Podcasts quadruple milk yield from cows in Zimbabwe
Practical Action has just completed a pilot project using podcasts (short digital recordings) to help farmers in Zimbabwe achieve much better agricultural yields, and thereby increasing their income.
The problem
Many developing world farmers find it almost impossible to drag themselves out of subsistence farming because they do not know how to improve their agricultural methods.
Often farmers in the developing world have low literacy rates, live in remote areas without TV, radio signals, Internet access or electricity.
However a new project in Mbire, Zimbabwe has been using podcasts (short digital recordings which you listen to on an MP3 player) with incredible results.
Our solution
First we selected MP3 players with a 40 hour battery life and two sets of batteries (enough for 2,800 local people to listen to one podcast in a two week period). Then the podcasts are recorded in local dialects. 32 podcasts cover a whole range of methods to increase crop and milk yields and improve agricultural output. All the players are held in a type of mobile library and the batteries get replaced every two weeks.
The results
In the pilot project, in Mbire, milk production has risen from 0.5 litres per cow to 2 litres. And survival rates for livestock birth have risen by 18%. In addition both crop production and variety have increased.
And the project has improved access to knowledge for the whole community because people do not need to be literate to access it. In six months the podcast knowledge has reached 75% of the population.
The future
We are now in the process of scaling-up the project in five new areas and will be monitoring the results.
Some of our other work in ICTs includes:
InfoDes telecentres 
Radio and HIV/Aids |
Other energy stories in Small Talk March 2010 :
Hydro electricity in Peru | Stove maker in Kenya | Biogas in Sri Lanka |
