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Broadcasting Partner Profiles

Radio Ada

Source: Voices, December 2011

Radio Ada, Ghana’s first independent community radio station, went on air in 1998. Its approach to broadcasting is participatory and grounded in the needs and identities of its Dangme-speaking audience. Radio Ada is located in Ada in the Dangme East District, in south-eastern Ghana. The radio station broadcasts to four Dangme-speaking districts which cover a population of approximately 600,000 people. The radio staff is made up of people from these districts.

Radio Ada broadcasts from 5am until 10pm daily. Its mission statement is:

Radio Ada and Innovative Programs for Small-Scale Farmers

Many of Radio Ada’s listeners rely on farming for their livelihoods. As part of Farm Radio International’s African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI) Radio Ada implemented two Participatory Radio Campaigns (PRCs). The first PRC was on enclosing animals to protect vegetable gardens from roaming livestock and improve livestock health. The campaign ran for approximately four months. Every Sunday from 6:30-7:00PM the show would go on air and it would be rebroadcast on Wednesdays. The programs included community discussions, airing of views by vegetable growers and livestock owners, and information on low-cost penning techniques. Farmer involvement was encouraged through call-ins, text-ins and field interviews. As a result of the campaign over half of community members reached by the radio programs started enclosing their animals in pens. Listener satisfaction was very high.

The second PRC was to help farmers produce and sell manure compost, known locally as ico fertilizer. A remarkable 97% of smallholder farmers living in communities reached by Radio Ada’s broadcasts reported listening to at least half of the episodes of its ico fertilizer campaign.  Further, 84% of community members demonstrated a high level of knowledge of ico fertilizer after the campaign was complete, and nearly half started producing it.For more information on the second campaign see Script 4 in this package Using compost as fertilizer gives good yields and conserves soil: A Participatory Radio Campaign in Ghana.

As part of AFRRI, Radio Ada also carried out a Market Information Services Program. Please see script 5, Improved Market Information Services programs increase farmers’ income and knowledge, part one, for more information.

And the winner is... Alice Bafiala

Source: Voices, April 2011

"In rural areas, people are really ready to share their experiences," says Alice Bafiala. Alice made this observation when she visited the village of Nsilulu Kanga, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to conduct interviews for her prize-winning script. Alice is the overall winner of Farm Radio International’s scriptwriting competition on Healthy Communities. She continues: "People like to share, especially when they know they have achieved something. All the villagers gave me a really warm welcome. When I arrived [in the village], they were waiting for me in a tent. They started to show me around, telling me about their problems."

Alice was awarded first place for her script, entitled "A clean village for a healthy life."The script describes a grassroots project which aims to raise community awareness about the right to clean water and a healthy environment, and the links with diseases such as diarrhea.
Alice has seven years experience in radio. She admits she is curious by nature, and said she had never hosted a show about development or rural life before taking the online course on healthy communities. "It was only after I heard about this training that I wanted to learn, because I'm always interested in everything related to development. I was born and raised in a small town in the east of the country [Bunia]. My father worked in remote areas. It was fascinating to go into the fields to see how women wore their baskets on their backs and how they cultivated their maize. Living in town, I still miss those scenes."

So how did she choose the topic for her script? Alice said she wanted to highlight a story of community empowerment. She had heard of the NGO called Humana People to People. This NGO works to improve the well-being of people in suburban areas. In Nsilulu Kanga, illness and disease were common. The NGO wanted to help prevent these diseases by improving local health conditions. To do this, they needed the active participation of local people. So, Alice decided to tell the story of this community that took the initiative to solve their own health problems.

But there were numerous production challenges involved in this script. Alice says: "I recorded the interviews in Lingala and translated them into French. Even that stage was not easy. I really tried to respect the principles we learned during the training. From the outset, we must convey information that will keep listeners tuned."

Alice also said that after a long day in the village collecting interviews for her script, she was so tired she   fainted! “Fortunately, the villagers were there. They immediately brought me water, I was offered mangoes and we laughed."

Alice stays in touch and regularly calls the villagers in Nsilulu Kanga. They congratulated her on her win. She said that in two years’ time she would like to go back to the village and meet the same villagers to follow up on their progress.

For Alice, radio is the medium she loves the most. "On the radio, people do not take notice of you because you are handsome or well dressed! They listen to you because you have a message and when it is done right, you serve thousands of people you do not even know."

She said she was very flattered but humbled to know that her script will be shared among the Farm Radio International network. As for Alice’s future in radio, she will now focus more on the rural world. Thanks to her winning script, the Congolese National Radio has asked Alice to host a show on their rural radio service.

Our sincere congratulations, Alice!

 

JADE Productions in Burkana Faso: Training journalists, serving farmers

Source: Voices, December 2009

JADE (Le réseau des journalistes africains pour le development) Productions was created in Yaoundé in 1994 by a journalist from Senegal, one from Burkina Faso and a third from Cameroon. At the time, the three were all working for Syfia news agency. 

The three journalists observed that Syfia articles on agriculture were widely circulated in African media. But the rural producers that the stories focused on could not access the articles. The journalists also realized that many farmers’ associations struggled to have their members’ voices heard by the authorities.

Souleymane Ouattara is the director of JADE Productions in Burkina Faso. He explains that in the early nineties, the media landscape in Africa changed radically. New radio stations and newspapers emerged alongside the existing national radio stations and state-run dailies. Many students were interested in journalism, but did not have practical training. Mediocre articles and all kinds of excesses due to ignorance of ethics led to libel suits.

