Our solutions have reached over 1.9 million of India’s smallholder farming families. And we’re just getting started.
We create digital solutions for rural communities together with our grassroots partners. How do we know what’s appropriate? Simple. We listen closely –to people, and to data. Then we build technology that’s of the community and for the community.
We understand that there are both informal and formal networks already in place — and that the people and organizations working in that community are best positioned to understand what will and won’t work. So we listen to those people and assess those systems to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement, using technology as an entry point to transform systems from the inside out.
Why reinvent the wheel? We add technology, where appropriate, to amplify the effectiveness of existing systems. Leveraging what we learned through assessment and diagnosis, we innovate and integrate solutions to drive greater farmer-level impact by testing and iterating until we have something that works for the community. And then? We test some more.
Data analysis and evaluation is an integral part of our process; we share the quantitative and qualitative data gathered with all stakeholders, creating a community of collaborators that improves systems on an ongoing basis. We use evidence from the grassroots-level to inform and galvanize everyone involved to advance agricultural development.
We’ve facilitated the production and dissemination of more than 6,000 locally relevant videos, in local languages, screened offline in communities that have limited electricity and Internet connectivity. The videos are also available online – ensuring the wisdom captured is accessible globally. Access the videos here.
Digital Green complements its video approach of disseminating information by integrating other technology channels to its program. One of them is Interactive Voice Response (IVR). IVR helps establish direct contact with our beneficiaries who can now be reached anytime, anywhere, in a cost effective manner using even a feature phone.
Data package costs in India are among the lowest globally and there has been a tremendous surge in ownership of smartphones. While we started experimenting with improving our reach among small farming communities through local WhatsApp groups back in 2019, the COVID-19 induced social distancing measures fast-tracked our efforts and we’ve been able to pilot several engagements over this popular messaging platform including through automated chatbots.
Farmers spend most of their time on their farms and have limited marketing skills or business acumen. Our app-based logistics service for farmers called Loop, explores potential models for farm to market linkages that can be made sustainable, by building capacities of farmer producer organizations. Learn more.
When farming families have access to information about their soil’s health, availability of inputs, weather forecast and potential pest attack together with scientifically vetted, localised, timely advisories, they stand a chance to boost agricultural productivity.
This is an Android app developed by Digital Green for farmers to capture, analyse and control their financial data and manage their farming and household expenses better. This first-of-its-kind personal utility app made specifically for farmers provides a free, safe and secure service in 4 languages. The app provides crop and time-based profit/loss analysis. It has seen over 25,000 installations since launch in 2019. Learn more.
We build the capacity of frontline workers so they can build the capacity of others in their community – which means training is integral to our approach. With online and offline components, our training curriculum combines instructional videos and a mobile app to assess and spot improvement areas.
Data collection and analysis is critical to what we do – and CoCo is our data workhorse. Short for Connect Online Connect Offline, CoCo and our analytics dashboards allow users to collect and visualize crucial insights anytime, anywhere, on any device – regardless of network connectivity.
Digital Green has historically focused on physically visiting and observing practices adopted by farmers. We are running a feasibility study which will test whether satellite-based yield estimations are a viable tool for assessing yield, by validating it against our in-person verifications in partnership with Stanford University’s Dr. David Lobell.
VideoKheti is a responsive web application that provides access to our video library through an easy-to-navigate interface for low-literate farmers and extension workers on any device. The navigational layer uses graphics, audio, and touch interaction to make simple choices in crop, crop phase and activity to reach the desired video. Learn more.
Farmerbook is an open-access platform that displays detailed timeline-based activities of farmers we have worked with, along with villages plotted on Google Maps. The application stimulates healthy competition among partners, village facilitators, and community members through the sharing of performance data and community feedback. Learn more.
Our Facebook game, WonderVillage, allows external audiences to learn about and engage in issues related to rural development. Players set up a simulated village economy. Placed in a resource-constrained setting, players pursue quests like setting up small farms of paddy and maize and supplying raw materials to farmers’ markets assisted by village gurus. Learn more.
