Communication delivery systems for rural learning

Communication approaches for rural learning currently range from interpersonal exchanges, group processes (including farmer field schools), mass media (principally radio), mixed-media campaigns, conventional media combined with Internet delivery available from community telecentres, and distance education.

Interpersonal communication - individual learning

Interpersonal communication is fundamental to learning and change in rural areas and no amount of media can supplant it when it comes to adding persuasiveness and credibility to messages. Whether it be in the form of a skilled extension worker making his/her rounds, or farmers learning from other farmers, when it comes down to making a decision with regard to a new technology or changing farming practices, interpersonal sources often make the difference between adoption or rejection. Methods to improve farmer to farmer and extension agent communication include simple, mostly visually illustrated pamphlets, and leaflets. Spontaneous drama, poems and songs based on farmers own experiences have also proved effective.

R. Faidutti/FAO/19300

Training for extension workers has been mainly directed toward perfecting their interpersonal communications skills, and, more recently, in facilitating participatory involvement of farmers in defining their own problems, reaching consensus on actions to be taken, information and skills development required to carry out the actions, and mechanisms for seeking research assistance on technical problems for which there is no ready solution available locally. In this cycle extension workers have the responsibility of helping farmers to articulate their problems to research agencies and then assisting them to adapt and apply the results.

Group media - group learning

Training for rural producers, typically involving extension or subject matter specialists as vital interpersonal links, has tended to rely on group media such as slides, film-strips, audio-cassettes, flip-charts, village theatre, and video. In the hands of a trained facilitator these media add punch and authority to a presentation. Perhaps the most advantageous aspect of group media is the possibility for immediate feedback from the audience and establishment of a two-way flow of information. Participants level of understanding can be tested, central points can be repeated where necessary, and discussions can be started with a view toward initiating action on agreed upon development problems.

Cases abound where FAO has produced film-strips and slides with audio commentaries for extension meetings. Normally the presentations are reinforced by booklets which depict the visuals used in the script with accompanying dialogue. Routinely, the booklets become manuals in their own right. The pre-recorded audio-cassette is another low-cost medium, which FAO has promoted extensively. The cassettes chief advantage over radio is the control that a group facilitator has over the information flow and the ability to start and stop at will, and repeat messages. In addition, cassette recordings are a convenient way to bring farmers questions and information needs to the attention of extension and research. Folk media in the form of popular singers and musicians have also proven highly effective for focusing community attention on a range of topics, including population education and HIV/AIDS mitigation and prevention.

Flip-charts have proved particularly useful as extension discussion tools. Although research at the field level is scarce, a 1998 FAO study in Namibia showed that the use of two flip-charts to explain the benefits of using certified millet seeds along with recommended agricultural practices was positive. When compared to farmers who had not been exposed to the visual materials and extension agent explanations, farmers who were part of the extension communication programme increased their planting of certified seeds by 24 percent, and seeding in rows and use of fertilizers each by 23 percent. Equally impressive, almost half of the participating farmers agreed that the use of flip-charts by extensionists helped them greatly to understand the improved farming practices.

Of all the group media, however, video has emerged as the lead medium of choice for supporting participatory farmer training in a variety of FAO rural development projects. Its many advantages are unequalled by any other medium, namely, its production immediacy with instant replay in the field to check on shooting details, its ability to add commentary in local languages, its ease of editing, and its show anywhere, anytime flexibility using battery or generator operated playback equipment where electricity is lacking. During extensive long-term projects in Peru, Mexico, and Mali, FAO has perfected a complete learning package often referred to as a model for international reference (see Cases 1 and 2) which combines video with discussion, simple printed materials, and practical work. A more recent example reported by FAO involved a CIDA funded project for training women farmers in Jamaica wherein video was supported with drama performances, oral testimonies and printed materials.

