Dr. Paul Van Mele, Access Agriculture Director of International Development, delivering a presentation on “Access Agriculture: Vision, model and reach” at the virtual workshop titled “Learn and Earn from Natural Farming Videos,” organised jointly by MANAGE, the National Coalition for Natural Farming and Access Agriculture on 6 April 2022. Here’s the link to the webinar recording https://youtu.be/7kz2Qa2oD-c. For more information, visit Access Agriculture https://www.accessagriculture.org/

1. Dr. Paul Van Mele
paul@accessagriculture.org
April 6, 2022
Access Agriculture:
Vision, model and reach

2. Road map
• A shift towards natural and organic farming
• Access Agriculture’s vision
• The Access Agriculture model
• Global outreach and impact
• Activities in India

3. A shift towards natural and organic farming
• Organic and natural farming outperforms inorganic farming.
• All ongoing and future actions should be informed by the
strong evidence in favour of natural and organic farming.
• Increase the focus on supporting farmers during the transition
to natural and organic farming.
• Leverage ICT technology to support last-mile delivery.
• Integrate practitioners in the community to help train farmers.
Centre for Science and Environment, 2022

4. Challenges
✘ Ecological knowledge is complex and hard to share
✘ Only a limited number of people are reached by face-to-face extension
✘ Youth and women have limited access to knowledge

5. Our Vision
Improved rural livelihoods and sustainable food systems in the Global South.
Our Mission
To promote agroecological principles and rural entrepreneurship through capacity development
and South-South exchange of quality farmer-to-farmer training videos in local languages.

6. ▶ Effective training videos combine scientific with local knowledge
▶ Quality videos can be translated into any local language
▶ Quality videos allow for South-South sharing
▶ Quality videos allow people to learn without outside facilitation
▶ Quality videos attract media houses and digital service providers
Why do we focus on quality videos?

7. Training local partners in video production and translation

9. Translated videos: 113 Bangla, 103 Hindi, 87 Telugu, 86 Kannada, 29 Tamil, 24 Marathi

11. The Digisoft smart projector has the
entire Access Agriculture video library
offline and can be powered by solar.

12. Access Agriculture supports young
Entrepreneurs for Rural Access to make
a business from bringing videos to
farmers using the smart projector

13. The Access Agriculture app
Farmers can re-watch videos,
share and learn at their own pace

14.  Access Agriculture serves > 5,000 organisations, TV and community radio stations
 Through its outreach model, Access Agriculture has reached over 90 million people

15. Visitors to the Access Agriculture video platform
(2013-2022; n = 975,000)

16. Access Agriculture
Impact
(Global survey 2021; n = 2976)
Q: How have videos impacted farmers?
10% 30% 50%
10% 30% 50%
Better yield
Improved pest management
Better produce
Better soil
Appreciate local knowledge
Sought more information
Better food & nutrition
Improved group formation
Grew new crop
Diversified farm
Involved youth
Used less chemicals
Higher income
Empower women

17. Innovation award for Sustainable Food Systems

18. Access Agriculture in India - Google Analytics (2013-2022)
Visitors
1. Maharashtra 22,900
2. West Bengal 20,000
3. Tamil Nadu 10,700
4. Uttar Pradesh 10,600
5. Bihar 10,500
6. Karnataka 8, 900
7. Madhya Pradesh 7,700
8. Telangana 7,700
9. Rajasthan 5,700
10. Delhi 5,400
11. Gujarat 4,500
12. Odisha 3,600
13. Kerala 3,100
14. Assam 2,800
15. Haryana 2,400
16. Andhra Pradesh 2,100
17. Punjab 1,300
23. Jharkhand 600
24. Himachal Pradesh 600

19. New videos from India uploaded on video platform

20. Most popular videos in India (2018-2022)
• Preparing low cost concentrate feed*
• Managing onion diseases*
• Deworming goats & sheep with herbal medicines
• Preventing fly-borne illnesses in donkeys & horses*
• Neem seed kernel extract
• Herbal treatment for diarrhoea
• Hydroponic fodder
• Breeding rabbits*
• Home delivery of organic produce
• Floating vegetable gardens*
• Vermiwash: an organic tonic for crops
• Herbal medicine against fever in livestock
• Killing fall armyworms naturally*
• Preparing cashew apple juice *
• Mulch for a better crop
• Good microbes for plants and soil

21. “In Nagar Kurnool district of Telangana, farmers spent a lot of money on pesticides for controlling fall
army worm, in vain, so they stopped cultivating maize 3 years ago.
After watching the video Killing Fall Army Worm Naturally, they decided to restart cultivating maize.”
Conservation of Nature through Rural Awakening (CONARE)

22. Strategic partnerships
• Central Government and some State Governments
• Civil society
• Extension services
• Farmers’ associations
• Universities & schools
• Training centres
• Rural radio stations
• TV stations
• Policy and network organisations

24.  Align our work with the Government of India's policy
priorities on natural farming
 Expand partnerships across India
 Assess priority needs and build local capacities to
develop new video content
 Decide on priority Indian languages to translate videos
 Launch the Access Agriculture app in Indian languages
 Equip local partners with smart projectors
 Support young women as Entrepreneur for Rural Access
 Strengthen Community radio and TV stations
Way forward in India