Farm Radio International’s fourth radio scriptwriting competition on Healthy Communities in sub-Saharan Africa is well underway. On August 16th, a free, 10 week online scriptwriting course commenced for all registered participants. This year we are pleased to announce that the number of participants has almost doubled to 419 people!

The free distance training, first offered last year for the radio scriptwriting competition on smallholder farmer innovation, has been applauded by many broadcasters across the African continent.

Bravo to the hard working facilitators your work was highly exceptional to me because of your personal time you devoted to this training for the past two months. I am now extending what I have learned to other colleagues at our community.

- Jefferson Massah from Radio Gbarnga in central Liberia

Everyone who completes the training course will receive a Sansa MP3-player. Here is what Robinson Wikana Mukangayi from the Shinyalu Community Telecentre in Kakamega, Kenya had to say on last year’s competition and training:

Robinson Wikana Mukangayi (right) from the Shinyalu Community Telecentre in Kenya receiving his certificate and Sansa MP3 player after completing the scriptwriting competition online training on the topic of smallholder farmer innovation

I am writting to confirm that I have recieved a Certificate and a Sansa Player from Farm Radio International.

I am so grateful about your keeping to your word. It is indeed a confirmation of your kind dedication to our welfare and smallholders as whole. I shall particularly continue working in the same line for the betterment of this very important population.

I also want to confirm to you that our Government has finally after much deliberations on the media laws, enlisted us among those to be allocated FM Radio frequency which eventually can incorporate TV. We have much lined up for the smallholder in all sectors including research, Agriculture, ICTs, health, education among others and thats why we have this as their station. So far they are enjoying the immense wealth of information from Farm Radio International, CTA and others ranging from publications, scripts, training like the just completed and constant interactions. I am moving on to pass on the knowledge to others whom we intend to use in the station as broadcasters and reporters so you have for sure set the best pace.

Kindly endeavor to include us in any other training. Make use of us at all times. Otherwise, thank so much.

Robinson Wikana Mukangayi, Shinyalu Community Telecentre, Kakamega, Kenya

Farm Radio International partner, Lydia Ajono from the Ghana Community Radio Network

Farm Radio International broadcast partner, Lydia Ajono, has been involved with the Ghana Community Radio Network (GCRN) since it began in 1999. She has worked with community radio for many years. When she left high school, she joined a Radio Netherlands project in northern Ghana. Since then, she has been to the Netherlands for training, worked with the national media in Ghana, and been involved in international community radio projects.

 She spoke with Farm Radio International from Bolgatanga, in northern Ghana. She was on her way to train some radio producers in programming. Like a radio professional, she described the scene before her with little prompting: “I am standing on the edge of the market in Bolgatanga, next to some stalls selling woven baskets. It is quite noisy and there are donkeys in the market.”

 Ms. Ajono works as a trainer with the Ghana Community Radio Network. There are two aspects to her role. First, she works with communities, using participatory methods to help them understand what community radio is, how to use it, and how to tune in and participate. She also trains staff on production and programming skills. She works with station staff, showing them how to research and develop programs. She passes on key skills, such as the story-based approach, which she learned through her involvement Farm Radio International’s AFRRI – the African Farm Radio Research Initiative.

 There are currently 10 fully operational community radio stations in GCRN. Ms. Ajono says that 12 more are preparing to go on air, from all over Ghana. She has also been able to share her experiences with other African countries. In 2008, she travelled to Sudan to give training in support of a community radio network being set up in Southern Sudan. GCRN also has contacts with and supports community radio in Nigeria, Liberia, Uganda and Kenya. The Network accomplishes all this with a secretariat of five people and 10 volunteers.

 Ms. Ajono wrote an award-winning script for our recent scriptwriting competition on smallholder innovation. Her script tells the story of a woman farmer who grows henna. As part of her prize, Ms. Ajono will take a trip to Argentina later this year to attend the tenth World Assembly of Community Radio Broadcasters, sponsored by the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC).

Radio is a very important tool that can challenge a community’s own development agenda. It is part of our cultural development and language, as it reflects people’s lives and identities. Radio can bring people together, says Ms. Ajono.

Click here to read Ms. Ajono’s award-winning script.

We are happy to announce that we have launched our e-newsletter.  The electronic newsletter will be another way to get information on the work that we are doing at Farm Radio International.  We will feature stories from our broadcast partners, stories from African farmers, new audio and video material, favourite blogs, upcoming events and much more.

We encourage you to sign up and keep in touch!  We always love to hear from you.

Don Fraser, April 2009

The best way to pay a tribute is to respect and honour the passions of loved ones. Ian Fraser has just done that by making a donation to Farm Radio International in memory of his father Donald D. Fraser, an ardent admirer of agriculture and farm practices. Don Fraser, died in 2009 at the age of 97.

Don Fraser grew up on a farm in Manitoba along with his five brothers and experienced every aspect of farm life. He witnessed the severe droughts of the dustbowl or dirty-thirties period that plagued the Prairies from 1930 to 1936. Life in the farm taught Don Fraser to be strong in the face of adversity and make the most of what was available.

Don’s family grew wheat and raised farm animals. “I grew up listening to my father’s farm life stories,” says Ian. “My dad and his brothers always remembered their tie to the land.”

Don graduated from University of Manitoba with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, and began his business career selling agricultural products.

Donating to Farm Radio International in memory of his father made a lot of sense to Ian, who visited Malawi and Kenya with his Church to learn about its HIV/AIDS work. During his visit to Africa, Ian saw how important Radio is to the promotion of sustainable farm practices and community health.

