Vea la versión en español a continuación Extensionists often give information away for free, but selling it may get you a more tuned-in audience. This is the conclusion of researcher Gérard Zoundji and colleagues in a recent paper published in Experimental Agriculture.
Zoundji compared three groups of people in West Africa who had received DVDs with farmer learning videos. One video collection covered topics related to vegetable production and another showed how to manage the parasitic weed striga. The videos could be shown in multiple local languages, or in English or French.
When NGOs in Benin gave the DVDs to organized farmers, they tended to watch the videos, and they experimented with planting styles and other ideas shown in the videos. But some farmers who got DVDs for free did not show the videos to friends and neighbors, complaining that they needed fuel for their generators, or other support.
Audience appreciation improved when DVDs were shared by NGOs that were committed to the topic and the communities. In Mali, organizations that had taught striga management realized the importance of the weed, and arranged screenings of the videos in villages. Professional staff from the NGOs were on hand to answer people’s questions after the show. The NGOs left copies of the DVD with local people who usually self-organized to watch the videos again later, to study the content. Farmers experimented keenly with the ideas they had learned, such as planting legumes between rows of cereal crops, to control striga naturally.
But the big payoff came when farmers bought the DVDs cold, off-the-shelf in shops. Most only paid a dollar or two for the DVDs on vegetable production, but buying the information gave it value. All of these paying customers watched the videos and most of them showed the videos at home to friends and neighbors. They found the agricultural ideas useful; some bought drip irrigation equipment they had seen on screen. Others learned to manage nematodes (microscopic worms) without chemical pesticides.
Farmers who bought the DVDs also experimented with the digital technology used to show the videos. Nearly 15% bought DVD players to watch the videos. Some loaned the DVDs to their children at university, who copied the DVDs from the disk, converted them to a phone-friendly format (3gp) and then loaded the videos onto the mobile devices of friends and colleagues.
Selling information draws a self-selected audience: interested people who will take the content seriously. Expert extensionists who appreciate the videos can also demonstrate their value by organizing video shows that respectfully engage with the communities and their leaders. But when DVDs are simply given away, even though they contain cinematic-quality videos on crucial topics, farmers may watch the videos and value them, or not. People who pay for information see its importance.
Further reading
Zoundji, Gérard C., Florent Okry, Simplice D. Vodouhê, Jeffery W. Bentley, and Loes Witteveen 2020 Commercial Channels vs Free Distribution and Screening of Learning Videos: A Case Study from Benin and Mali. Experimental Agriculture. DOI: 10.1017/S0014479720000149.
Related blog stories
Sorghum and millets on the rise
Watch the videos
The 11 fighting striga videos
And the 9 vegetable videos:
PAGAR Y APRENDER
por Jeff Bentley, 19 de julio del 2020
Los extensionistas a menudo dan información gratis, pero se puede conseguir un público más atento si cobra. Esta es la conclusión del investigador Gérard Zoundji y sus colegas en un reciente artículo publicado en Experimental Agriculture.
Zoundji comparó tres grupos de personas en África occidental que habían recibido un DVD con videos de aprendizaje para agricultores. Había una colección de videos sobre la producción de hortalizas y otra del manejo de la estriga, una maleza parasítica. Los videos podían mostrarse en varios idiomas locales, o en inglés o francés.
Cuando las ONGs de Benín entregaron los DVDs a los agricultores organizados, tendían a ver los videos y experimentar con los estilos de siembra y otras ideas que se apreciaban en los videos. Pero algunos agricultores que recibieron los DVDs gratis no mostraron los videos a amigos y vecinos, quejándose de que necesitaban combustible para sus generadores, u otro tipo de apoyo.
