Phone devices deliver video information to hard-to-reach places

Developing world farmers receive tips on improving crop yields by watching how-to videos on their mobile phones

May 16, 2011. A group at the University of Illinois has produced several videos that demonstrate simple, low-cost ways to improve the lives of people in the developing world. One video shows farmers how to make a natural insecticide out of seeds from the neem tree.

Mobile phones are the latest weapon in the fight against hunger and poverty. The devices provide a new way to deliver information to developing world farmers in hard-to-reach places.
Spreading the word 

“There's been a dramatic revolution in the way that we can share information," says the University of Illinois’ Barry Pittendrigh. "And that's come about both through the Internet and through the dramatic increase in the use of cell phones, especially in developing nations.”

Cell - or mobile - phones are everywhere in the developing world and they are becoming increasingly sophisticated

“We discovered that many farmers had cell phones that would play video clips," says Purdue University crop scientist Jess Lowenberg-DeBoer. "We thought, ‘OK, can we use those cell phones as a way to communicate this visual information?’”