Intervention(s)
The project has four main intervention components: Digital Extension; Input credit; Access to inputs; and Women self-help groups (WSHGs). The main features of each project component are provided below.
Digital Extension. Building on their previous work with maize, teff, and wheat farmers in Ethiopia, Digital Green will develop and use video-based extension (VBE) and interactive voice recording (IVR) approaches to promote best practices in coffee and maize farming in the project areas. Carefully tailored to match the information provided by the public extension service, the content in the VBE and IVR will focus on good agricultural practices, improvement of soil fertility, prevention of pests and diseases, and harvest and post-harvest management.
Input credit. Partnering with local financial service providers (e.g., banks, and micro-finance institutions), Digital Green will pilot input credit to households farming coffee and maize. The voucher-based input credit can be used to purchase key farm inputs such as seeds, seedlings, fertilizers, agrochemicals, and farm tools.
Access to inputs. In this project component, Digital Green will ensure the availability of inputs and tools by collaborating with local cooperatives and agro-dealers.
Women self-help groups (WSHGs). Working with zone and woreda level officials, Digital Green will aim to strengthen existing and form new WSHGs in the project kebeles. Between 3 and 4 videos will be developed to educate the WSHGs on group governance, conflict management, financial literacy, business development, and entrepreneurial skills. The groups will also receive financial support to set up revolving funds to strengthen group lending capacity to develop new and strengthen existing livelihood activities.