Supporting Voluntary Farmers Associations

The approach was to use participatory video to enable members from 2 of the VFAs to communicate what was involved in setting up such an association and what they regarded as the challenges and benefits of the process. Field work lasted a total of 10 days, 5 days in each community (3 female trainees who had taken part in one of Insight's participatory video training workshops in the city joined the team in order to gain experience with facilitating participatory video in a community setting). Over 40 people had the opportunity to use the camera and be directly involved in the process. Participatory video was combined with Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) exercises such as community mapping and Action Search to enable members to find local solutions to problems, to help develop consensus amongst members, and to create a joint vision for the future.

The resulting film was edited in the UK; organisers then returned within a month and showed it to the communities concerned first to find out what changes they wanted made. The final edited film was used as a workshop tool in a number of different villages to enable a farmer-to-farmer exchange of innovations and knowledge and to help spread the concept of VFAs. According to Insight, "the villagers could identify with the video messages made by people in a similar situation to themselves." Copies of the video were left with key people in the villages and with local video-lending shops. In addition, the film was shown to international donor organisations and policymakers as an advocacy tool (to attract support to continue the spread of VFAs among other villages). Specifically, a screening of the film was arranged at the British Ambassador's residence in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan; in attendance were 30 guests including high-level representatives from a number of international donor agencies, embassies and local organisations active in the agricultural sector.

Agriculture.

According to Insight, Turkmenistan's move away from collective farming towards private, market-oriented farming had left a void in the agricultural sector. Insight explains that, in working with villagers, it became clear that one of their key problems was lack of knowledge among farmers who previously worked for the state farm and now found themselves responsible for making their own farming decisions. They emphasised the need to learn from more experienced local farmers. VFA members "were quick to appreciate the potential for video to record and disseminate various kinds of knowledge more widely", giving less experienced farmers the chance to learn from village "experts", innovators and keepers of traditional knowledge. "Within a very short time, they were already planning and shooting their own short training films, showing tools they had developed, explaining how they were made, giving tips and advice on how to care for particular plants, and so on."

The day after the film screening at the British Ambassador's residence, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) invited Insight to take part in a discussion group where plans were made to develop a microfinance scheme in these and other farming communities. This was largely motivated by a short film made by one of the young men in the village about greenhouses, and the benefits and difficulties of raising the capital to build one when you are a young farmer.