Community-driven programs in South Asia have traditionally used local facilitators to disseminate information and external best practices. However, the massive scale of these programs has made this strategy both a time-consuming and an expensive exercise.
... See More + Livelihoods projects in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh have piloted an innovative information and communications technology (ICT) based rural digital libraries project in collaboration with digital green, a non-profit organization in India. Digital green trains members of local communities about group facilitation, videography, and basic video production. These libraries are a decentralized, localized solution that combines the institutional platform with a digital knowledge platform to create multiple nodes of communication and learning in rural communities across the country. These localized solutions are created by face-to face experiments by communities empowering them and improving the adoption rate of new technologies. Leveraging a video production and screening platform, community organizations have started to develop a localized, scalable model for agricultural extension, financial literacy, health and nutritional awareness, and technology and livelihood training.
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Bihar is the third most populous state in India with over 100 million inhabitants. The states economy is dominated by agriculture: it constitutes 19.2 percent of states Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs nearly 75 percent of the labor force. 92.8 percent of the farmers in Bihar are small and marginal (small holders), which is much higher than the all India average of 83.5 percent2.
... See More + In addition, only 29 percent of households own any land and the average landholding size is approximately one acres3. Furthermore, Bihars agriculture productivity is one of the lowest in India. For instance, the average productivity of paddy and wheat, the two major crops of the state, is much lower than the national average. The productivity of smallholders is further lower than the state average. Agriculture productivity in Bihar also affects food security as 88 percent of Bihars poor depend on farming for subsistence. Currently, programs that have not customized and adopted technologies for smallholders, have met with limited success. Other programs that are administered in a top-down manner have had a very slow adoption rate and limited long-term impact. These interventions have neither addressed the root of the problem nor the intergenerational nature of landlessness and poverty.
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Working Paper (Numbered Series) 76338 JAN 01, 2013
