Creating a Digital Community for Farmers

In 2020, The Right Kind initiated a very low-tech, low-maintenance innovative way to reach out to farmers. Due to its popularity and familiarity among the rural audience in Bangladesh, TRK decided to use social media, Facebook to be precise, as a means to disseminate best farming practices and other information to farmers. With funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and supervision from Increasing Income, Diversifying Diets and Empowering Women (IDEA) project managed by WorldFish, around 60 aquaculture and business-related byte-sized contents were developed in line with WorldFish’s manual which were uploaded to social media in regular interval. On the demand side, about 9,000 farmers with smartphones were trained on digital literacy and the navigation and engagement process. Over time, it has turned into a digital community of farmers where they post their problems to find solutions as well as seek buyers for fish & fish fry/fingerlings. As of August 2022, the Facebook group has almost 12,000 members comprising mostly farmers, local service providers and government officials.