“ … it became clear that journalism in its pure form and especially Syfia’s approaches could not handle such concerns,” explains Ouattara.

The local chapter of JADE Productions in Burkina Faso responded to these concerns. In 1996, it worked with a literacy association based in Tanghin Dassouri, about 20 kilometres from the capital of Ouagadougou. The association helped translate articles published by Syfia into Mooré, a local language.

Ouattara says, “During village meetings, articles from Burkina, Mali, other countries in Africa and the rest of the world were selected by farmers based on their interests. They were then translated and discussed. This forum allowed these groups composed of both women and men to draw on stories from elsewhere but linked to their realities, and to discuss issues that they dared not talk about, such as circumcision, family planning, etc.”

To help support the growing need to train aspiring journalists, JADE set up a training program to tutor private media in Burkina Faso. With the support of the Organisation International de la Francophonie (OIF), JADE trained a dozen community radio stations in various areas of the country.

Ouattara says that support from the OIF gave JADE an opportunity to develop a new and participatory approach to developing content. The workshops involved having materials co-created by radio hosts, representatives of farmer organizations, and technical development agencies. “Many programs were produced in a very short time, radio hosts learned more about techniques for the identification and treatment of subjects, and became more familiar with digital audio. Also, technicians and representatives of farmers' organizations were more familiar with radio. Some agricultural technicians from farmer organizations who refused to give interviews on the radio before became allies of the radio and sometimes provided resources for the radio programming in their budget.”

For nearly seven years, JADE Productions, in partnership with the Journalism and Communication Department at the University of Ouagadougou, trained third and fourth year students, giving  them practical journalism experience.

JADE Productions signed a formal partnership agreement with Farm Radio International in 2010. JADE is confident that the partnership will lead to greater international recognition in the media especially in radio; better understanding of new issues, such as water integrity; and strengthening of its relations with radio stations at the national level.

In partnership with JADE Productions and CTA, Farm Radio International will offer a workshop on developing and evaluating scripts and radio programs relevant to African rural radio in late November 2010. (We'll bring you more details in the next issue of Voices!)

Farm Radio International has opened two African news bureaus for Farm Radio Weekly (FRW). The office in Francophone Africa is operated by JADE Productions. With this project, JADE will help FRW find and produce agricultural stories that represent the voices and perspectives of farmers.

Congratulations to JADE Productions for their great work!

For more information on JADE Productions, visit their website: www.jadeproductions.info.

 

"Radio can bring people together": Lydia Ajona from the Ghana Community Radio Network

Source: Voices, July 2010

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 in AFRRI – the African Farm Radio Research Initiative. 

There are currently 10 fully operational community radio stations in the 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 trainings 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).

Ms. Ajono believes that community 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.”

Adama Zongo from Radio rurale du Burkina

Source: Voices, April 2009

Adama Zongo has been the editor-in-chief of Farm Radio broadcasting partner Radio rurale du Burkina – the national broadcaster – since 2005. But Adama is not new to rural radio broadcasting. He started his career in July 1982 after being trained at the Centre Interafricain d’Études en Radio Rurale de Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso. Adama first received Farm Radio International script packages in the 1980s, when the organization was known as the Developing Countries Farm Radio Network. From 1985 to 1990, Adama dabbled in print journalism as a reporter for the national daily newspaper Sidwaya. But his love for radio brought him back to broadcasting in 1990, when he started working for Radio rurale du Burkina as a trainer of local radio broadcasters. 
 
Radio rurale du Burkina produces many radio programs on rural topics such as, improved seeds, dry season crops, irrigation, organic manure, fodder production, production of crops such as cowpeas, rice and corn, and diversification of agricultural production; as well as climate change which, Adama stresses, has a significant impact on agricultural activities.

In all his years as a rural radio broadcaster, Adama says the best story he covered was in 1984. The story was about a bank’s inconsistent practices in informing farmers about purchase prices for inputs. Adama explains that each year, before the growing season, the bank estimated the input needs of farmers without setting a fixed price for the inputs. It was only after the inputs were distributed that the bank set the prices. The farmers did not understand why the bank was unable to set the prices before they distributed the inputs. They felt cheated and were convinced that the bank was trying to rob them. After these concerns were broadcast, the bank felt the need to provide the farmers with more information. They started an awareness campaign to educate farmers on agricultural credit.

As editor-in-chief of Radio rurale du Burkina, Adama says his station regularly covers events such as la Journée Nationale du Paysan, where farmers have face-to-face discussions with Burkina Faso’s president and voice their concerns, as well as events such as International Women’s Day.

Adama is a two-time winner of Farm Radio International scriptwriting competitions. In 2008, Adama’s script on organic fertilizer was a winning entry in the scriptwriting competition on African Farmers’ Strategies for Coping with Climate Change. An audio production of his script, Organic fertilizer within easy reach, was produced for World Food Day 2008, with the help of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In this package, you can read his winning entry for the scriptwriting competition on smallholder farmer innovation.

 

Jean-Paul Ntezimana: A Rwanda broadcaster explains how agricultural radio programming gives a voice

Source: Voices, December 2009

Jean-Paul Ntezimana, a broadcaster from Rwandan radio partner Radio Salus, took up Farm Radio International’s invitation to visit Canada in November. He had a busy schedule, meeting with donors, giving public talks in Ottawa and Montreal, interviewing a Canadian farmer on her farm, and being interviewed by Canadian media. Indeed, Jean-Paul has an interesting story to tell about how Radio Salus, the university radio station that got his media career started, was instrumental in the development of agricultural radio in post-genocide Rwanda.
 