La apreciación del público mejoró cuando los DVD fueron compartidos por ONGs comprometidas con el tema y las comunidades. En Malí, las organizaciones que habían enseñado el manejo de la estriga se dieron cuenta de la importancia de la maleza y organizaron proyecciones de los videos en las aldeas. El personal profesional de las ONGs estaba disponible para responder a las preguntas de la gente después de la proyección. Las ONGs dejaron copias del DVD con los habitantes locales, que por lo general se organizaron por su cuenta para volver a ver los videos más tarde, para estudiar el contenido. Los agricultores experimentaron intensamente con las ideas que habían aprendido, como sembrar leguminosas entre los surcos de cereales, para controlar la estriga de forma natural.
Pero la gran recompensa era cuando los agricultores compraron los DVDs por su cuenta, en las tiendas. La mayoría sólo pagó un dólar o dos por los DVDs sobre las hortalizas, pero el comprar la información le dio valor. Todos los clientes que pagaron vieron los videos y la mayoría los mostraron en casa a amigos y vecinos. Les servían las ideas agrícolas; algunos compraron equipos de riego por goteo que habían visto en la pantalla. Otros aprendieron a manejar nematodos (gusanos microscópicos) sin plaguicidas químicos.
Los agricultores que compraron los DVDs también experimentaron con la tecnología digital que se usa para mostrar los videos. Casi el 15% compró lectores de DVD para ver los videos. Algunos prestaron los DVD a sus hijos en la universidad, quienes copiaron los videos del disco, los convirtieron a un formato apto para teléfonos (3gp) y luego cargaron los videos en los dispositivos móviles de amigos y colegas.
La venta de información atrae a un público auto seleccionado: personas interesadas que se tomarán el contenido en serio. Los extensionistas expertos que aprecian los videos también demuestran su valor organizando programas de video de forma respetuosa con las comunidades y sus líderes. Pero cuando los DVDs se regalan así no más, aunque contengan videos de calidad cinematográfica sobre temas cruciales, los agricultores pueden ver los videos y valorarlos, o no. Las personas que pagan por la información aprecian su importancia.
Lectura adicional
Zoundji, Gérard C., Florent Okry, Simplice D. Vodouhê, Jeffery W. Bentley, and Loes Witteveen 2020 Commercial Channels vs Free Distribution and Screening of Learning Videos: A Case Study from Benin and Mali. Experimental Agriculture. DOI: 10.1017/S0014479720000149.
Historias de blog sobre temas relacionados
Sorghum and millets on the rise
Vea los videos
Los 11 videos: fighting striga
De los cuales algunos están en español:
Revivir el suelo con la mucuna
Y los 9 videos sobre hortalizas:
El manejo de nematodos en hortalizas
Redes contra insectos en almácigo
Riego por goteo para el tomate
Revivir el suelo con la mucuna
Vea la versión en español a continuación
A few weeks ago, I met a young Bolivian journalist, Edson Rodríguez, who works on an environmental program at the university (UMSS) television channel in Cochabamba called TVU. He helps to produce a show called Granizo Blanco (white hail), a dramatic name in this part of the Andes, where hail can devastate crops in a moment. The show covers all environmental issues, not just agriculture. For example, the program recently featured mud slides that have destroyed homes, and the impacts of a new metro train system in the valley.
I first met Edson in the field, where he was filming the tree seedling distribution that I wrote about earlier in this blog. Later, I told him about the agroecological videos on Access Agriculture.
Edson wondered if some of the videos on Access Agriculture might be suitable for the TV show. After watching some of the videos, he downloaded one on making compost with earthworms. The video was filmed in India, and it had recently been translated into Spanish, crucial for making videos more widely available. Without a Spanish version it wouldn’t be possible to consider showing a video from Maharashtra in Cochabamba. The two places are physically far apart, but they have much in common, such as a semi-arid climate, and small farms that produce crop residues and other organic waste that can be turned into compost.
