CASE STUDY | SERBIA

Empowering Farmers to Connect and Share through Libraries Public Library “Radislav Nikcevic” - Jagodina, Serbia

In partnership with Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL), Public Library “Radislav Nikcevic” in Jagodina county started the AgroLib-Ja project. They have sought to address the gap between government policy and practice and support agriculture in their community. By using public libraries to bring farmers in the villages of Jagodina together for workshops teaching new farming techniques as well as fi nding new resources and markets for their products, they Jagodina residents learn basic ICT skills at a training in a local public library. have provided farmers the ability to improve their livelihoods. project sought to increase farmers’ agricultural resources relevant to ICT literacy as well as the availability the local community. Majur opened New Technologies and Old of ICT resources in libraries through- a completely new library, with ICT Techniques out rural Jagodina. To do this, the equipment and agricultural support project completed a number of material included in its collection. At the 2012 Beyond Access confer- activities: ence in Washington, DC, Beyond Access Members were challenged Library Renovation and Equipping to come up with a short-term project that would, through public libraries, The project targeted fi ve villages address a specifi c community need. for critical updates to the library As part of the Libraries for Develop- infrastructure: Glavinci, Bagrdan, “I registered at the ment grant award opportunity, Bunar, Glogovac, and Major. Each of AgroLib marketplace the winning project in each of fi ve these fi ve rural libraries was fi nally and managed to sell 1 categories received a US$10,000, able to provide Internet access to its patrons; at the libraries where ton of pears. The buyer one-year award to implement. asked for more pears, but The Jagodina Public Library team, Internet access was newly added, with representatives from Public an average of between 200 and 400 unfortunately my plantation Library “Radislav Nikcevic” were users accessed the Internet at each is not that big. I hope I will selected to receive the economic library every month. In Bunar and expand the production” opportunity award. Building on Glavinci, the project provided new their previously-successful online computers, as well as other periph- outreach to farmers, the AgroLib-Ja eral technology. In addition, the project updated the public library Through a series of 14 agricultural Jagodina. Following the conclusion workshops held across the fi ve proj- of the program, a sample of 50 farm- BUILDING ect libraries, AgroLib-Ja reached 401 ers were asked about their experi- LASTING farmers on topics ranging from plant- ences with the trainings. Overall, the RELATIONSHIPS ing new crops such as blueberries, to response from participants was posi- On top of the Beyond Access bee-keeping and honey production, tive, as indicated in the Key Results grant, the Jagodina Public Library team developed a to safety practices in milk production. below. In Jagodina, public libraries number of partnerships to Those agricultural workers looking to have begun the process of bringing support farmers in rural Jago- deepen their technology skills under- people together to share and seek dina both in the near- and long-term. Project partners went ICT training course. 28 farmers new information. Recognizing the include: who had little technology experience universal ability of public libraries to • Jagodina CIty Council in basic computer, Internet, and respond to community needs, the word processing skills completed the Jagodina library team are currently • The Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises and course. discussing potential paths to spread Registered Agricultural this program across Serbia with new Households Beyond the renovations and train- partners. ing sessions, the project sought • Local TV and Radio Stations to expand the AgroLib-Ja online marketplace - a forum where farmers • Agricultural Cooperative KEY RESULTS and craftsmen can come together to “Prima Borovnica” • 32% reported an share practices with one another and increaase in household market their products. User feedback income A Community Learning Center has been positive, indicating that the • 95% reported they had website has helped some users to sell used the online market- In addition to providing a space for their products. place in the last year users to access content that they • 1 in 3 reported growth would not otherwise be able to, the Results and Future Plans in agricultural sales fi ve libraries in the AgroLib-Ja proj- • 73% responded that ect leveraged their positions in the The AgroLib-Ja project took the they either regularly or community as centers of knowledge fi rst steps in working with farmers to often used the informa- alleviate poverty in rural Serbia. The tion and techniques to bring trainings and workshops to learned from the farmers in the area. workshops, trainings, and website trainings also brought results for the farmers in

Beyond Access is an initiative of IREX, EIFL, IFLA, Makaia, Facilitating Change, Development Gateway, the Asia Foundation, TASCHA, the Riecken Foundation, and READ Global.