“My name is Jean-Paul Ntezimana. I am a journalist working with Radio Salus. Because my country has known genocide, everything is affected by this event. So, I will share with you my experience of radio and development in Rwanda since the genocide, a perspective based on my experience with Radio Salus,” said Jean-Paul as he starting speaking to Farm Radio International donors and supporters gathered in Montreal to hear his story.

But first, the facts about Rwanda. Rwanda is a small East African country known as ‘the land of a thousand hills.’ The vast majority of Rwandans are subsistence farmers. Their subsistence crops are rice, beans, cassava, maize, bananas, and potatoes. Their livestock: cows, goats, pigs, and chickens. Their main cash crops: coffee and tea.

After giving this brief overview of what farmers grow in Rwanda, Jean-Paul focused on how radio is giving farmers a voice. He explained that, before 1994, agriculture information was a top down affair. Government officials gave information to farmers; farmers themselves were not considered knowledgeable or given a voice. In the years following the genocide, things remained the same. In 2003, commercial radio stations started emerging. However, agricultural radio wasn't a priority.

In 2005, Radio Salus was launched at the National University of Rwanda in Butare. At the time, Jean-Paul was studying journalism at the university. He was selected to be part of a team to give ideas about what kind of programming should go on Radio Salus' airwaves. According to Jean Paul: “Many ideas were given, but agriculture was not on the agenda for these young students. But, because I come from a farming family, I thought about the problems of farmers and I proposed an agricultural radio program. The other students looked at me and said 'How can you become a star with an agricultural radio program.'” But Jean-Paul insisted that he wanted to produce an agricultural radio program because he wanted to give a voice to farmers like himself. A regular agricultural show was started, with Jean-Paul acting as the producer. While the radio show is able to tap into valuable knowledge from agricultural extension workers and scholars the show's main goal is to give a voice to those voiceless: farmers in the remote areas of Rwanda.

Because of Radio Salus's work, agricultural radio is no longer seen as a medium for top down communication. As Jean-Paul can attest, farmers now voice their concerns to government officials and decision-makers through the radio, because radio interviews allow their voices to be heard, and they no longer shy away from the microphone.

As an example of this, Jean-Paul tells the story of a woman farmer he once interviewed. “The old woman asked me 'But, how can you record my voice with this little thing and air it on the radio?' I told her, come, we will talk and tomorrow you will hear your voice on the radio. So, I edited the piece and the following day, it was aired on Radio Salus. When I went back to the village, people were saying 'Ok, that man has come back,' let's go talk to him, we want to listen to our voices on the radio.'” Now, in the South Province, where Radio Salus is based, farmers are more open to talk about their views in agriculture, and in other topics such as gender and the environment.

 

Farm Radio International helps Trans World Radio to serve farmers across Kenya

Source: Voices, July 2009

David Angango wears a broad smile when he talks about Farm Radio. His sentences are often punctuated with laughter. Within a few minutes of meeting him, I am convinced that I have met Farm Radio’s biggest fan. But I soon learn that Mr. Angango’s enthusiasm spreads to all of his work with Trans World Radio-Kenya.


Mr. Angango began working with Trans World Radio in 1989. His task was to produce a program called Africa Challenge for shortwave broadcast in Swaziland and South Africa. His problem was lack of information on the program’s themes – agriculture, health, and the environment. The solution came from a somewhat surprising place: Canada. Mr. Angango explains that practical agricultural information was all but impossible to come by in Kenya, except for script packages that arrived regularly from the Developing Countries Farm Radio Network (now Farm Radio International). The scripts became an integral part of Africa Challenge for years to come.


By 2005, Mr. Angango had something to be even more excited about. Trans World Radio had been granted FM licenses for seven communities throughout Kenya and began broadcasting in six. With the expansion came a renewed focus for Trans World Radio-Kenya. Health became their top priority, followed by agriculture and family matters. Mr. Angango was now Programs Manager for Trans World Radio-Kenya. Unfortunately, he had lost touch with Developing Countries Farm Radio Network. But, since his office now had Internet access, he easily found Farm Radio online.
“Now we are able to get the scripts as soon as we want them – as soon as they are posted online,” Mr. Angango says. Improved access to materials is important, since his team now provides content for six stations that broadcast up to six hours of original content each day. He takes advantage of Farm Radio’s online materials, including scripts and Farm Radio Weekly, as they arrive. Mr. Angango downloads interesting materials, and then meets with producers to discuss how they can be incorporated into the station’s various programs.


From there, a team takes over. I visit the Trans World Radio office on a Friday afternoon, but there’s no sign of work winding down. In the recording studio, broadcasters are training to read scripts on the air. In the editing suite, hours of programming are being pieced together. In an office near Mr. Angango’s, CDs of recorded programs are being stuffed into courier envelopes to be sent to community stations.


