THE TALKING BOOKghana pilot results

Cliff SchmidtTrina Gorman

LITERACY BRIDGEhttp://www.literacybridge.org/

info@literacybridge.org

AGENDA

Introduction Problem Current Solutions

Participatory Design Process Overview of Pilot Study Evaluation

Qualitative Results Quantitative Harvest Results

Lessons Learned Future Work

Rural Communities in Developing Countries 3 billion people (57% of developing country

populations) Agriculture is major source of livelihood—often use

inefficient practices No electricity, limited connectivity

1.5 billion people have no access to electricity1.3 billion estimated to be without access in 2030

High illiteracy rates—776 million illiterate adults

PROBLEM

CURRENT SOLUTIONS

Traditional Agriculture extension

Staff must reach many geographically dispersed farmers Only a fraction are reached

Ex. 7.3% of rural households in Uganda received extension visit in 1 year

Low levels of adopting recommended practices ICT4D Radio broadcast Digital Green Grameen’s Community Knowledge Worker

Farmers need locally generated agriculture guidance that they can listen to repeatedly and when they need it.

Iterative Design 2 years of research including numerous trips

to test and collect feedback in the field Explored a variety of form factors

Current Model Manufactured 100 Talking Books in 2008 Users can: (more info)

Listen to recordings from local experts Record messages to share knowledge or

provide feedback Copy messages between devices

Governments and NGOs purchase Talking Books to more effectively share information with the communities they serve.

PARTICIPATORY DESIGN PROCESS

1. Content. Local experts in agriculture, health, and education recorded guidance on the Talking Books.

2. Launch. Literacy Bridge delivered 21 devices to a small village in the Upper West Region of Ghana.

3. Allocation. Village chief and elders formed a leadership committee to train others and equitably allocate devices.

4. Continual Support. Literacy Bridge visited every two weeks to provide support and collect feedback.

5. Evaluation. Completed 96 interviews to: Collect feedback about training, usability, usage, content, etc. Compare harvest results between users and non users

OVERVIEW OF PILOT STUDY

•No electricity or connectivity•Literacy <%5•~90 households, 980 people•<2% own mobile phones

•1 extension visit per year•Subsistence farmers•Crops include maize, beans, groundnuts, millet, rice

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

QUALITATIVE STUDY

Methodology >40 in-person interviews (33 users, 9 non users)

Education Usage / Usability Value Messages Implementation

General Strong positive response regarding the value of

the information. Farmers reported:

Learning, applying, and seeing improved results.

Telling peers within and outside the village. Residents trusted the information because they

respect the local experts who recorded the guidance.

FEEDBACK

I talked about to friends and even

beyond the Ving Ving community. I talked

about farming issues. According to the

device we were told to use animals

droppings to apply on farms crops and upon

doing it there are improvements.

They (Agric Officers) also told us how to care for our families and kids and the livestock, and how to keep the environment clean.

They told us the importance of building an livestock pens and keeping it clean, which

we don’t usually do but now I’ve built a pen except that I don’t have the money to

cement it but I sweep it everyday in the morning. It’s a help to me because I don’t see a lot of sick animals anymore since I adapted to the teaching in the talk book.

QUALITATIVE RESULTSTraining and Usability Audio instructions were effective alone for some, others said

committee’s training was insufficient Youth and those with some schooling required less training. Misunderstandings included:

Must purchase own batteries. Recording voice would send messages to the government Should record messages to request services from an NGO

Need to train farmers to handle the devices with care.

Usage and Allocation Many requests for more devices—devices were valuable, some

reported conflicts over allocation. Unequal access between ages, gender, and regions

Committee was protective for fear of breakage—seemed to favor some.

Women/elders less likely to check out a device. Women often listened to the devices after dinner with family. Reports of men not sharing with wife/families

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.

Since the community is divided into sections I think that we should

distribute them according to each

section. We should divide the number of sections

by the number of devices.

QUALITATIVE RESULTS (cont.)

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

Durability and Maintenance Rough handling of microphone jack and some software

issues required repairs One device disassembled by residents but still

functioned properly

I will have been glad if the device size could be reduced to the size of a mobile phone to enable us to

put it into our pocket. I also suggest that if the sign/navigators could be a little higher that it is to enable blind people usage. I also recommend that it will be nice if

there is a handle.

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.