I think that Farm Radio International’s work is the kind of thing my father would have wanted to support. Using radio to help poor farmers to improve their crop yields with simple techniques that respect the earth is indeed a great idea. Radio was the medium my dad knew a lot about while growing up in the Prairie farms and it is gratifying to know that it is still an effective way of reaching large farm audiences in the developing world, said Ian.

“We are truly honoured that Ian chose to support the work of Farm Radio International as a way to remember the life, values and interests of his father”, said Kevin Perkins, Executive Director of Farm Radio International.

This tribute article is featured in our latest edition of our donor newsletter, “Network News” , which is now available for download and printing on our website.  Published three times a year, it highlights the latest accomplishments of Farm Radio International.

It has been 3 years since we launched the African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI) in which we set out to assess the effectiveness of farm radio on meeting the food security objectives of rural farming households in Africa. Radio stations from Tanzania, Uganda, Mali, Ghana and Malawi took part in the initiative that involved the production of several radio campaigns to improve farming.

Women farmers from a Participatory Radio Campaign active listening community in Malawi planted vetiver grass which helps improve soil health and control erosion.

Through AFFRI, we developed the Participatory Radio Campaign (PRC), an effective approach to helping smallholder farmers learn about, discuss, evaluate, and practice a range of agricultural improvements – from disease resistant cassava and drought resistant rice to composting and growing vetiver grass to improve soil health. It’s a holistic model developed through broadcasters, farming communities, aid agencies and agricultural experts. Farmers’ input and feedback are the essence of all the radio campaigns.

A Participatory Radio Campaign is defined as a planned, radio-based activity, conducted over a specific period of time, in which a broad population of farmers is encouraged to make an informed decision about adopting a specific improvement selected by their peers, based upon the best available information, to improve the food security of their families. It then provides the adopting farmers with the information and other support they require to implement the improvement.

Recently, we were awarded the ALINe 2010 Farmers Voice Award because of this innovative approach to tackling poverty and food insecurity.

Here are some of the testimonials as a result of the PRCs:

As a chief, I knew the importance of Vetiver grass but there has been no time I have seen when my neighbours come together and work so hard to do such a thing (like establishing nurseries for Vetiver grass), this shows how the radio campaigns have shown us how to protect our land.                                                                                            

-Village headwoman Lovimbi, Malawi in May 2009

The programs have played a significant role in this change. They have aroused the interest of local chicken keepers to apply improved husbandry methods and convinced them to make decisions to start implementation.      

-Prof. Muhairwa an Associate Professor at the Sokoine University and a good listener of the heka heka vijijini (Busy busy in the village)

Farmers were educated, through experts interviewed in the programs. They felt free to express their concerns and used the programs to exchange ideas and experiences, an important factor especially in adult learning.                                                             

-Mr. Susuma Susuma, communications officer with MVIWATA a farmer organization, Tanzania

“We have effectively put farmers’ voices into their own development”

-Kevin Perkins, Executive Director, Farm Radio International

Rosemond Boafoa Ohene, Rite FM, Somanya, Eastern Region, Ghana

We are happy to announce that we have English and French audio productions of some of our award-winning scripts on Farmer Innovation.  Our thanks goes out to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.  Another thanks goes out to the musical artist, Okuani Kofi whose song is in this week’s featured production. He calls himself  ‘the farmer’ and the title of the song is Wo kua meaning “your farm” .

The first of our audio productions is from the script: “A farmer uses jatropha to protect his young oil palm seedlings from rodents”.   This award-winning script was written by Rosemond Ohene from Rite FM in Ghana. 

Listen here!  http://www.farmradio.org/audio/rosemond.mp3

Read the script, click here.

Stay tuned to hear more!

“Beep Beep” the sound of an SMS (short message service) arriving in your phone’s inbox rings and vibrates from your pocket.  You pause for a moment from preparing your compost pit to read what has come:

Dear listener -  Heka heka vijijini starts in 30 minutes on 93.3 Sibuka FM. This week’s program talks about marketing local chicken – tell your neighbours!

 The above 160 characters compose a typical SMS which a farmer could receive alerting her or him about an upcoming program from the local radio station.  The SMS alert service is being tested as part of the African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI’s) research strategy to explore how information communication technologies (ICTs) can improve radio for farmers.

Over ten of the 25 radio stations Farm Radio is partnering with in the AFRRI project have learnt how to use software to make the management and sending of sms alerts to their listening communities easier. 

Feedback so far has been outstanding – Esther Chambo from Benadi village in Malawi, has been receiving SMS alerts from MBC (Malawi Broadcast Corporation) for eight weeks on their campaign about use of manure as a fertilizer.  Esther said

This is the best! I forgot about the program because I was busy working in the field, but with the alerts I was reminded.

The SMS alert experiment is just one of seven ICT packages the AFRRI project is exploring and will continue into 2010. 

Post written by Bart Sullivan,  AFFRI ICT Officer

Our newest edition of “Network News” is now available for download and printing on our website.  It is published three times a year and highlights the latest accomplishments of Farm Radio International.  This issue includes:

• A Tribute to Founder, George Atkins
• Field Trip to Cameroon
• Radio 2.0: Using SMS to Enhance Radio
• Our latest script package: Farmers Adapting to Climate Change
• Partner Profile: Radio Salus

Please check out this newsletter from the Adobe PDF file by clicking here.