G. Bizzari/FAO/18195

An application of group learning using a variety of media along with direct field experience, one which has proven effective and is growing in popularity, is the Farmer Field School or FFS pioneered by FAO in the Indonesia National Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Programme in 1989. IPM has since evolved into Integrated Production and Pest Management (IPPM). The guiding principal for a given FFS is that farmers meet on a regular basis to carry out practical learning exercises that combine indigenous knowledge with scientific recommendations. Courses take place in the field, field conditions define the curriculum, and real field problems are observed from planting of a crop through to harvesting. An FFS is usually initiated by someone who has had experience in growing the crop concerned. For this reason, most IPPM initiatives have begun with training extension field staff in basic technical skills for managing all aspects of crop production. Each school lasts for one cropping season, with a group of about 25 people meeting on a weekly basis to study and make decisions based on the cropping calendar (e.g. seeding, fertilizing, weeding, curbing pest encroachment). Instead of listening to lectures or watching demonstrations, farmers observe, record and discuss what is happening in the field. This hands-on, discovery-learning approach generates a deep understanding of ecological concepts and their practical application. In the process, farmers are transformed from recipients of information to generators and manipulators of field-validated local data.

FFSs are always held in the community where the farmers live, with the extension officer traveling to the site on the day when the school meets. The field used for study is usually small, and either provided by the community or some other arrangement so that farmers can carry out risk-free management decisions that they might not otherwise attempt on their own farms. All FFSs include field-based pre- and post-tests for the participants. Those with high attendance rates and who master the tests are awarded a certificate. Graduates from an FFS may also take over the job of extension facilitator by doing farmer-to farmer training or most of the functions in a follow-up seasons training.

Empirical studies of IPPM-FFS compared with conventional practices show that IPPM methods increase both production and profits. Case 3 presents one such example. Since 1990 FAO estimates that more than two million farmers have graduated from FSSs in more than 40 countries drawn from Asia, Africa and the Americas.

G. Bizzari/FAO/19632-A

Mass media - mass learning

Learning through radio

Given that one-third of adults in the developing world are illiterate, and particularly those in Africa (44 percent), the broadcast media and principally radio have performed a major service in information dissemination. Not surprisingly, with the advent of the transistor receiver, and lowering of prices, radio, either battery operated or wound-up by hand, became the ubiquitous medium for rural communication, a status that it is likely to retain well into the twentyfirst century. Much of the early emphasis in the 1970s, however, was on open broadcasting for unorganized audiences within a national or regional reach, and typically carried out in isolation from direct involvement of farmers or extension in its programming. In the face of the criticism that by attempting to reach everyone, it reached no one, open broadcasting for educational purposes, including agricultural programming, was given low priority, averaging less than five percent of total broadcasting hours. As a stand-alone medium, however, its main value was in reaching a lot of people quickly with fairly simple messages.

Attempts to improve the educational value of open broadcasting as a “magic multiplier” to enhance extension included the creation of radio farm forums directed to organised farming groups, built around the format “listen, discuss, act”. A seasoned leader introduced each broadcast topic, initiated follow-up discussion after the broadcast, and coordinated action on its recommendations. The idea was originally developed in Canada during the 1940s and subsequently adapted in a number of developing countries including Ghana, Zambia, Guatemala, Thailand and Senegal. A common problem experienced in most was the difficulty in maintaining active group attendance over an extended period of time since the farm forum was initiated when radio sets were expensive and access was limited. With the advent of cheap transistor sets individual ownership became more common, lessening the appeal of regular attendance using a shared village radio. A trend toward a mix of private and public sector broadcasting, as a result of deregulation in many countries, also provided competition through a broader range of channels and topics for rural audiences. Radio farm forums mostly disappeared during 1980s, and were replaced by listening groups for specific themes (e.g. rural womens communication needs). Typically, these include groups of about 15 people who meet to listen to and discuss a weekly half-hour radio broadcast, under the direction of a trained group leader who is supplied in advance with programme guide manuals. An accompanying textbook with each chapter covering a specific radio programme is provided to each participant as a reinforcer. Other materials might include posters, T-Shirts and dresses bearing topic-related logos.

