Tropentag, October 5 - 7, 2011 in Bonn "Development on the margin"

Participatory Rural Video Centre: An Approach to Support Learning and Farmers' Innovation in Bangladesh

¹University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Centre for Development Research, Austria
²Bangladesh Agricultural University, Department of Agricultural Extension Education, Bangladesh

Abstract

Extension services often miss the opportunity to support farmers' innovation in Bangladesh. This is partly due to lack of creative and innovative ways to support farmer-to-farmer learning. Over the years potential use of video to support farmer-to-farmer learning raises interests on how best to use the media. A new debate raises the issue whether farmers should have complete freedom to shape the video-based learning material or they should collaborate with the development professionals to develop effective learning materials. In this paper, following a normative review of concepts and empirical evidences we present an approach to develop local video capacity through establishing a video centre in a north-west village of Bangladesh. The approach recognises the complementary advantages of two styles of participatory video (PV) to trickle down the benefit of the capacity of filming to the rural community. We argue that introducing video to a team of rural men and women inspires their experimentation capacity. The centre is a social space where local innovation actors can be engaged to enhance learning within and beyond the community. The sustainability of the centre depends on the networking with the rural video professionals and how the rural video team engages them in the landscape of local innovation actors in rural Bangladesh. The objective is to develop the centre as a farmer organisation, which will support video-mediated innovation and learning process in the community. The participatory rural video centre is established to have a long-term exit for the video-mediated women farmers' empowerment process in the community.

Keywords: Bangladesh, innovation, learning, rural, video

Contact Address: Florian A. Peloschek, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Centre for Development Research, Gregor Mendel Strasse 33, 1180 Vienna, Austria, e-mail: florian.peloschekboku.ac.at