Cinéma Numérique Ambulante, BéninShort educational <strong>rice</strong> videosare shown and discussed in ruralvillages by mobile cinema units.Makingscienceby Paul Van MeleworkA communication campaign designed to link <strong>rice</strong> production with relevantscience promises to help African farmers and processors boost their productivityThe best agricultural researchin the world won’t help asingle farmer if it stays onthe shelf. To ensure thatgood science gets real-world results,the Africa Rice Center (WARDA) andpartners have developed educationaltools as part of a Rice Rural LearningCampaign to communicate relevantscience and to stimulate learning allalong the path from field to market.By promoting better access to scientificresults, the campaign is helpingAfrican <strong>rice</strong> farmers and processorsimprove both <strong>rice</strong> productivityand marketing opportunities.The campaign aims to triggerrural learning by enhancing ruralcommunities’ awareness of promising<strong>rice</strong> technologies developed byWARDA and partners related toland, <strong>water</strong>, crop, and postharvestmanagement. By linking video withmass media, the initiative stimulateslocal adaptation of the technologies,nurtures local ownership, and buildson existing capacities and networks.In 2005, WARDA, in collaborationwith UK-based CountrywiseCommunication, trained a team inBenin to produce farmer learningvideos. In 2007, WARDA also taughtpartners to produce rural radioscripts, which, as well as teachingabout <strong>rice</strong> production, also advertisevideo distribution points.By 2008, 20 educational radioand video programs had beenproduced. WARDA distributed thevideos to 80 partners in 28 Africancountries, who in turn shared themwith over 300 local organizations.Canada-based Farm Radio Internationaldistributed radio scriptson <strong>rice</strong> technologies to more than300 rural radio stations acrossAfrica, and monitored their use.Partners translated the videos andradio programs into, respectively,20 more than 40 local languages.The two media were creativelycombined to reinforce the messages.By strengthening 380 organizations,the videos helped train morethan 2,500 trainers and benefitmore than 100,000 <strong>rice</strong> farmersand processors across Africa. Theradio programs' potential audienceconstituted millions of farmers.The Rice Rural Learning Campaign,which is funded by the InternationalFund for Agricultural Development,the Government of Japan, andthe Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,has already enjoyed <strong>much</strong> success. InGuinea, for example, the nongovernmentalorganization Associationpour la Promotion Economique deKindia (APEK) trained thousands offarmers using campaign videos beforereinforcing the lessons throughRadio Guinée Maritime, which airedinterviews with farmers about whatthey had learned. The resulting radioprogram reached up to 800,000 people.Gambian TV also broadcast theRice radio programsfacilitate learning andmake farmers andservice providers awareof educational videos.Paul Van Mele, WARDAvideos in Mandinka (The Gambia’smain language) in 2007 and 2008.To revive agriculture in war-tornvillages in northern Uganda, the AgriculturalProductivity EnhancementProgram showed the videos to morethan 7,000 farmers living in refugeecamps. In addition, Sasakawa Global2000 distributed local-languagecopies to extension (training, education,and technology dissemination)services and farmer associations andalso engaged policymakers, a TVstation, and a farmers’ newspaper.In Benin, mobile cinema van<strong>sr</strong>eached more than 50,000 farmers.Interactive programs on ruralradios and a question-and-answerservice helped promote the videosand make use of audience feedback.To assess the videos’ impact,200 women were surveyed in Benin.After watching a video on parboiling<strong>rice</strong>, over 90% cleaned and driedtheir <strong>rice</strong> properly (compared with20% in a group who did not watch thevideo), and 42% adopted improved<strong>rice</strong> parboiling (compared with 5% inthe nonvideo group). Not only did <strong>rice</strong>quality improve, allowing the womento obtain a higher p<strong>rice</strong>, but they alsolearned to work better as a group.The Rice Rural LearningCampaign creatively combineseducational video with mass media.The initiative has already mobilizeda vast network of local actors tothe benefit of African rural communities,and is set to continuethis success in the years to come.Dr. Van Mele is program leader,Learning and InnovationSystems, at WARDA. To see<strong>rice</strong> videos, visit www.warda.org/warda/guide-video.asp.Rice Today January-March 2009 13
Sowing thThis famous Edo-Period print, originally createdbetween 1823 and 1829 by Katsushika Hokusai,is spectacularly reproduced (below and opposite)in <strong>rice</strong> at Inakadate Village in 2007.14 Rice Today January-March 2009
Change language