R. del Castello

With the current surge of community radio on the one hand and decentralization of capital city-based networks to include regional and local stations on the other, a radio rejuvenation appears to be under way, one that depends upon active audience participation during production and for feedback. Based on the outcomes of a regional workshop in Africa during 1996, FAO remains firm in its conviction that “Radio remains the most popular, accessible, and cost-effective means of communication for rural people. Radio can overcome the barriers of distance, illiteracy and language diversity better than any other medium”.

Multimedia campaigns

Early approaches

Radio, whether national, regional or localized-community in reach has also formed the main stay for many multimedia campaigns, the most powerful of strategies in disseminating information and building motivation. Communication theory has tended to support the case for multimedia use based on the premise that having access to at least two channels allows a production team to present and reinforce the same points in different ways and with varied emphasis. Individuals also differ in their processing of information from different media; some learn better from and prefer visual media than audio and vice versa. In general, evidence from controlled classroom studies suggests that providing a variety of reinforcing channels caters to both learning styles and learning preferences. More practical findings from the field, however, especially in rural development, are rare but convincing where systematically documented (see Case 4).

G. Coldevin

Campaigns have been used in virtually every facet of rural development, particularly in agriculture. One of the better known case studies, Masagana 99, was undertaken in the Philippines during 1974. Masagana translates as “bountiful harvest” with the project objective being to increase rice production up to 99 sacks (50 kg) of unmilled rice per hectare. The channel mix included radio broadcasting, a variety of print materials (bulletins, posters), and intensively trained farm technologists. Radio was used in three ways: a) jingles and spot messages for motivation, b) information through a daily 30-minute farm programme, and c) instructional courses through the existing Farmers’ University of the Air. Prior to the campaign the Philippines had to import a substantial part of its rice to meet national requirements. Following the campaign, rice yields had increased by 28 percent over the previous year and by 1976 a 40 percent rise was registered over 1973 pre-campaign levels. During 1977 national requirements were more than met and the country began exporting its excess harvest.

FAO has accumulated a strong legacy in implementing and validating this powerful delivery strategy in a variety of topics ranging from increasing maize and sorghum production in Lesotho to stamping out rinderpest viruses in thirty-four countries across West, Central and East Africa. One of its first campaigns, carried out during 1984 in Sierra Leone, was directed at increasing swamp-rice production. A baseline survey of knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP), and media access and preferences was undertaken with a stratified sample drawn from both swamp cultivators and uniquely upland farmers. A nation-wide two-month campaign was then designed and launched involving a mix of four 15-minute “farming magazine” radio broadcasts per week reinforced by posters, pamphlets, and sound-slide presentations led by extension workers in targeted villages near swamp areas. Post-campaign results showed that, on average, all farmers had increased their knowledge levels by 60 percent over baseline scores. The highest gains were made by upland or non-rice farmers whose after campaign scores were over three times higher (307 percent) than baseline levels. This group also indicated a significantly positive shift in their intention to start swamp-rice farming. And farmers who tuned in regularly to the radio broadcasts gained almost twice the amount of information when compared with non-listeners.

Well documented campaigns have also been supported by FAO for rat control in Bangladesh and Malaysia, for integrated weed management in Malaysia, and for pest surveillance in Thailand. In each campaign KAP baseline surveys as well as focus group interviews for additional qualitative information were undertaken. An interesting variation in setting campaign objectives, which set a standard for future reference, was the use of a targeted estimate of how much the campaign should accomplish in terms of shifts in each indicator included, e.g. post-campaign knowledge levels and practices. The rate of success of the campaign could then be judged by the gap between targeted and actual achievements.