I ask Mr. Angango how he knows it’s worthwhile, how he knows the programs are relevant to his listeners. His smile widens as he talks about some of the farmers who have responded to Trans World Radio’s agricultural programs. “We do get somebody [who] tells us, ‘what you said here was true, I did this, let me tell you about my experience,’” he says. He recalls a farmer who was losing his stored maize to weevils, and learned how to manage the pest through Farm Radio information broadcast on a Trans World Radio station. He flips through a number of letters, finding one from a farmer in a nearby village who learned that he could intercrop sweet potatoes and beans to improve his yields. Many of Farm Radio’s scripts address the problems and interests of farmers, he assures me.


Almost twenty years after he first started using Farm Radio’s resources, Mr. Angango has just one suggestion for others who work in radio: “If I talked to producers, I would say this is a resource you must [have]. If you have not subscribed, it would be good – you will learn something there, like I have done.”

 

Opseh Media/ Africa Radio Bureau

Source: Voices, April 2009

The following is an excerpt from an interview Farm Radio’s Nelly Basilly conducted with Joshua Kyalimpa, who works with Opsett Media/African Radio Bureau, a partner of Farm Radio International.

Farm Radio: Tell us about Opsett Media/African Radio Bureau.

Joshua: “Opsett Media is short for Opinion Setters. We started as a group of journalists and we are looking at the role that we can play in the development of our country. What we realized is that the media in Uganda is driven so much with event journalism. So, we are asking, how can we make a difference to spearhead the development and growth of our country? What we do is develop content and programs that are geared towards development, and use the media to achieve that. We don’t have a radio station of our own. We use radio stations that exist.

Radio is one of the most effective media for Africa because not many people can read and write. Right now, we have partnered with different radio stations. For example, one of the radio stations is called Vision Voice Radio. We developed a program with Vision Voice called Harvesting Money. It is a magazine program geared at improving farming techniques. We have interviews, we have features, and, for example, we have a segment called Farmer of the Week, where we showcase a farmer who can inspire other farmers. We are not targeting very big farmers; we are targeting the smallholder farmer.”

Farm Radio: In that segment, Farmer of the Week, can you give us an example of a farmer that had an interesting story to tell?

Joshua: “We did a story with a farming group in Uganda that pooled together labour resources because by themselves they didn’t have the resources. They started small and they started growing tomatoes. One of the women in the group provided land and the others provided labour so they could start growing tomatoes. They have been able to increase the yields from their gardens and export their tomatoes to southern Sudan.

We often hear from farmers that they don’t have the capital. So, in this story, what is interesting is that the farmers had land and labour, which they provided themselves. The cost of buying the seeds was not that high, and right now they are doing very well.”

Farm Radio: At Opsett Media/Farm Radio Bureau, what are some of the projects you are working on or hope to work on in the near future?

Joshua: “Yes, we have been working on a project that I hope will improve farming in our country. What we want to do is centrally produce information. We realize that we cannot keep running from one station to another. We want to produce a syndicated program about farming that can be fed to radio stations. We are looking for partners so we can have a small studio, we can have computers, and we can have access to the Internet. We want to produce a weekly magazine program which can be downloaded. We have different ideas for methods of distribution. In one of the proposals, we are saying that you can distribute the program through the phone line, so people can phone up and get the information. That program would be produced in the local language so we can target the farmers who cannot speak English.”

The programs that Opsett Media/African Radio Bureau currently produces are in English and Luganda, which is spoken in the central Buganda region of Uganda.

Radio Kayira is a voice for the Malian people

Source: Voices, December 2008

By Nelly Basilly

In 1993, after the fall of the dictatorial regime of Moussa Traoré and the opening up of the radio airwaves in Mali, a community radio network called Réseau de Communication Kayira was born. The network, which now includes nine radio stations in southern Mali, has been a Farm Radio International partner since 1995.

"Kayira is a radio that actively fights alongside the poorest stratum of society," says Mahamadou Diarra, the coordinator of the Réseau de Communication Kayira (also known as Radio Libre Kayira or Radio Kayira).

The nine radio stations in the Kayira network are located in the cities of Bamako, Ségou, Koutiala, Kita, Mahina, Niono, Koulondieba, Kayes, and Niakourazana. According to Diarra, Radio Kayira focuses primarily on women, and works towards better understanding their roles in society. However, Radio Kayira also concentrates on and helps farmers, often defending their rights. According to Diarra, farmers understand that they can use Radio Kayira to voice their complaints and demand their rights.

In addition to disseminating news in the local Bambara language, Radio Kayira airs a radio program called Togoda that focuses solely on agriculture. In Bambara, "Togoda" means "village" or "rural area." The program deals with all issues related to agriculture and farmers' livelihoods. Other topics discussed on Radio Kayira include education, health, and the environment.

Individuals pay 500 CFA francs (about 1 American dollar or 0.76 euros) to become a Radio Kayira listening club member. A membership allows members to attend board meetings and critique the radio. Last year, Radio Kayira sold nearly 10,000 membership cards. However, even those who are not paying members of the listening club can approach the radio stations with their concerns and participate in programs.

Future plans for Radio Kayira include increasing the number of radio stations in the network to 19 (10 additional radio stations) by 2012.

For more information about Radio Kayira, visit their website (in French only).

Dzimwe Community Radio – 93.1 FM

Source: Voices, March 2008

Dr. Spider at Dzimwe Community Radio

Dr. Spider hosts a radio show at Dzimwe Community Radio.