PICTURES

TRADITIONAL METHODS

PICTURES

TALKING BOOK METHODS TRADITIONAL METHODS

Methodology Interviewed 33 Talking Book users and 40 non-users Collected information about:

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

Millet Maize Beans Ground nuts

Changes in farming 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)

HARVEST RESULTS: ALL CROPS

1 bag= ~120 lbs, 50 gallons

CROP YIELDS BY GROUP

Control2008

Control2009

TalkingBook 2008

TalkingBook 2009

10

20

30

Yie

ld (

Bag

s)

HARVEST RESULTS: PER CROP Talking Book users produced more millet and ground

nuts: .755 additional bags of millet; a 25% increase (p=.022)

4.43 additional bags of groundnuts; a 48% increase (p=.008)

Approximate market value: $136

Talking Book users did not produce significantly more maize or beans Possible reasons include:

Messages were not relatively as valuable Improper application Other unmeasured factors negatively impacted

these specific crops

Village-wide exposure ~360 people from 37 farms in Ving Ving (~40%

of total farms) directly benefited from exposure to messages.

Testing of Guidance Per Crop How frequently did users test guidance on a

portion of their land? Tested Guidance – 52% Applied to entire plot – 21% Did not apply – 27%

RESULTS: EXPOSURE AND APPLICATION

Reasons for not applying any guidance:

Broken device Did not listen in time Wanted to wait and see the

results of peers

Reasons for decreased yields from nonusers Over flooding The land lost its fertility Planted at wrong time

What will Talking Book users do with the extra crops? 75% of farmers intend to sell their new surplus to:

Pay for health insurance. Invest in farming inputs (seeds, labor, animals). Improve their houses (especially important before the rainy

season). Pay for their children's school fees.

33% of farmers expect that all or some of the additional crops will be required to properly feed their families or to store for the future.

RESULTS: FARMER FEEDBACK

LIMITATIONS OF STUDY

QUALITATIVE Those interviewed were not a random sample. Foreigners are distracting—how does our presence influence their actions

and answers? Language barrier between Literacy Bridge staff, interviewers, and residents

—what was lost in the translation?QUANTITATIVE Subjectivity bias

Data was self reported (reliant on farmer’s memory) Users may have been inclined to report additional increases

-2 to 2 scale had flaws Could not analyze level of application per crop Limited our ability to analyze the effects of each factor

Not a RCT evaluation Users were “self selected” by checking out a device Did not capture all factors that affected 2009 yields

Small sample size weakened analysis

MEET ANTHONY

Before the talkbooks, I used to plant my crops the way my grandparents did. Now with this talkbook, I have learnt the different ways of farming that are beneficial. I used to plant my crops on mounds and therefore, I’ll cultivate a large piece of land and harvest very little but with the

help of this device, I’ve learnt how to plant crops in lanes which dramatically increased the amount of crops planted per area. There were certain crops that whenever I grew them they didn’t do well at all so that I can feed my family but due to this device, I’ve learnt the efficient way to plant them and increase my harvest. One of the great things about this device is the

amount of corn its lessons enabled me to harvest in the same piece of land this year as compared to years past.

I’ve never harvested one quarter of a bag of corn from that piece of land, but this year I’ve harvested more than a bag of corn from the

same piece of land. Another benefit of this device is that the government has a program called “farmers meeting” but it

usually takes months, sometimes years, to hear from the agriculture officials and when you do see them they will give one radio to the entire village that is supposed to help us. Such

devices often end up in the hands of only the more wealthy. One radio can not suffice an entire village but these talkbooks have been a help to those of us that were deprived of vital

information. … We have learnt how to stop the spread of illness among the animals by separating the sick animals from the healthy ones and keeping their sleeping area clean. By doing these things, the animals will get healthy and the feces we clean up helps the crops in

the field.

On the same land on which I’ve harvested only a bucket of pepper in previous years, this year the peppers are so good and healthy - in

a way that I’ve never seen - I expect to harvest at least two buckets.

Committee Buy-in from strong local leaders is key to success. Committee leaders need to be more diverse (gender, age, and region) and

improve ongoing training.

Allocation Household rotation and gender-specific devices to improve access. Leverage the device:

Record “rules” on the devices to reduce misunderstandings. Improve feedback loop—giving residents a continual avenue to provide feedback

about program.

Behavior Change Improving practices alone made a significant difference on crop yields. Access to inputs inhibited some.

LESSONS LEARNED

Behavior Change How does use (in home, outside, word of mouth) effect behavior change? In what ways can peer recognition of guidance enhance adoption of practices?

A farmer’s recorded feedback about an existing message A message from MOFA created in collaboration with a local farmer

Usability What are the effects of device to device copying? How can the audio instructions be improved? Do end users have problems uploading/downloading messages using a mobile

phone?

Ownership How much do farmers value the devices from a financial standpoint?

If we do not provide batteries, will residents pay to listen? Would farmers accept a Talking Books “loan” in exchange for future profits?

FUTURE WORK

?QUESTIONS?

LITERACY BRIDGEhttp://www.literacybridge.org/

info@literacybridge.org