If It Doesn't Rain

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:44:00 GMT

Disc 1 - If It Doesn't Rain (28 min, 30 min extras, 2006)

What is poverty? This short documentary on households and communities in rural Southern Mexico reveals the complexities of this question and strategies people use to manage and minimize risk. Designed to provoke discussion, this disc includes three in-depth special features (Trout Farm, Oportunidades, The Tequio System) on community projects and government aid programs.

Disc 2 - If It Doesn't Rain: First Return (14 min, 35 min extras, 2008)

Revisiting the families and communities of the original If It Doesn't Rain, this short film highlights the continuing struggle to improve their lives, especially to manage and minimize risk. Enriched by eight features, the DVD provides insight into the the role of government programs, the impact of migration, and the power of community organization. An indexed menu of supplemental shorts facilitates classroom discussion.

Films in the Development Communications Workshop series

If It Doesn't Rain

If It Doesn't Rain: First Return

It's A Young Country: Turkey and Akbank

Lifecycles

Malawi's Green Revolution

Paths of Hope

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

New Filmmakers New York, 2008

Woods Hole Film Festival, 2007

Boston Latino International Film Festival, 2008 (If It Doesn't Rain) and 2009 (First Return)

Visit Palmer, Michael J. to see additional products in this category.

Malawi's Green Revolution

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:49:00 GMT

Malawi's Green Revolution
Buy Now: $295.00

Responding to recurrent food crises, scientists in Malawi had developed and field-tested new maize varieties and crop combinations that promised Malawi a "Green Revolution" by 1998. However, with farmers too poor to purchase seed and fertilizer, the question became: how can Malawi empower its farmers with this new technology?

The answer came in a dramatic response to a food crisis in 1998 when donors and the government distributed small Starter Packs of the new seed, fertilizer, and nitrogen fixing legumes to all smallholder farmers in Malawi — 2.8 million households. Production soared, and by the end of the second year of the program, Malawi had a large maize surplus.

However, after judging Starter Pack's annual $25 million cost unsustainable, donors changed the public policy from supplying the new technology to all farmers to only providing a basic social safety net: lower productivity seed and less fertilizer in each pack, and packs only for Malawi's neediest. This change placed Malawi's Green Revolution on hold, and production fell towards traditional levels. By 2005, Malawi again was in a desperate food crisis.

Over the objections of donors, the government responded to the crisis by providing vouchers to all farmers - allowing them to buy two bags of fertilizer and improved seed at a high discount. At a cost of about $70 million per year, the surge of improved seed and fertilizer restarted Malawi's stalled Green Revolution, and the country again moved into maize surplus. With the World Bank having judged this a "smart subsidy", perhaps this approach will prove sustainable - despite overlooking much of the science that motivated the original Starter Pack approach.

The film brings to life some central dilemmas of development policy as supporters and opponents of Starter Pack express their views, and as donors press to reshape the program from a focused instrument of technological change into a mild social safety net, then into something midway between.

To provide more background and deeper insight into the issues highlighted in the film, the DVD includes 57 clips selected from specialist interviews, organized into eleven themes. Each of these (or all) can be played as a unit, but the menu also permits going directly to any single clip, enhancing the usefulness of this extraordinary compilation of expertise.

“I REALLY like the Starter Pack film. It is thoughtful, balanced, picturesque, and is truly excellent in showing the reactions of various stakeholders. It's a gem.” —Walter Falcon, Prof. Emeritus, Stanford University and Former Chairman, CIMMYT

Films in the Development Communications Workshop series

If It Doesn't Rain

If It Doesn't Rain: First Return

It's A Young Country: Turkey and Akbank

Lifecycles

Malawi's Green Revolution

Paths of Hope

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Official Selection, Woods Hole Film Festival, 2006

Visit Palmer, Michael J. to see additional products in this category.

Documentary Educational Resources - Filmmaker / Palmer, Michael J. / All Films

If It Doesn't Rain

Malawi's Green Revolution