Rice Farmers Share Local Knowledge Through Videos

One organization came up with an innovative way to improve the world's rice production—let farmers watch movies. The Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) created a program where researchers, farmers, and processors come together to create instructional videos on growing and producing rice. Through the series of films, farmers from different countries can share knowledge, allowing the best local tricks of the trade to become global production methods.

For example, researchers created videos highlighting seed-drying and preservation techniques in Bangladesh, parboiling to improve rice quality in Benin, land preparation practices in Burkina Faso, and weeding and soil fertility management in Mali. Farmers were very involved in producing the videos, creating a series of 11 instructional movies. Researchers then translated the films into more than 30 African languages, disseminating the information through more than 300 local radio stations and 500 organizations. To date, about 130,000 farmers have been involved with watching and producing the rice-farming videos.

Better yet, the videos seem to be working: Researchers surveyed 160 women in Central Benin to see how the videos compared to traditional farmer training workshops. They found that videos reached 74 percent of women involved in the program, while conventional training seminars only reached 27 percent. Plus, women who watched the videos were more likely to apply what they learned: More than 95 percent of the women who watched the video started drying rice on tarpaulins and removing their shoes before stirring to prevent contamination—only 50 percent of women involved in conventional training sessions adopted these techniques.

The videos especially benefit illiterate farmers. Many developing world rice farmers, particularly women, don't know how to read and write. Handing them a packet at an information session isn't going to teach them the techniques they need to know. Showing them a video featuring show-and-tell procedures is much more likely to boost their skills.

The video program really hits home just how important sharing local knowledge is to the future of farming, especially small-scale farming. Right now, 80 percent of the world's rice comes from small farmers in developing nations. These farmers don't have the resources that industrial farms have, but what they do bring to the table is generations of experience working and learning about the land. Video programs like AfricaRice's bridge the gap between farmers from different nations, spreading local knowledge that creates global benefits. If any project demonstrates the power of "thinking global, acting local," this is it.

Photo credit: USAID via Wikimedia Commons