Edson asked me to take part in an episode of Granizo Blanco that included a short interview followed by a screening of the compost and earthworm video. He was curious to know why Access Agriculture promotes videos of farmers in one country to show to smallholders elsewhere. I said that the farmers may differ in their skin color, clothing and hair styles, but they are working on similar problems. For example, farmers worldwide are struggling with crops contaminated with aflatoxins, poisons produced by fungi on improperly dried products like peanuts and maize.
I told Edson that farmer learning videos filmed in Bolivia are being used elsewhere. My colleagues and I made a video on managing aflatoxins in groundnuts, originally in Spanish, but since been translated into English, French and various African languages. The same aflatoxin occurs in Bolivia and in Burkina Faso, so African farmers can benefit from experience in South America. In this case the video shows simple ways to reduce aflatoxins in food, using improved drying and storage techniques developed by Bolivian scientists and farmers in Chuquisaca.
“What other kinds of things can Bolivian farmers learn from their peers in other countries?” Edson asked me, as he realized that good ideas can flow in both directions. I explained that soil fertility is a problem in parts of Bolivia and elsewhere; Access Agriculture has videos on cover crops, compost, conservation agriculture and may other ways to improve the soil, all freely available for programs such as Granizo Blanco to screen.
Many older people, especially those who work for governments, feel that videos have to be made in each country, and cannot be shared across borders. This closed vision makes little sense. The same civil servants happily organize and attend international conferences on agriculture and many other topics to share their own ideas across borders. If government functionaries can gain insights from foreign peers, farmers should be able to do so as well.
Fortunately, younger people like Edson are able to see the importance of media, such as learning videos that enable farmers to share knowledge and experience cross-culturally. Smallholders can swap ideas and stimulate innovations as long as the sound track is translated into a language they understand. It costs much less to translate a video than to make one.
Related blog
The right way to distribute trees
Related videos
Making a vemicompost bed (The earthworm video from India)
Managing aflatoxins in groundnuts during drying and storage
See also the links to soil conservation videos at the end of last week’s story: A revolution for our soil
Acknowledgment
The McKnight Foundation has generously funded many video translations, including the earthworm video, besides the filming of the aflatoxin video and its translation into several languages. For many years, SDC has offered crucial support that enabled Access Agriculture to become a global leader in South-South exchange through quality farmer-to-farmer training videos.
LOMBRICES DE TIERRA DE LA INDIA A BOLIVIA
Por Jeff Bentley 29 de marzo del 2020
Hace unas semanas conocí a un joven periodista boliviano, Edson Rodríguez, que trabaja en un programa de medio ambiente en el canal de televisión, TVU, de la Universidad (UMSS) en Cochabamba. Él ayuda a producir un programa llamado Granizo Blanco, un nombre dramático en esta parte de los Andes, donde el granizo puede arrasar los cultivos en un momento. El programa cubre todos los temas ambientales, no sólo la agricultura. Por ejemplo, el programa recientemente presentó los deslizamientos de mazamorra que han destruido varias casas, y los impactos de un nuevo sistema de tren metropolitano en el valle.
Conocí a Edson por primera vez en el campo, donde él estaba filmando la distribución de plantines de árboles, el tema de un blog previo. Más tarde, le hablé de los videos agroecológicos en Access Agriculture.
Edson se preguntaba si algunos de los videos de Access Agriculture podrían servir para el programa de televisión. Después de ver algunos de los videos, descargó uno sobre cómo hacer abono con lombrices de tierra. El vídeo se filmó en la India y recientemente se había traducido al español, lo que era imprescindible para hacer los vídeos más disponibles. Sin una versión en español sería imposible mostrar un video de Maharashtra en Cochabamba. Los dos lugares están físicamente alejados, pero tienen mucho en común, como un clima semiárido y pequeñas granjas que producen residuos de cultivos y otros desechos orgánicos que pueden convertirse en abono.