Dzimwe Community Radio is based in Mangochi in the southern region of Malawi. It was established in 1998 to enhance communication amongst rural communities. Funded by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), it aims to encourage development by facilitating dialogue on community needs and issues in order for people to identify appropriate solutions. Several of the issues the radio station addresses are of particular interest to women and help to provide them with a voice. These issues include improving health, gender-based violence, income generation activities such as farming, sustainable utilization and conservation of natural resources, and safe motherhood. The station has 15 radio listening clubs which provide feedback on programming.

Dzimwe Community Radio covers almost the entire District of Mangochi and parts of Ntcheu, Dedza and Balaka Districts. It has a radius of 150 km. Dzimwe Community Radio broadcasts its programs from 5:55am to 10:00pm daily. The majority of people in the area rely on farming and/or fishing for their livelihoods. Crops grown in the area include maize, groundnuts, millet, sweet potatoes, cassava, cotton, tobacco, vegetables and fruit.

Hilda Jambo runs the station, and receives support from an assistant supervisor and a Board of Directors made up of community representatives. Other personnel are all volunteers and include: three program producers, eight presenters and announcers, one driver, one accounts officer, one marketing officer and one engineer.

Food Security Radio Programming at Dzimwe Community Radio

The following three radio programs focus on issues of relevance to smallholder farmers and fishermen:

Ulimi Wokhazikika (Sustainable Agriculture) airs Monday and Thursday between 14:00 and 14:30. The program promotes sustainable smallholder farming practices and food security through dramas, poems, documentaries and interviews. The program also promotes agroforestry practices and encourages growing diversified food crops rather than depending on maize alone.

Tisodze (Fisheries Conservation) airs Tuesday and Saturday from 10:30 to 11:00am. The program is aimed at making the community aware of legal and illegal fishing practices. It features issues that are impacting the growth of the fishing industry and leading to over-fishing. The program also highlights alternative protein sources to fish and alternative livelihood strategies to fishing.

Zachilengedwe (Natural Resource Utilization and Conservation) is a program aimed at encouraging sustainable management of resources, including processing of indigenous fruit trees and other wild resources into valuable products. The program has assisted people to introduce guinea fowl rearing, goat rearing, beekeeping and baobab, tamarind and jujube fruit tree juice processing.

Dzimwe Community Radio is one of 5 Malawi radio stations participating in the African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI).

Information Sources

Chapota, Rex (2007) " Assessment of radio stations: The case of AFRRI Malawi." Malawi: African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI).

Manyozo, Linje (2007) "Knowledge Gaps in the Effectiveness of Farm Radio In Africa." Ottawa: African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI).

Mang'elete Community Radio

Source: Voices, November 2007

Mang'elete Community Radio is a project of Mang'elete Community Integrated Development Project (MCIDP) in Mtito Andei, Kenya. Radio Mang'elete serves the semi-arid Makueni District in Kenya.

The station is situated in Nthongoni Location, Mtito Andei Division of Makueni district. It is the pioneer in community broadcasting in Kenya. It broadcasts in Kikamba, with intersperses of Kiswahili. The radio's frequency is 89.1FM.

Radio Mang'elete presenters in the studio.

Radio Mang'elete presenters in the studio.

The Mangelete Community Integrated Development Project (MCIDP) brings together 33 poor rural women groups from Nthongoni, Ivingoni, and Masongaleni – all located in the same district. The women's groups originally started as radio listening groups and were exchanging information on reproductive health, agriculture and other developmental issues. Through this, it was realized that the establishment of a radio station would enhance their knowledge and they would be able to acquire more information as well as enhance their participation. Hence, Radio Mang'elete was born. However, it took a long time for it to get a broadcasting licence.

Mang'elete Radio went on air on February 22, 2004 at 10.46 am. The station broadcasts up to a radius of 100km (around Sultan Hamud and Caltex Petrol station, Voi). It covers the whole of Makueni district, Kitui district, and parts of Mwingi, Machakos, Kajiado and Taita Taveta.

Nthongoni and its surroundings are very hot and the lack of water makes the area very dry. The problem of drought and malnutrition therefore mobilized people, particularly the women who formed the 33 rural women's groups.

The Radio Station has increased its daily broadcasting hours from 8 to 16 (6am to 10pm). The radio has 22 staff that consists of 21 volunteers and a Station Manager. The volunteers produce and present the programmes. For effective management, the station is divided into departments – the News Department, Finance and Administration Department, Technical Department, and Sales and Marketing Department.

Orkornerei Radio Services

Source: Voices, November 2007

Khadija Abdallah, station manager, and Lukas Kariongi, director, Orkonerei FM, Terat, Tanzania

Khadija Abdallah, station manager, and Lukas Kariongi, director, Orkonerei FM, Terat, Tanzania.

Orkornerei Radio Services (ORS) is a project of the Institute of Orkornerei Pastoralists Advancement (IOPA) in Manyara Region, Tanzania. IOPA serves six administrative districts of rural Tanzania, and is inhabited by the nomadic Maasai community that largely occupies the Manyara region.

ORS is located in Simanjiro. This radio serves five districts in the Mara region namely Same, Mwanga, Lushoto, Simanjiro and Korogwe.

The radio went on air in June 2002 and its frequency is 94.4 FM. It broadcasts 7 hours daily (3pm – 10pm). The station has 7 volunteers and a Station Manager.

It broadcasts in the Maa language. The radio was established to improve the economic and social standards of the pastoral Maasai communities. It seeks to empower the pastoralist community through radio programming on issues such as livestock development, environmental conservation, gender equality, preservation of culture, and importance of education.

