THE TALKING BOOKghana pilot results

Making knowledge accessibleto people living in poverty.

AGENDA

Introduction Problem Current Solutions

Participatory Design Process Overview of Pilot Study Evaluation

Qualitative Results Quantitative Harvest Results

Lessons Learned Future Work

In developing countries: High illiteracy rates

752 million people Limited electricity

1.5 billion people Agriculture is major source

of livelihood—often use inefficient practices

PROBLEM

CURRENT METHODS

Traditional Agriculture extension

High transaction costs Small fraction reached Low adoption levels

ICT4D Radio broadcast Digital Green Grameen’s CKW

Farmers need locally generated agriculture

guidance that they can listen to

repeatedly and when they need it.

Iterative Design 2 years of research Numerous trips to Ghana Explored many form factors

Current Model Users can:

Listen to local experts Record their own messages Copy messages between devices

PARTICIPATORY DESIGN PROCESS

1. Content

Created by local experts in agriculture, health, and education.

2. Launch

Delivered 21 devices to a rural village (~1000 residents, 90% illiteracy, no electricity).

3. Allocation and Training

Completed by a local leadership committee.

4. Continual Support

Visited biweekly for feedback/support.

5. Evaluation

Interviewed about device, implementation, and harvest results.

OVERVIEW OF PILOT STUDY

This research has been funded in part by the Seattle International Foundation

QUALITATIVE STUDY

Methodology>40 in-person interviews Implementation Device

Physical Software / Content

QUALITATIVE RESULTS

Training and Usability Audio instructions alone were effective for

some, others required training Misunderstandings about program Requests for more training

General use Proper handling

Allocation Devices were very valuable Committee was protective, feared breakage. Unequal access: schooling, gender, regions Many requests for more devices

I would change the device distribution to

make it more fair. So if there are thirty devices, then women get 15 and men get 15 to prevent

conflicts.

QUALITATIVE RESULTS (cont.)

Common Requests Lights for night use More pronounced buttons for blind Embedded radio Solar or rechargeable power Reduce to pocket-size

Durability and Maintenance Rough handling of microphone jack Some software issues One device disassembled but still

functioned

QUALITATIVE RESULTS (cont.)

Behavior Change Farmers reported:

Telling peers about what they had learned.

Learning and applying new methods.

Seeing improved results.

MEET SUGLO

It has a lot of benefits to me. It taught me that we should start clearing our farm lands before the farming season begins,

start by March and finish between May and June. That we can just cultivate the land and plant the crops or plant them in

beds and/or lanes; that those methods increase the amount of crops per land area compared to mounds which waste land

and take up a lot of space. Beds also help accumulate water, prevent erosion and keep the soil within the farm moist. The beds actually make a big difference in terms of keeping the

soil moist. Mounds are too high from the ground and they dry up very fast and our crops suffer during insufficient rain fall.

Now we can still smile during short periods of draught because planting in beds keeps the soil moist for a little while.

Since I heard that from this thing (talkbook),

I tried it this year, and I am a woman but people exclaim whenever they see my crops in the farm and I just keep

my mouth shut because I know the harvest is going to be good. With the small amount of rain that we get, the beds still keep the water around and the crops stay healthy for

up to a week and I go to look at them with smile on my face.

Methodology Interviewed 33 users, 40 non-users

Demographics (region, age, schooling) Bags produced in 2008 and 2009

Millet Maize Beans Ground nuts

Changes in practices Human labor Farm animals Pesticide and fertilizer use Amount of land

Application of new guidance (users only)

QUANTITATIVE STUDY

Users produced 48% more crops than nonusers (7.22 bags) after controlling for other factors (p=.008)

1 bag = ~120 lbs, 50 gallons

HARVEST RESULTS: ALL CROPS

1 ½ bags

CROP YIELDS BY GROUP

Control2008

Control2009

TalkingBook 2008

TalkingBook 2009

10

20

30

Yie

ld (

Bag

s)

HARVEST RESULTS: PER CROP

Users produced: .76 more bags of millet; a 25% increase

(p=.022)

4.4 more bags of groundnuts; a 48% increase (p=.008)

Market value: $136

Users did not produce significantly more maize or beans Possible reasons :

Messages were not relatively as valuable

Improper application Other unmeasured factors negatively

impacted these specific crops

Village-wide exposure ~360 people from 37 farms

(~40% of village)

Testing of Guidance Partially applied – 52% Applied to entire plot – 21% Did not apply – 27%

RESULTS: EXPOSURE AND APPLICATION

Reasons for decreased yields (non users) Over flooding The land lost its fertility Planted at wrong time

What will users do with surplus? 75% of farmers will sell to:

Pay for health insurance Purchase seeds, labor, animals Improve their houses Pay for their children's school fees

33% will use to properly feed their families

RESULTS: FARMER FEEDBACK

LIMITATIONS OF STUDY

QUALITATIVE Not a random sample Foreigners are distracting

QUANTITATIVE Not a RCT evaluation Subjectivity bias -2 to 2 scale had flaws Small sample size weakened analysis

Committee Buy-in from strong local leaders is key Diversify committee leaders Improve ongoing training

Allocation Household rotation Gender issues Leverage the device

Record “rules” on the devices Improve feedback loop

Behavior Change Improving practices alone made a significant difference Access to inputs inhibited some

LESSONS LEARNED

Behavior Change In home vs. outside vs. word of mouth Peer recognition

Usability Experiment with audio instructions Upload/download using mobile phone

Ownership Value to farmers

Do not provide batteries Talking Book microloan

FUTURE WORK

?QUESTIONS?