Edson me pidió que participara en un episodio de Granizo Blanco que incluía una breve entrevista seguida de una proyección del vídeo de lombricultura. Él quería saber por qué Access Agriculture promueve videos de los agricultores de un país para mostrarlos a los campesinos de otros países. Dije que los agricultores pueden diferir en el color de su piel, su ropa y peinado, pero están trabajando en problemas similares. Por ejemplo, hay agricultores de todo el mundo que luchan con la contaminación de aflatoxinas, venenos producidos por hongos en productos mal secados como el maní y el maíz.
Expliqué que los videos filmados con agricultores en Bolivia se están usando en otros países. Mis colegas y yo hicimos un video sobre el manejo de las aflatoxinas en el maní, originalmente en español, pero luego se ha traducido al inglés, al francés y a varios idiomas africanos. La misma aflatoxina se produce en Bolivia y en Burkina Faso, por lo que los agricultores africanos pueden beneficiarse de la experiencia en América del Sur. En este caso, el vídeo muestra formas sencillas de reducir las aflatoxinas en los alimentos secos, desarrolladas por científicos y agricultores bolivianos en Chuquisaca.
“¿Qué otro tipo de cosas pueden aprender los agricultores bolivianos de sus homólogos de otros países?” Edson me preguntó, al darse cuenta de que las buenas ideas pueden fluir en ambas direcciones. Le expliqué que la fertilidad del suelo es un problema en algunas partes de Bolivia y que afecta a muchos otros agricultores en otros lugares; Access Agriculture tiene videos sobre cultivos de cobertura, compost, agricultura de conservación y muchas otras técnicas para mejorar el suelo, todos disponibles gratuitamente para que programas como Granizo Blanco los proyecten.
Muchas personas mayores, especialmente las que trabajan para los gobiernos, consideran que los videos tienen que hacerse en cada país y no pueden compartirse a través de las fronteras. Esta visión cerrada tiene poco sentido. Los mismos funcionarios públicos organizan y asisten con gusto a conferencias internacionales sobre agricultura y diversos temas para compartir sus propias ideas a través de las fronteras. Si los funcionarios del gobierno pueden obtener ideas de sus colegas extranjeros, los agricultores también deberían poder hacerlo.
Afortunadamente, los jóvenes como Edson ven la importancia de los medios de comunicación, como los vídeos, que permiten a los agricultores compartir conocimientos y experiencias entre culturas. Los pequeños agricultores pueden intercambiar ideas y estimular innovaciones siempre que la banda sonora se traduzca a un idioma que entiendan. Cuesta mucho menos traducir un video que hacer uno.
Historias relacionadas del blog
La manera correcta de distribuir los árboles
Videos relacionados
Hacer una lombricompostera (el video de la lombriz de tierra de la India)
Manejo de aflatoxinas en maní (también disponible en quechua y en aymara)
Vea también los enlaces a los videos de conservación del suelo al final de la historia de la semana pasada: Una revolución para nuestro suelo
Agradecimiento
La Fundación McKnight ha financiado generosamente muchas traducciones de video, incluyendo el video de la lombriz, además de la filmación del video de la aflatoxina y su traducción a varios idiomas. Durante muchos años, la Cosude ha ofrecido un apoyo crucial que ha permitido a Access Agriculture convertirse en un líder mundial en el intercambio Sur-a-Sur a través de vídeos agricultor a agricultor.
While listening to a recent broadcast on Belgium’s Radio 1 about the magic lantern and the “lanternists” who entertained paying audiences, I realised that some developments we think off as highly innovative may also be seen as a modification of something that existed hundreds of years ago.
The magic lantern projected images on hand-painted glass slides using a lens with a light source, like a candle flame or oil lamp. The magic lantern was a great success from the 17th to the 19th century, after which it was replaced by cinema and only used by missionaries who used the most up-to-date lanterns and lenses to sway large audiences of up to 700 people.
Most historians credit the Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens with the magic lantern’s invention in 1659 because he replaced images etched on mirrors from earlier devices, such as one called Kircher’s lantern, with images painted on glass. This allowed the use of colour and double-layered slide projections to simulate movement, which made for spectacular, detailed and entertaining magic lantern shows.
