How YouTube influencers are engaging with the farming community

Working in the agriculture/ farm industry as a communicator, you learn a few things about simplifying your message. In this episode of Mrigashira, Charu Raizada speaks to Bhavna Imran, communication leader at Corteva Agriscience. Bhavna is a Communication specialist with over two decades of experience in developing consistent and powerful brand messaging across regional markets, distribution channels and customer segments.

Listen to the podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6MtcRoe3pSczQWlpeHmVTY?si=6456a918194e4761

Are the tried-and-true ways of communicating with farmers still the preferred pathways or has the communication landscape evolved?

I used to watch my father, who used to run an advertising agency. He used to service a big multinational tea brand, the target segment for which was rural India. Watching him from the sidelines as his team designed some campaigns, it was phenomenal to look at the channels they used to communicate their messages then. There’s a folk art form called Burrakatha, in this part of the country in South India. This is a dance drama format and performed at village fairs. So typically, when they had to communicate anything about the tea brand, they leveraged this particular channel quite heavily. But from then I think to now, the landscape is certainly evolved, I would rather say transformed. The farmer audience, I think, can very comfortably access technology and that has made the difference. Emerging technologies have definitely leapfrogged and with the adoption of telephone communications in India, the point has moved from zero point to a completely mobile state. We have totally skipped the landline generation.

Today, the communication format and channels have evolved and I think the farming community has sort of picked up speed. Farmers are being communicated through by mobile phones, not just for reaching out on calls, but leveraging the apps – there are some very interesting apps which talk about smart and precision agriculture. We interact with our farmers on social media like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. Today, as communicators, it’s not just about interacting with the media to relay some of the messages, but working with various channels to raise awareness and educate the farmers. For example, imagine our interaction with the farmers through regional channels and regional media communications to help tell the entire message around how it is becoming critical to use the best agronomy practices, so that the output per hectare increases for farmers.

Talk about trends in terms of mechanisation – we have done some very interesting conversations with our farmers, where we have told them about the advantages of using mechanised tools to help them increase their output and to also reduce the labour drudgery. These kinds of messages are not just helping the company, but the industry at large.

What do you think of the role of influencers? Can they help bond with farmers, introduce new sustainable practices, what could be their role going forward?

With growing social media, the farmers are keenly looking at learning various methods to make their farm produce better, basically more output per hectare. Interestingly, they have started using social media to educate themselves about the tools and techniques. I think of late, the entire salience of sustainable agricultural practices has come up right. Farmers and most of us in our community are trying to understand what these sustainable practices are. They are constantly grappling with what works for them, as well as what positively influences their environment. Here, we are not talking about large farmers. In India and actually most of APAC, the farmlands are very small, what we call the small farmer holders. So for them, it is about understanding what is sustainable, and what is good in terms of agronomy practices and choose from the trends which are happening.

They listen to and understand people who are able to tell them more effectively and empathise with them. Hence, I think that is where the social media influencers, your YouTubers, come into play. Their credibility with the farmers is very high. The YouTube influencers are able to share their own story, are able to do a show and tell and hence, the farmers are able to understand better. So for us, I think this is a community that we need to be engaged with.

Also, the farmers want to see the benefits, but they are still the traditional kind, who want to go by hearsay. So, the YouTube influencers are providing the great balance of the friendly neighbourhood trust builder, and at the same time as somebody who is able to show the brush stroke, the big picture of sustainability and climate changes.

The cancel culture in agriculture is kind of becoming very real, it’s painful, and it’s corrosive to the agriculture industry. As a PR professional, what should we do to minimise the impact on reputations and safeguard farmers’ livelihoods?

The problem with cancel culture is there’s no reason or rhyme as to why it happens. What is the criteria for cancellation? So, I think it is definitely more painful for some industries than others. But I think all of us as PR professionals are learning how to actually work on this and ensure that we are effectively communicating, especially in an industry like agriculture. Today, food has suddenly become an intimate part of everybody’s lives, the growing conversations, understanding and tapping into passions – very energised conversations about what is happening from the entire value chain, the farm-to-fork intelligent eating. There are folks who are trying to talk about a certain trend or a certain message. As a communicator, I believe a lot of our peers do too, which is keeping the conversation open. It is when we shut the door on any conversation and dialogue that the problem arises.

I think cancel culture can be definitely mitigated by smooth and more open information flow. Keep the communication channels open between the brand and the customers, and keep it very transparent. It is important that all our content is very closely knitted. And if companies are able to guide better and communicators are able to use purpose-driven communication, we can navigate to build that trust. And the trust can be only built by showing the big picture as well as addressing the concerns in a more open and transparent way.

The best way to predict the future is to create it. And what does that mean to you in the context of the agriculture industry?

Two things – responsible communication and proactive communication. I think the engagement in the industry has been a lot more, not just with people who are directly related to the farm enterprise, like farmers, retailers, and agro companies, but everybody who wants to talk about food – there’s a lot of knowledge and a lot of interest. We need to leverage this democratisation of conversation in a much more efficient manner. We as communicators need to help raise awareness, talk about trends like sustainability, agronomy practices, and things like that. It is important that we are able to set the trends and draw a great picture which will benefit farmers. Like Peter Drucker says: “the most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said”. So, I think as great communicators it may sound cliched, but we need to tell that story, land the messages effectively so that the audience hears the intent, and also the larger purpose and ultimately, the brand messages that bring the trust.

Edited for length and clarity

(Mirgashira is a podcast for Indian PR and Communication professionals anchored by Radha Radhakrishnan and Charu Raizada. To listen to all episodes visit https://www.digitales.co.in/industry-insights/mrigashira-podcast/)

Media
@adgully

News in the domain of Advertising, Marketing, Media and Business of Entertainment