Overall, the results of all campaigns were impressive. For example, the rat control campaign in Bangladesh during 1983 raised the adoption of rat control practices among wheat farmers from ten to 32 percent, resulting in an average harvest gain of 54 kg/hectare in treated fields. A follow-up campaign in 1984 with all types of farmers showed 47 percent practicing rat control before and 67 percent after the exercise, with average harvest gains of 44 kg/hectare.

Evolution of a participatory model

The importance of popular participation in planning and executing rural projects was first postulated during the 1970s when it was suggested that the “dominant paradigm” of top-down planning would shift toward self-development wherein villagers and urban poor would be the priority audiences, and self-reliance and building on local resources would be emphasized. The role of communication in this process would be 1) providing technical information about development problems and possibilities, and about appropriate innovations in answer to local requests, and 2) circulating information about the self-development accomplishments of local groups so that other such groups might profit from others’ experience. Despite these early predictions, rural communication systems continued to service the transfer of technology or “TOT” model in which information passed from researchers to farmers though the extension system. At least a decade would pass before participatory methodologies began to gain acceptance. And where they were tentatively introduced, most projects up to end of the 1980s were mainly concerned with having beneficiaries discuss how to implement projects or “functional participation” (see Box on Participation Typologies). The practice of full “interactive participation”, a product of the 1990s, started with beneficiaries deciding which development initiatives should be pursued, whether the initiatives were feasible and prioritising those that were, and only then deciding how to carry them out, all the while keeping in mind the requirements for sustainability and possibly “self-mobilization” upon project completion.

One of FAOs first exercises in “interactive participation” in communication and learning for community development was carried out over a three-year period in the Philippines from 1991-1994. Building on the mounting literature in participatory rural appraisal (PRA), and refinement of its methodology, the over-riding goal of the project was to take each of five pilot-communities or barangays (selected because of their physical isolation and ranking as economically depressed) through prototype exercises in setting priorities for technology transfer. This involved bottom-up needs assessment through a number of PRA tools (social and livelihood mapping, seasonal calendar, problem trees, key informant panels, media access and preferences) and quantitative baseline KAP surveys, which served as diagnostic profiles for the framing of communication and learning objectives. A variety of multichannel communication approaches were then implemented, spear-headed by a new lead-medium in the form of community audio-tower systems or CATS, in each participating barangay. Each CATS consisted of a karaoke system, two microphones, and a 500-watt amplifier housed in a studio and connected to four 100-watt loudspeakers attached to a metal tower. Total cost of each complete unit was about US$ 2000 provided that construction of studio housing and towers were undertaken through local voluntary participation. Broadcasting associations were subsequently formed by each community to manage, produce, and broadcast programmes created by thematic sub-committees, e.g. agriculture, health, cooperatives, and youth, on a weekly schedule. “Broadcasts” reached up to a 2-kilometer radius, more than adequate to blanket most barangays. Case 5 provides a snapshot of a typical CATS-led communication campaign in one of the five project sites.

Networking through village telecentres

While the call for networking has become highly popularised, sub-Saharan Africa in particular has faced deepening marginalisation. According to data provided by IDRC, in 1999, excluding South Africa, the so-called “digital divide” was reflected in only one African in 9 000 having access to the Internet, while around the world the average was one person in 40. IDRC has responded with project “Acacia”, designed to encourage access to ICTs by low-income groups in cities and the countryside, to provide tools and techniques that make it easier for low-income groups to use ICTs, and to adapt applications and services to meet community needs. The vehicle for doing this is through the establishment of community multimedia centres or telecentres accessible within an hour of home by foot. Most of its emphasis has thus far been on urban telecentres - which have been mushrooming - with typical services offered consisting of telephone, fax, photocopying, e-mail, Internet, and small group training in ICT proficiencies (e.g. information data navigation, networking, designing Web pages). Pilot telecentres are also being tried out in a limited number of rural settings (e.g. Mali, Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa).

