Comic strips and similar serialised print formats (e.g. photo-stories) have been used to disseminate development-related information to both urban and rural populations. This has usually been in support of short term, intensive campaigns where external project funds have been available for a substantial investment in the expertise, equipment and/or professional services required. Examples are found in the health and nutrition sector in Latin America, in Aids awareness and prevention campaigns in southern Africa and in pest management of horticultural crops in West Africa.

However, there is little systematic research into the effectiveness of these media. Most of the available data comes from project evaluations, or from the pre-testing (formative evaluation) of the materials prior to production. Most of these studies do not use research designs that allow conclusions to be drawn about the effectiveness of comic strips or about their cost-effectiveness in comparison with other media. Nor do they provide any general guidelines on the best practice in the design and use of such media. The data do suggest, however, that:

• Familiarity with comic strips in other settings (e.g. daily newspapers, children's magazines) significantly affects the ability to interpret intended information
  
• There are very few, if any, successful examples of strips which communicate entirely by the pictures (whether comic drawings or photographs) with no supporting text.
  
• Care must be taken with the visual cues to sequence (i.e. will people recognise the series of pictures and words as a sequence, or as a set of independent pictures with captions?).
  
• Caricature-style characters can be misinterpreted by people who are unfamiliar with the genre.
  
• Balance between humour (which people familiar with the format will expect) and developmental content must be carefully judged.
  

Documents

	Final Technical Report
	Development, validation and promotion of appropriate extension messages and dissemination pathways

	Clean Hands, Clean Milk
	Tethered Goats, Less Work
	Good Calf, Good Cow
	Better Manure, Better Crops
	Healthy Cow, More Milk
	Healthy Sheep Pay the Medical Bills
	Donkey Work Made Easy
	Healthy Pig, Healthy Profit
	Bees for Wealth and Health
	Sungura in the Shamba

In response to research in Kenya showing that public/private livestock services reached less than 20% of households in rural areas (and that these tended to be the wealthiest in the communities), a pilot study was funded by the KARI/DFID NARP II Helminthology Group and carried out in the Kiambu District of Kenya by the MoA/KARI/ILRI/DFID Smallholder Dairy Project. This looked at the effectiveness of primary schools as a route for delivering technical information to dairy farmers.

An illustrated children's story aimed at primary school children was developed which contained messages relating to management strategies for dairy cows. The booklet was introduced as an English language exercise into all classes in four primary schools in Kimende location, Lari Division. Transect surveys were carried out in the schools' catchment areas before and after distribution of the booklet in order to test parents' knowledge on watering and de-worming. Approximately 30% of adult respondents had seen the booklet at the post-distribution survey. The number of parents who could answer the watering question correctly, changed from 0% before distribution to 10% afterwards but there was no increase in knowledge related to de-worming. After distribution, the study found that approximately 50% and 10% of children tested knew the correct answer to the watering and de-worming questions respectively. The greater effectiveness of the watering message may have been due to the more visual way in which the information was presented in the booklet or alternatively to the level of preconceived knowledge in the community.

The demonstrated success, particularly with children of this method of delivering agricultural extension will have considerable impact on smallholder livestock productivity in poorer households which receive very little, if any, formal livestock extension inputs. For example, the KARI/DFID NARP II Helminthology group estimated the potential economic impact of distributing information giving advice on correct anthelmintic treatment of adult cattle. On the basis of a cost-saving per household of 1,000 Kenya shillings per year as the difference between current practice and KARI's recommended practice and an inflated cost of the dissemination media of 20 shillings per copy, the break-even point for the extension material is at an uptake rate of only 2%. At uptake rates above this, the investment in appropriate extension materials and messages rapidly becomes extremely beneficial and at 30% uptake (the level of awareness in the preliminary trial) the national saving would be conservatively estimated at £1 million per annum.