have individual internet connections, but activists help
them log on to Farmerbook at mass meetings.
“Farmers
are now competing to feature on Farmerbook, vying with one another to try a new
approach or technology so that they too can have their face on the screen,”
says Trilochan Mahanta, local programme coordinator for Varrat.
Adds
Naba Mishra, co-founder of Varrat: “Having the picture on a computer is a
matter of joy. It gives the farmers a sense of being recognised and
appreciated.”
Most
of the updates on Farmerbook take the form of short video clips that last
between five and ten minutes.
For
those without access to Farmerbook, Digital Green conducts screenings in public
spaces, touring villages across the six states where they operate and Uttar
Pradesh, with their cache of videos.
So
far, the 2,600 videos on the platform, created across seven states, in 20
languages and local dialects, have been screened in 24,000 villages and viewed
a total of 7,000 times online.
Kamala
Mahanta is one such viewer. The 30-year-old ginger and rice farmer from Orissa
has been watching Farmerbook videos at the village panchayat office for two
years and has adopted 11 new technologies on her farm, including modern storage
methods and varied crop cycles that now have her cultivating more crops.
“I
have benefited a lot from seeing videos of fellow farmers on Farmerbook,” says
Kamala. “And when I know that another farmer has adopted a technology
successfully, it gives me the confidence to adopt it as well.”
BEYOND
FARMERBOOK
Digital
Green’s true mission, says Gandhi, is to link farmers with other farmers, urban
enthusiasts and even the consumer, to create a larger community that shares
knowledge and applauds innovation, thus boosting productivity and spurring
interest in the vital field of agriculture.
Accordingly,
Digital Green, since its inception in 2006, has also been touring seven states,
creating core teams of two or three farmers in each village and training them
to shoot and edit the short videos.
“Farmers
and even urban Indians can watch these videos online and adopt new farming
practices, whether in kitchen gardens or in the fields,” says Gandhi.
In
the cities, Digital Green is organising workshops where farmers can discuss
their practices and teach citydwellers urban farming.
The
first such meet was held at Studio X in Mumbai last month. “We are aiming to
connect urban consumers with the people and experiences of rural India,” says
Gandhi. “The farming community, their longterm interest and their confidence,
are affected by the broader perceptions and culture of our society. Amid a
nascent but growing movement toward sustainable and local foods in cities, it
makes sense to screen films that are relevant to and will connect the two
groups — essentially sending out the message that anyone can be their own
farmer.”
HT130630
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