According to legend, the 17th century Jesuit priest, Kircher, came up with an inventive use of the lantern to convince his sceptical followers. On the glass of his lantern he had painted a realistic image of death, which he projected in the evening on simple farmhouses. The next Sunday morning his church was packed with standing room only. As Kircher was aware that some of his predecessors had been charged with sorcery for using projected images, seen as “the workings of the devil”, Kircher was clever enough to demystify the show by explaining that it involved reflection and optics, not magic.
The magic lantern was not invented by any one individual, but very much came from several minds applied to new and different, ever-evolving ways of creating images to project on screens. Some magic lantern shows were quite sophisticated, using multiple lanterns or several lenses to improve magnification and clarity, or to dissolve one scene into another.
At first, the “lanternist,” as the projectionist was known, simply used a plain cotton or canvas sheet, or even just a wall, but the emergence of luminous painted glass slides – with their bright colours and detailed images – also spurred developments in screen technology. Cinema was born in the 1890s, and in the 1930s plastics started to replace cloth screens. Later, various coatings were used that gave the cinema its nickname, “the silver screen”.
The silver screen may have wiped out the magic lanterns, but other devices were used over the twentieth century for education and entertainment. Small projectors with 8 mm film were used in schools and for “home movies.” Academic talks were often illustrated with overhead projectors and slides, while the DVD player and the projector that could be attached to the laptop brought videos to much wider audiences. In the 2000s, the Digisoft smart projector was the latest device for sharing sights and sounds with audiences of up to 200 people.
The “lanternist” earned money from organising shows, travelling from place to place with the projector in a box carried on his back. The concept of these early mobile screening entrepreneurs has recently been re-introduced by Access Agriculture, an international organisation that supports ecological farming in developing countries through farmer training videos (see the full video library at: www.accessagriculture.org).
While centuries ago, lanternists were adults, Access Agriculture has established a network of young, ICT-savvy, entrepreneurs who make a business from screening training videos to rural communities. Lanternists travelled from village to village with a small collection of glass slides. Today’s young entrepreneurs are equipped with a Digisoft smart projector, a foldable solar panel and a library of more than 200 videos, each one in multiple languages. The whole kit is small enough to take on a motorcycle, but casts an image large and sharp enough for a whole village. Being able to screen videos on demand, these young people bring entertainment and education to remote areas where there is no electricity or internet.
Like the old lanternists, the youth with their smart projectors are using the best technology of their day, but sharing down-to-earth ideas that family farmers need for a changing world.
Watch a young entrepreneur show videos in rural Africa
On the road with the smart projector in Uganda
Related blogs
Watching videos without smartphones
Families, land and videos in northern Uganda
Vea la versión en español a continuación
Villagers the world over are buying smart phones, getting on line and eagerly using and sharing information electronically. It might seem like print is going out of fashion, but paper can still be an important medium.
I recently took part in an information fair for farmers in the village of Carrillo, Cotopaxi, in highland Ecuador. Along with colleagues, I was visiting the NGO EkoRural, which has worked for years with the farmers in this land of perpetual springtime.
Such visits can turn into a performance, where the farmers put on shows for their guests. It’s always interesting, but it can be hard to tell how much of the information came from the farmers and how much was prompted by their well-meaning extensionists. This time, EkoRural turned the idea around. We visitors were given a small space to show posters and demonstrations to the local farmers, who would rotate through our stands in eight groups of 25 people.
I set up shop in a village schoolroom. I used my 15-minute time slot to show each group a farmer-to-farmer video from Bolivia. The time limit was too short to discuss the videos with my audience. So I wrote a factsheet, telling them how to log onto www.accessagriculture.org, and download more videos for free.