Anthony Lwanga, Kagadi-Kibaale Community Radio, Uganda

Source: Voices, July 2006

WHO: Anthony Lwanga, Station Manager
STATION: Kagadi-Kibaale Community Radio
COUNTRY: Uganda

Anthony Lwanga

IN AFRICA, where families are large and caregiving is extended, it isn't common to be an only child. Yet, it seems that Anthony Lwanga, a radio broadcaster with Ugandan community radio station Kagadi-Kibaale Community Radio (KKCR) FM 91.7 is a person whose life involves challenging social norms and helping others to attain their dreams for a better life.

Lwanga was born late in the life of his mother, a smallholder farmer living near Kagadi in western Uganda. Mama Anthony worked hard to help her son attain his Diploma in Education and he excelled in his Diploma majoring in English language and Literature at the National Teachers College. Anthony went on to study journalism in Tanzania at St. Augustine's University. His commitment to his home community connected him with Mwalimu Musheshe Sr., a rural development expert and founder of the Uganda Rural Development and Training Program (URDT). Lwanga is now finalizing a diploma in journalism and wants to pursue a university degree in local governance and human rights at Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi.

Opened in 1987, URDT offers an integrated rural development program in areas of functional literacy for all, higher education and skills training for girls, as well as human rights and economic initiatives that emphasize local self-reliance. URDT's community radio station, Kagadi-Kibaale Community Radio (KKCR), plays a vital role in all that URDT does. On the air 365 days a year, 16 hours per day, KKCR broadcasts thousands of programs each year, reaching a listenership of four million people in a 100-mile radius around Kagadi. The station is run by 22 volunteers. URDT staff like Lwanga contribute towards the station's operations, including key areas such as volunteer training and researching programs.

As Station Manager, Lwanga works closely with the community to raise 60 per cent of the radio station's annual budget through subscriptions and announcements. In order to maintain the integrity of community ownership of the station air-time is rarely sold for random advertising. Lwanga explains how each sub-county in Kibaale has a slot to manage in the programming schedule to explore issues of relevance to their villages. "This encourages accountability in community radio, brings forward local content and shares their concerns within the larger district," says Lwanga.

One of KKCR's longstanding collaborators is Peter Sentaayi, Kibaale District Agricultural Officer. Each week Sentaayi and other subject matter specialists in education, health and women's issues have free airtime to respond to issues raised by the listeners and to bring forward new information. "One of the crucial issues at this time affecting agriculture is land rights even though it is a challenging area of discussion to facilitate," says Lwanga. "Using participatory methods of programming, including open discussions with local officials like Sentaayi, we can address the issues important to our community including the future of agriculture in an area where people can be dispossessed of their land rights. We offer an alternative form of dispute resolution through radio and face-to-face dialogue, and through URDT's training of local paralegals."

As the KKCR station equipment, originally contributed by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) in the mid-1990s, grows older and less appropriate for certain modes of broadcasting (including mobile telephone "call-in" programs), Lwanga is concerned with finding affordable technical as well as program support. Networking with organizations such as Farm Radio International is tremendously important. Other African radio stations in the Farm Radio International network face similar problems and they can share their experiences. No doubt, KKCR and Anthony Lwanga will continue to tackle these challenges successfully, working in close cooperation with rural communities of Kibaale District.

Written by Helen Hambly Odame, based on an interview with Farm Radio International Member Anthony Lwanga in Kampala, Uganda, May 18, 2006.

Ugunja Community Resource Centre

Source: Voices, June 2005

UGUNJA COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTRE (UCRC), based in Siaya District in Western Kenya, recently became a Farm Radio Network partner and contributed a script to the March package about agroforestry. UCRC started in 1992 as a community based organization by a group of women farmers. They created a small library of farming information in Ugunja town for the use of local people. Over the years this library expanded to include information on health and disability issues. According to Aggrey Omondi, UCRC’s director, positive change and sustainable development should come from community members themselves. "I wish to see a community that is more informed and equitable so that resources are shared, information is flowing freely and people are empowered," says Omondi. "UCRC’s aim is to facilitate this without losing the vision of the community."

UCRC plans to start a community radio that will broadcast in the local language, and ensure that community voices are heard. The radio station would complement the work being carried out by the 15 learning centers UCRC has established throughout the district where community members can seek information from the books, volunteers and computers there.

Christine Adhiambo

Christine Adhiambo with a sample of her cassava crop

Before the radio station is operational, UCRC hopes to produce audio tapes by interviewing elders on certain topics. The tapes will be sent to the learning centers where they will be used by local listening groups. "Elders in the district have a wealth of knowledge, and UCRC sees the value in documenting that knowledge," says Omondi. "This way the knowledge will not be lost and when we get our community radio station we would also have some programs ready to air."

Christine Adhiambo is a member of one of the farmers’ groups supported by UCRC. Her group, consisting of 30 women and men, pays 500 Kenyan shillings a year for membership. Christine often attends seminars sponsored by UCRC and then shares what she learns with the rest of her group. Through the UCRC she has learned techniques for increasing production of sweet potato, cassava, maize and sorghum. For example, she now plants her crops in lines rather than broadcasting them (tossing the seeds onto the soil). The difference she sees is that the plants don’t compete for nutrients and production has increased.

Belonging to this group helps to reduce her workload. For example, one day people from the group will come to her farm and help her with her crops, another day they all go to another group member’s farm and so on.