FAO/SDRE has been actively supporting the use of ICTs for agricultural development through rural telecentres, and other means (such as cooperatives and farmer associations), although the pace has been much slower than the explosion in urban settings. Rural community telecentres (RCTs) have much or all of the capability of their urban counterparts as well as access to more traditional media such as audio and video playback equipment. Typically, they can also serve as venues for formal and non-formal distance education training for extension and subject matter specialists. As information “depots” or “hubs” they can place regional, national and international information at the fingertips of agricultural development workers - information on markets, weather, crops, livestock production and natural resource protection.

Much of the debate revolving around RCTs has been in establishing the link from the global networks to national, town, and finally to village levels, the latter referred to by some as the last mile of connectivity and others as “the first mile”. Costs appear to be the main constraint. IDRC estimates that if a wired land-based network is to be put into place, the expense for connecting rural subscribers in Africa will be five to ten times higher than that of city dwellers. The cost of equipment, and training of those to operate it, must also be factored in. But the issues of connectivity, start-up costs and sustainability can be solved, according to the World Bank, through establishing rural telecentres as a “Community Utility”, accessible on a pay-to-use basis. Based on IDRC s experience, however, the report card on making RCTs financially viable is still in the making. FAO, more optimistically, suggests that the trend is clearly wireless, mobile, multimedia and broadband ICTs, with costs dropping appreciable.

Undoubtedly, a strong case can be made for using participatory methods to bring crystallised farmer groups technology information needs to telecentres, tapping the relevant data bases available through the Internet that provide use-able recommendations, and then packaging the results to respond to local demands and disseminating it through a variety of conventional media, and especially community radio, for maximum reach. Sustainability, in turn, will increase in direct proportion to client s satisfaction of the service. The Internet has to be clearly and immediately useful or people won’t have the motivation to use it. Clearly, the lessons learned through past communication experiences should be applied to current investments in rural telecentres. Approaches that harness the power of ICTs with unique local needs will undoubtedly significantly strengthen the contributions that telecentres can make to rural development.

FAOs initial experience with using the Internet for rural development started in Latin America in the early 1990s when farmer-operated information networks were established in Chile and Mexico. Operating under the banner of FarmNet (the term that has been applied to initiatives growing out of the Latin American experience),linkages were established with agricultural producers, farmer associations, extension services and NGOs using conventional media, such as rural radio, and appropriate use of the new ICTs. The networks provide data on crops, inputs, markets, weather forecasts, and credit facilities, among other essential topics. All told, it has proven an efficient and cost-effective way for farmers to access local, regional, national and even global sources. For example, transmitting price and market information through computer-based networks has proven to be 40 percent more economical than using traditional extension methods. And by knowing market price information in larger centers, it has also increased farmers profitability in setting local crop selling rates, and a base for better planning of quantities to plant in the future. In one case, by using market information provided through the network, a farmer association was able to sell cotton for US$82 per quintal as opposed to US$72, the price local buyers were trying to impose. FarmNet is being piloted in Uganda to facilitate information dissemination among national, district and local levels of the Uganda National farmers association.

Amore recent FAO development, as part of its World Agriculture Information Centre (WAICENT) initiatives, has been the Virtual Extension, Research and Communication network or VERCON, designed as an open network to improve communication between research and extension and, for those with access, farmers themselves. Prototype software is being developed which can be readily adapted locally to improve the flow of information between extension and research departments. And by linking a FarmNet to a VERCON, farmers can have better access to technical expertise. At the same time, researchers and extension workers can gain a better understanding of the local, site-specific problems that farmers face and the practices that they apply in their farming systems. A pilot project is currently under way in Egypt to test and refine the VERCON system.

Distance education

While distance education (DE) has been recognized as the most significant educational innovation of the latter half of the twentieth century, its application has been mainly in the formal areas of instructional delivery. Initially building on correspondence for home-based study largely using self-instructional print materials, sophisticated institutions such as the Open University in Britain now use a variety of mixed-media support, along with tutorial counseling and library materials available at study centres geographically accessible to virtually all students. Increasingly, the Internet is being harnessed to delivery complete on-line courses as well as to provide rapid learner feedback and counselling.