At least some people read the factsheets carefully and my idea seemed to be working. But I didn’t realize how much my audience wanted the factsheets until I ran out of them. I had underestimated the turnout for the event. As I handed out the last copy of the fact sheet, I turned to apologize to one farmer who still had her hand out. She gave me a piercing look of total disappointment.
Then another man stepped in. “Don’t you have your original left? I can get it photocopied,” he said helpfully.
Problem solved, or so I thought. I gave him the original I brought from Bolivia and waited for my new friend to return with the photocopies. I never saw him or the factsheet again. At least he got the information he wanted. Even in this digital age, print is still popular. It also has some advantages: it is cheap, permanent and always available to read, as my vanishing new friend will surely agree.
Watch the videos
Living windbreaks to protect the soil
Forecasting the weather with an app
Further reading
Access Agriculture publishes a fact sheet for each of its videos. The fact sheets have been popular with video viewers. In a recent on-line survey, 31% of respondents said they downloaded them.
See also:
Bentley, Jeffery W. and Eric Boa 2013 The snowman outline: fact sheets by extensionists for farmers. Development in Practice.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to EkoRural for organizing our trip to Carrillo, generously supported by the McKnight Foundation.
LA HOJA VOLANTE DESAPARECIDA
La gente rural de todo el mundo está comprando teléfonos inteligentes, conectándose al Internet y usando y compartiendo información electrónicamente. Puede parecer que los impresos están pasando de moda, pero el papel todavía sirve.
Hace poco participé en un día de campo para compartir con agricultores en la comunidad de Carrillo, Cotopaxi, en los Altos Andes de Ecuador. Junto con mis colegas, visitaba la ONG EkoRural, que ha trabajado durante años con los agricultores en esta tierra de la eterna primavera.
Estas visitas pueden convertirse en todo un show, donde los agricultores presentan espectáculos para sus invitados. Siempre es interesante, pero puede ser difícil saber cuánta información proviene de los agricultores y cuánta es motivada por sus bien intencionados extensionistas. Esta vez, EkoRural dio un giro a la idea. A los visitantes se nos dio un pequeño espacio para mostrar carteles y demostraciones a los agricultores locales, quienes rotaban por nuestros stands en ocho grupos de 25 personas.
Me instalé en una escuela del pueblo. Usé mis 15 minutos para mostrar a cada grupo un video de agricultor-a-agricultor de Bolivia. El límite de tiempo no me dejaba discutir los videos con mi audiencia. Así que escribí una hoja volante, explicándoles cómo entrar en www.accessagriculture.org, y descargar más videos gratis.
Varias personas leyeron las hojas volantes cuidadosamente y mi idea parecía funcionar. Pero cuando mis hojas volantes se acababan mi di cuenta que la gente las quería de verdad. Yo había subestimado la participación en el evento. Mientras repartía el último ejemplar de las hojas volantes, di la vuelta para disculparme con una campesina que todavía extendía su mano. Me miró con una mirada penetrante de total decepción.
Entonces otro hombre intervino. “¿No tienes tu copia original? Puedo fotocopiarla”, dijo amablemente.
Problema resuelto, o eso creía. Le di el original que traje de Bolivia y esperé a que mi nuevo amigo volviera con las fotocopias. Nunca lo volví a ver ni a él ni a la hoja volante. Al menos él obtuvo la información que quería. Incluso en esta era digital, el material impreso sigue siendo popular. Tiene algunas ventajas: es barato, permanente y siempre disponible para leer, como seguramente estará de acuerdo mi nuevo amigo que se hizo humo.
Ver los videos
Barreras vivas para proteger el suelo
Pronosticar el clima con una aplicación
Lectura adicional
Access Agriculture publica una hoja volante para cada uno de sus vídeos. Las hojas volantes han sido muy populares entre los espectadores de vídeo. En una reciente encuesta en línea, el 31% de los encuestados dijeron que los habían descargado.