Josephine Atieno

Josephine Atieno with a tree called leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala) that is being promoted by UCRC. The tree provides fodder, fertilizer, and firewood

Future plans for her group include bulking cassava for rapid multiplication, rearing poultry, and planting sweet potatoes for both vine and tuber production.

Josephine Atieno also belongs to one of UCRC’s farmer groups. In 2003, when traditional varieties of sweet potato and cassava were being ravaged by insects and drought, UCRC helped her group obtain clean, certified sweet potato and cassava planting materials which helped increase yields. UCRC also helped her group to get involved in agroforestry. The women are planting trees to replace ones that have been used for charcoal. The trees they are planting are multipurpose such as Leucaena leucocephala which provides fodder for animals, is a natural fertilizer, and can be used for firewood. Josephine hopes that UCRC will support her to get a dairy goat, since she has learned how to cultivate and manage a fodder plot.

George Opondo

George Opondo standing in front of the UCRC building in Ugunja

George Opondo has been an organic dairy farmer since 1992. Being organic means his cows get feed that has not been sprayed with chemicals and he treats them with herbal remedies rather than antibiotics when they are ill. According to George, other farmers are beginning to see that it’s affordable to raise organic dairy cows since there are few, if any, veterinary costs. George learned about organic agriculture from books at the UCRC library. He is one of UCRC’s contact farmers which means that he receives training on sustainable agriculture and shares what he learns with other farmers in the district. Visitors come to his farm to see his crops, herbs and animals. George also preserves plants that are in danger of disappearing by bringing them to his farm and growing them there.


Aaron Kah, Broadcaster, The Voice of Oku (GIE EBKUO)

Source: Voices, March 2005

Aaron Kah, Broadcaster

Aaron Kah (standing) and a colleague broadcasting live about beekeeping techniques.

WHO: Aaron Kah, Broadcaster
STATION: The Voice of Oku (GIE EBKUO)
COUNTRY: North West Province, Cameroon
LANGUAGE of Broadcast: Oku
Farm Radio International Partner since: June 2004

DEPENDING ON what day it is, you might find Aaron Kah visiting leaders of a coffee cooperative society, interviewing beekeepers, or attending a community forest management meeting. Aaron is a broadcaster with Radio Voice of Oku. Voice of Oku was established in 1998 on FM 95 to create awareness among the Oku people about sustainable food production, food selfsufficiency, and other topics to improve livelihoods.

The station started with three broadcasters and two technicians. Two years later it signed an agreement with a pro-democracy project in Cameroon for the production of programs on human rights and advocacy. The National Research and Extension Program of the government came in to finance programs on food production with subjects such as fishing, raising caine rats, and mushroom cultivation. Eventually there was a need to build a relay station, due to an increasing audience. Today GIE EBKUO (Voice of Oku) broadcasts to 33 villages and other neighbouring tribes including Kom and Noni.

These photographs demonstrate the diverse activities carried out by Aaron and his colleagues at the radio.

Bee farmers in Oku with calliandra trees that they've planted to boost honey production.

Bee farmers in Oku with calliandra trees that they've planted to boost honey production.

A wine tapper in Mbam-Oku. Over 400 young men in Oku are involved in this activity. To support them the radio broadcasts a program called "The wine of life" four times a week.

A wine tapper in Mbam-Oku. Over 400 young men in Oku are involved in this activity. To support them the radio broadcasts a program called "The wine of life" four times a week.

Tenasu Kofi Gbedemah, Executive Director, CORANET

Source: Voices, January 2005

Tenasu Kofi Gbedemah, Executive Director, CORANET

COUNTRY: Ghana
LANGUAGES of Broadcast: Ewe, Twi, English
Farm Radio International Partner since: June 1997

TENASU KOFI GBEDEMAH is a development educator. Since 1996 he has been active in the civil society sector of Ghana, addressing many causes such as rural poverty and disease. In 1997 he founded the information organization, CORANET. As Executive Director of CORANET he has been a vocal advocate for self-reliant rural development, agriculture, natural resources protection, and human rights. Although CORANET does not have its own radio station, it prepares and produces programs for broadcast on two FM stations in the community. The broadcasts are addressed to rural people who do not have alternative ways of receiving information. CORANET staff people regularly visit rural communities to participate in village meetings; they sometimes show video clips and films on topics such as HIV/AIDS.

Through CORANET Tenasu has been able to get support from non-government and government donors such as the Ministry of Food and Agriculture/Village Infrastructure Project and the Emergency Social Relief Program. With this support he manages different projects such as a microcredit project for women food processors in the Ho, Hohoe and Jasikan districts of the Volta region. All the CORANET projects are supported by relevant radio programming.

You can contact Tenasu at: P.O. Box MA 279, Ho, Ghana or by e-mail at coranet2@yahoo.com

(Note: CORANET will be changing its name to the Institute for Information and Development in 2005.)

Masaka Rural Women & Youth Farmers – Uganda

Source: Voices, March 2003

Photo: Rosette Mukasa

Rosette Mukasa broadcasts agriculture and health programs on radio 98.8

The Masaka Rural Women & Youth Farmers Self-Help Agriculture Development Group is an excellent example of an organization that shows commitment and creativity in using different resources to educate and empower its community residents. Located near the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda, Masaka Rural Women & Youth Farmers works with the community to provide information on sustainable agriculture and health issues on 98.8 FM. The group also organizes study circles and radio listening groups to reinforce the radio programs and foster further discussion. Members provide training workshops for local women and students, conduct surveys and interviews, and pay regular visits to farmers in remote rural areas to better understand the needs of the community.

