Integrating Low-Cost Video into Agricultural Development Projects
Low-cost video can be used to help accomplish many project objectives. After all, “seeing is believing.” Extensive research tells us that visual learning is the most consistently recalled and most trusted form of learning. Best of all, a full complement of equipment for quality video production and dissemination can be had for less than $500.
USAID’s Fostering Agriculture Competitiveness Employing Information Communication Technologies (FACET) project has created a toolkit to demystify low-cost video. Designed originally with agricultural projects in mind, it covers in clear detail the common considerations of any health or development project, including the nuts and bolts of storyboarding, technology choices, video production, editing, and dissemination.
The toolkit is a starting place for practitioners who want to integrate videos into their work. It provides a framework on how to choose the right technology and channel for your situation. It also shows how to plan and produce a video that reaches the intended audience with the right information.
Given the increasing availability of low-cost digital video cameras and editing software — and the increasing use of video media in donor-funded agricultural development projects — the toolkit aims to empower practitioners to develop a more systematic approach to using low-cost video to share information with their beneficiaries, their clients, and the public.