Welcome to Farm Radio Live
April 28, 2009 | Category: ED Update
Posted By: Kevin Perkins
Welcome to Farm Radio Live – the blog of Farm Radio International! We have created this blog to keep the Farm Radio community – including our supporters, partners, and anyone with an interest in farm radio in Africa – up-to-date with our activities, accomplishments, discoveries, plans and ideas.
Kevin Perkins with the rest of the AFRRI field staff planting a mango tree in Bamako, Mali
I will be offering a new post every 2 weeks, telling you what I’ve been up to and what’s going on at Farm Radio International. We will have regular posts about our program activities from our partners and staff, news from and about the Circle of Producers, updates on how we are using new communication technology to enhance the effectiveness of radio, and special guest posts from a variety of people involved in farm radio. The blog will also bring you audio and video clips from African radio programs, photographs, and local stories, giving you a real experience of what farm radio sounds and looks like.
We hope you’ll participate in this blog – not only as a reader, but also as a contributor, by posting your own comments, stories and observations. If you sign up for the RSS feed by clicking here, you’ll be sent brief email updates whenever there is a new post on the blog, allowing you to follow the stories and updates that are of greatest interest to you.
In 2009, we are proud to be celebrating the 30th anniversary of Farm Radio International. The Farm Radio Live blog will be bringing you stories from our earliest partners and donors, and reflecting on how the organization has evolved and grown – and how it has stayed true to its founding vision – over the last 30 years.
Until next time . . .
Kevin Perkins
(Executive Director of Farm Radio International)
Tags: Executive Director, Program
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Radio can reach communities at the very end of the development road – people who live in areas with no phones and no electricity. Radio reaches people who can't read or write.
Who are We?
Farm Radio International is a Canadian-based, not-for-profit organization working in direct partnership with approximately 300 radio broadcasters in 39 African countries to fight poverty and food insecurity.
Mary Atkins Carley
on May 1st, 2009Congratulations DCFRN>FRI on 30 years!!! Honouring the collective community of the many many people over all these years…partners and farmers in Africa and around the world, contributers of knowledge, Kevin, Brenda, all the staff and AFRRI field staff, volunteers, and members of the board both present and former,donors,and last but not least, honouring my Dad, George Atkins who came home from Africa 30 years ago having had an epiphany, and he never looked back, except to know he together with so many many others could make a difference…
Thanks so very much to everyone…
Mary Atkins Carley
Peter Koutris
on May 4th, 2009Hi Mary
I look forward to postings on this blog
highlighting Farm Radio’s activities
I have a question…
Since these scripts are broadcast over radio
,how accessible and available are radios to farmers in these farming communities ?
kevin
on May 4th, 2009Hi Peter,
Thanks for your question. Recently, through our African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI), we conducted a survey of 4000 farming households in 5 African countries to ask a number of questions about farming practices and about how farmers use radio. We learned that, in these 5 countries, 83% of rural households own radio sets. The range was 61% (Malawi) to over 90% (Mali). Even those without their own sets can listen to radio programs with their neighbours, and often do, especially when their favourite programs are on. Farm radio shows are consistently among the most popular. It should be noted, though, that some regions and countries have lower rates of radio ownership – in northern Ghana, for instance, 50-70% of households do not own a radio, while in other regions of Ghana, more than 80% do own radios. However, generally, we expect ownership to continue to increase as the cost of radios drops and more solar and wind-up radios come on the market.
- Kevin
Helen Hambly Odame
on May 6th, 2009Hi Farm Radio International
Congratulations on the 30th Anniversary! No doubt FRI has grown up into a vibrant network of information, knowledge and action that empowers resource poor farmers and communities across Africa. As Canadians we should be proud of this achievement! As global citizens we need to keep up the good work!
YES … despite three decades of effort the work of FRI is far from done. New radio stations with new technical possibilities and responsibilities for sharing knowledge are emerging across rural Africa. Farmers, especially women and young entrepreneurs, want so much to get access to the best possible information to help themselves and their families. FRI has done a great job in working with radio broadcasters to share information with farmers so that it is locally relevant and shared in local languages. FRI also uses appropriate formats that entertain as well as educate.
Kevin, count me in on anything we can do to help more radio stations across Africa connect to FRI and get involved in better knowledge sharing for agriculture and rural development.
Let me add my special thanks to everyone – from the radio broadcasters out in Africa, to the staff in Ottawa and Africa – to the donors in Canada and agencies around the world who have helped FRI reach its 30th Anniversary … and to reach further into the future!
Helen
Bertie (LEISA's Farm)
on May 13th, 2009Hi, congratulations on your jubilee and also on the new blog!
Martine Ngobo
on May 21st, 2009Million thanks Kevin for starting this blog! It confirms – if still needed – what we at AFRRI think of you: that you are not “talking the talk”… but you do really “walk the walk”! This is something that might seem small to some, but for those of us coming from other NGos working out here in Africa to help small-scale farmers get better livelihoods, this is just a blessing.
Many of our partner broadcasters have been requesting for audio (and/or video) files from FRI; and I am sure this Blog will answer their needs, and they will indeed contribute greatly provided we make sure they get news of this opportunity.
Long life to Farm Radio International!!!
Regards from the field,
Martine.
Anton Kuerti
on May 31st, 2009In looking for your website, Google led me to http://farmradionetwork.org/ Perhaps this is outdated, I see now that there is a far superior one at http://www.farmradio.org/ . Surely the old one should be eliminated. I tried to submit feedback, but not even that worked. What I wrote was as follows: The website has a number of mistakes, and looks generally disorganized and unfocused. It makes it look as though Nigeria were the only country where you operate. On the 7th line of text the word “in” is missing: users IN an interactive manner. In the list under the “road map”, both words are misspelled in “Baseline Survey. Some lines below that “February” is misspelled. This makes a terrible impression. Near the bottom left there is overlapping text. The whole thing seems terribly out of date as it features a project which ended in 2005. The bottom of the feedback page also has seriously overlapping text, and its heading should be Feedback not Feed Back. As a longtime supporter I would like to see a much better image presented….
mark
on June 1st, 2009Hi Anton,
Thanks for the input. However, I want to bring to your attention that http://farmradionetwork.org/ is not in any way affiliated with Farm Radio International. This is an entirely different organization that has never been part of the the work we are doing. I agree that their website could use some work.
Hopefully this did not cause too much confusion. We appreciate your long time support and hope to maintain it with good quality programming in farm radio as well as professional presentation on our website.
Sincerely,
Mark Leclair
Farm Radio International
G.hiwot tesfa
on February 25th, 2010This is G.hiwot from Ethiopia OF Mekelle city. My job is a journalist in Dimtsiwoyane Radio station here in mekelle.the programe that I have been working in the radio is about agricultural practices in Ethiopia especilly in Tigray. and am so happy to get your website so as to join and get information from. it is for the first time to see you. And believe me, from now onwards am your regular member to visit your programmes. becouse your idea is directly related to ours. your program is very interesting and highly influencial farmers to inhance their agricultural productivity especialy in the countries like ethiopia. 85 percent of the population livelhood is based on agriculture. farmers highly need information to upgrade their productivity. therefore, your may persue of getting access here in our area.
I realy apreciate your effort.
thankyou
G.hiwot
G.hiwot tesfa
on February 25th, 2010if you want to listen our program you can visit http://www.dimtsiwoyane.com, but you may not understand it, bc it is by a local language Tigrigna.