R. Jones/FAO/19272

Within rural development projects, the potential exists for literally thousands of extension agents in Africa, Asia and the Americas to upgrade their credentials from one or two-year post secondary Certificates or Diplomas to B.Sc. first degrees, and even beyond to Masters level qualifications through in-service distance education. And by using participatory curriculum development methods, these programmes could be tailored to specific needs of extension workers based on their years of practical field experience. The same potential holds for providing pre-service qualification at all levels (Certificate, Diploma, B.Sc.) at a distance. Emerging examples where DE is being applied to extension training include the Open University of Bangladesh which has a B.Sc. Programme in Agriculture and Rural Development targeted at extension agents; Sir Arthur Lewis College in St. Lucia is also developing a post-secondary Certificate programme in Agriculture at a distance for Caribbean extensionists.

Most distance applications in agricultural education and training thus far, however, have been at the non-formal level, mainly using radio and text materials for both individual and group learning at the farmer level, what FAO has recently coined as “distance extension”. Short courses at a distance for professional upgrading of extension agents have also been mounted. INADES-Formation, as a case in point, offers both farmer and extension level training. Founded in 1962 by the Jesuits and headquartered in Abidjan, it now provides self-study texts supplemented by radio broadcasts, study groups led by extension agents, a quarterly journal on agriculture (Agripromo), and occasional seminars for farmers and extension agents in nine French speaking African countries as well as an English wing in Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania. The course is primarily aimed at small farmers with little or no schooling, mostly studying in small groups, and extension agents who lack basic agricultural training. Certificates are provided to farmers at the end of the second and fourth years. A fifth year is designed exclusively for extension agents who receive a promotion upon completion. Up to the early 1990s at least 50 000 people, roughly divided between farmers and extension agents, had completed INADES-Formation courses.

Other examples of distance learning for non-formal education include the G.P. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology in Uttar Pradesh, India, which has offered print-based correspondence courses to farmers and rural youth since 1973. About 500 learners are enrolled each year; individual students can select four courses from a list of seventeen options (mostly on cultivation of particular crops, dairy production, and insecticide and fertiliser uses). A network of 20 District Extension Centres are available for individual counseling and study support. Non-credit certificates are issued to students passing end-of-term examinations in each course.

And the Allama Iqbal Open University of Pakistan (AIOU), established in 1975 as the first open university in the Region, has been offering correspondence courses in income generation activities for rural women since 1986. Practical course topics range from Poultry farming and Garment Making, to Selling of Home Made Products. Tutorial support is provided through local study centers. The popularity of the Programme is reflected in an enrollment, as of 1996, of about 4 000 learners per semester.

The school of the air (SoA) is another popular variation of using radio for nonformal distance education. Used extensively in the Philippines and Latin America (Escuelas Radiofonicas), the technique lends itself to both mass broadcasting and to participatory community radio for individual as well as group learning. Courses cover a variety of areas including literacy, numeracy, and basic education (usually up to primary qualifications). In the Philippines, seasonal courses spanning a cropping period of four months are offered to farmers on topics such as organic farming methods. Typically broadcast out of local municipal radio stations, a “community-focused” approach is stressed wherein a local farmer, and subject matter specialist work with radio broadcasters in scripting and production. In general, 30-minute programmes are aired five days a week over a four-month season. Print materials serve as complementary resource materials.

SoAs have proven both efficient and effective. In the municipality of “Infanta” in Quezon province in the Philippines, for example, a programme is presently underway to transform 3 000 hectares of chemically-treated farms to chemical free farms. More than 5 000 farmers will have been trained in two years through a combination of SoA broadcasts and farmer field schools over five seasons using four teams of two extension workers as field facilitators in each. Using only FFS methods, at 40 farmers per school, would require eight extension teams, each composed of two persons, over 15 seasons or about seven years overall.