The document discusses Solidaridad's efforts to scale up digital co-creation tools to promote sustainable livestock practices among smallholder farmers in Brazil. Through workshops, they co-designed enhancements to their Extension Solution digital platform with farmers and extension agents. The updates aim to provide farmers customized action plans, instructions, and content through WhatsApp from local influencers. This seeks to establish an "informational solidarity network" by facilitating knowledge sharing and technical support for adopting agroecological practices.

1. Scaling up Digital Co-Creation for
Sustainable Livestock Practices
Novel use of Solidaridad’s Extension Solution for technical assistance for
sustainable livestock practices with farmers in Brazil
Violaine Laurens, Digital Solutions Regional Manager
Solidaridad Latin America

2. Context
• Pará State (Brazilian Legal Amazon)
• Deforestation hostpot
• 2nd largest cattle herd in Brazil
• 95% of smallholder-farms have no access to TA
• Project location: 3 municipalities by the Transamazonian highway
Target group
• Currently 1100 families supported by Solidaridad
• Average farm size: 60 hectares (up to 350 hectares).
• Main productive activities: Cocoa (73%) and livestock (68%)
• Less than 5% adopt good livestock production practices
• All farmers have a smartphone and use WhatsApp daily
• On-farm internet connection available through satellite

3. Technical assistance model powered by digital tools
Group
trainings
Individual
technical
visits
Demo
Plots
Digital
solutions
ATDT Brazil: Solidaridad and the Alliance
partnered to enhance the digital innovation
processes started by Solidaridad and engage
1,000 smallholder farmers across Pará in
the use of co-designed digital tools that
integrate climate-informed agroecological
practices

4. Co-creation process with farmers and extension staff for
a novel use of Extension Solution
1st step: round of participatory workshops to
understand the needs and co-design digital
inovations to increase the adoption of
agroecological practices
• 13 Extensionists
• 70 Farmers (youth, women, senior)
• 5 digital tool developers

5. Challenges and opportunities:
• WhatsApp is currently the major communication channel from
extensionists to farmers and for farmer-to-farmer interaction and
knowledge exchange.
• Young Farmers use digital platforms (Youtube, TikTok and Kwai) to
access content about production practices, but face challenges to find
reliable quality content adapted to their reality.
• Farmers would have more confidence in the digital content if it were
produced in their region/by their peers
• Young and women farmers interested in producing technical content for
digital channels
Insights for novel use of digital solutions:
• Content: Information about the why (concrete benefits) and the how
(practices, local service providers)
• Local content curation: content produced and shared by “familiar faces”
and curation to select and organize content
• Digital learning community online and offline
• Local influencers and local success stories: identify and map demo plots,
producers and partners that can share knowledge and success tories
• Recognition: Recognize farmers who already adopt good practices

6. Solis, the “farmer side” of Extension Solution:
- Easily accessible to producers (no need to download an app or register)
- Enables direct communication between extension staff and producers on a large scale
- Enable the creation and sharing of content by the producers and extension staff themselves
- Replicates the user experience of platforms widely used by producers (youtube/Kwai)
Starting point: Extension Solution and existing video
platforms used by farmers
New features of Extension Solution:
- Customize individual action plan to focus on agroecological practices
- Add individual instructions
- Share with farmer via WhatsApp
- Monitor and validate progress over time

7. Select priority tasks
Novel use of Extension Solution – Extensionist interface
Agree on a deadline and
add instructions
Share with farmer
New feature on
main menu

8. Novel use of Extension Solution – Farmer interface
Farmer receives link via
Whatsapp to open Solis
Farmer accesses his/her
individual action plan
and can contact directly
the extension officer
Farmer accesses list of
priorities
Farmer accesses
individual guidance

9. Community-driven content repository
Search and view content
produced by Solidaridad
and the Community
Share new content
(published on Youtube)
Like and comment

10. Towards the creation of an “informational solidarity
network”

11. THANK YOU
FOR YOUR ATTENTION
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
Violaine.Laurens@solidaridadnetwork.org
www.solidaridadnetwork.org
solidaridadnetwork
.company.solidaridad
@solidaridadnetw