Bentley, Jeffery W. and Eric Boa 2013 The snowman outline: fact sheets by extensionists for farmers. Development in Practice.
Agradecimientos
Gracias a EkoRural por organizar nuestro viaje a Carrillo, generosamente apoyado por la Fundación McKnight.
Agro-input dealers are often thought to be only interested in making money any way that is possible, otherwise known as “making a fast buck.” But enlightened dealers can combine the profit motive with a concern for customers’ well-being to earn their trust and make a business that lasts.
Richard Businge has a small shop in Fort Portal, Uganda, selling farm tools, seeds and other inputs. In 2016 Richard discovered that he could use farmer training videos to attract and keep customers.
At university, Richard studied computer science and monitoring-&-evaluation. His first job, as part of a donor-funded project, taught him how hard it was for farmers to find quality inputs, so when the project ended, Richard started his own business. But competition was stiff.
One day Richard mentioned this to his mother, who had educated her children by selling in the market. At one point, she had taken second-hand clothing from market to market. So she suggested “taking your products to the farmers in the market, rather than having them come to you.”
So once a month on market day Richard takes his two helpers and some goods in a taxi to one of six nearby towns, going every six months to each market. Small towns in Uganda always have at least one video hall, called a chivanda or bibanda, made of black plastic sheeting and light wood. Customers pay a few coins to watch a commercial movie, often an action film. Once everyone is seated, the chivanda door is closed and holes are patched to keep young boys from peeping in for free.
Richard pays 100,000 Ugandan Shillings ($26) to get the sole use of the chivanda for three hours. First, he hires a person to stroll around the market with a loudspeaker, announcing when and where shoppers can go to see free videos. “Farmers don’t miss this opportunity!”
Richard plays popular music for half an hour as people drift in, allowing them to take their places and not get too bored. He then plays a video which he has previously downloaded from Access Agriculture and stored on a USB stick. He simply plugs the memory stick into the chivanda’s movie player or laptop.
After the first video, Richard takes questions from the audience before moving on to a second and finally, a third video. The videos only last about 15 minutes each, but with the question and answer sessions (and the music) Richard makes full use of the chivanda for three hours.
Because Richard shows the videos for free, the chivanda door stays open all the time, and farmers come and go constantly. Just outside the chivanda door, Richard has a stall set up where his assistants sell goods, including some the farmers have seen in the videos, such as PICS bags (plastic bags for keeping insects out of stored beans and grain). Sometimes Richard shows videos on how to grow onions, which helps him to sell onion seed.
A veterinarian colleague sets up a stand nearby and sells animal health products; having two allied businesses helps to attract more customers.
Richard is not an agriculturalist, but he reads a lot and he looks for information on the Internet so he can answer farmers’ questions during the video show. When he doesn’t know an answer, he says: “I don’t know, but I will find out and get back to you.”
Fielding questions gives Richard ideas for new topics that interest farmers. He then discusses these on a talk show he does on the radio every Saturday morning in the local language, Lutoro.
Sometimes farmers who have seen the videos in the market come into the shop (Kiyombya Agro Enterprises) in Fort Portal and ask to watch a specific video again. “Show me the one on onions!” Richard or an assistant is happy to play the video. He says “Videos also helped to bring more customers into my shop. They trust more what we are selling because we have the videos and because of the videos the customers know that I have more information than some other dealers. So they come to find out more.”
Building a clientele gradually, sharing ideas and earning trust, may not be the fastest way to make a buck, but a business that serves the community and supports a family can be built on enlightened self-interest, sometimes with a little help from farmer learning videos.
Related blogs
Families, land and videos in Northern Uganda
Drip irrigation saves water in South Sudan
Winning the peace, with chilli and videos
Watch the videos mentioned in this story
You can see the PICS bags in two videos:
Harvesting and storing soya bean seed
Good storing and conserving maize grain
You can also watch the onion videos:
How to make a fertile soil for onions