One of the major challenges the group faces is the barrier to accessing information on the internet, due to the high cost of computer equipment, and a lack of telecommunications infrastructure. That is why Masaka Rural Women & Youth Farmers has regularly consulted with Farm Radio Network staff since they joined the Network in 1999 to obtain a variety of materials for use in their programs. They often use the information to connect with other organizations that can help them access internet resources, and recently developed a partnership with RANET Uganda Program (Radio and Internet, New Information Technologies for Rural Communication), a project to connect rural communities with environmental and weather updates through an internet-radio pathway. They have received donations of equipment from WorldSpace Foundation, RANET Uganda Program, and InterConnection.

Prince Ismail Nakibinge, Director, recently wrote to us: "We wish to convey to you our sincere and heartfelt thanks for the tireless efforts you have put in assisting Masaka Rural Women & Youth Farmers throughout the year. ... we have been able to mobilise and sensitise people on the importance of getting timely information."

It is through an outstanding commitment to participate and learn from others that Masaka Rural Women & Youth Farmers enriches the lives of individuals in their community. Their determination and resourcefulness in applying information they receive from sources worldwide helps farmers to face the everyday challenges of rural life.

Masaka Rural Women & Youth Farmers can be contacted at:
Prince Ismail Nakibinge, Director
PO Box 472, Masaka, Uganda.
E-mail: princenakibinge@yahoo.com

Adelina O. Carreno, ViSCA Radio DYAC – Philippines

Source: Voices, April 2002

Adelina O. Carreno of ViSCA Radio DYAC in the Philippines, is the winner of this year's George Atkins Communication Award. The award is presented to a Network partner who demonstrates excellence in farm radio broadcasting.

Adelina joined the Farm Radio Network in 1990. She is a producer of ViSCA Radio's School on the Air (SOA), an educational program for farmers.

SOA requires that farmers who register show an interest in the subjects treated, a willingness to finish the entire course, and that they apply most of the techniques that they learn during the course. The only tool needed is a radio. So far the station has conducted more than twenty Schools on the Air on various farm topics. Of the thousands of farmer students that have participated, 90% have applied the lessons they learned from SOA. The remaining students could not apply their new knowledge due to lack of capital, land or time.

To ensure that her radio programs are useful to farmers, Adelina asks the following questions:

Twice a month Adelina visits the School on the Air farmers in their home villages. She also uses feedback received by mail to evaluate program impact. She feels that it is necessary to be in close contact with your community and know what issues are affecting them, in order to deliver helpful, effective programming.

The Community Food Conservation Project, Cuba

Source: Voices, April 2001

Every square inch of unpaved land around the office headquarters of the Community Food Conservation Project of Cuba (El Colectivo del Proyecto Comunitario de Conservation de Alimentos de Cuba) is planted with vegetables and herbs.

Inside, Farm Radio Network partner and director of the Project, Dr. Vilda Figueroa, and her husband, Jose Pepe Lama, P.Eng., arrange workshops on how to preserve vegetables, condiments and medicinal herbs. On the shelves of their demonstration kitchen you will find 160 carefully home-preserved products.

In Cuba, it's not just rural dwellers who need to know how to preserve food after harvest. Cuba has a booming urban agriculture sector. In the capital of Havana, residents are able to grow a large percentage of their vegetables in community gardens in vacant lots, schoolyards, parks and by the roadside. And any produce that cannot be consumed fresh, must be stored or preserved for use throughout the year.

By using radio, Vilda is able to reach even those who can't attend a food preservation workshop at the project office. She records radio programs about food preservation techniques - for example, how to build and use a solar drier - and distributes them to radio stations.

Radio Havana, as well as other stations on the island, regularly broadcast her recorded programs. In total, Vilda has a radio audience of 1½ million people country wide. In addition, she records television programs and video cassettes. Many health workers use her audio cassettes to educate their clients in rural communities.

The role of food storage and preservation in ensuring food security for any population should not be underestimated. Through workshops, print media, television, and of course radio, Vilda Figueroa and the Community Food Conservation Project of Cuba, are getting this message across.

This article is based on an interview with Farm Radio Network Founding Director, George Atkins. Dr. Atkins visited Vilda in Havana in December 2000.

Cameroon Link

Source: Network News, January 2001

Our partners in the field are the key to our success. In Cameroon, a West African country about the size of California that is home to 15 million people, we are fortunate to work with Cameroon Link, a non-government organization (NGO) that runs the Radio Cameroon Farm Service.

Farming is important to Cameroonians. More than two-thirds work in agriculture, and the sector accounts for about 40% of the country's GDP. And radio is important to farmers. Approximately half the population is illiterate. In addition to the official languages of French and English, there are 24 African languages represented in the country. Radio – there are more than two million receivers in the country – is the medium of choice for Cameroon.

Cameroon Link links radio stations and local NGOs to serve farmers in four provinces. The Radio Cameroon Farm Service broadcasts daily in French, English, and 12 national languages on ten stations. A half-hour program, "Agriculture – Our Changing World," helps farmers adapt to change, while another half-hour program is devoted to environmental issues. In addition, the service provides programs about the education of youth, AIDS, and gender equity. The estimated audience for the Farm Service is 1.5 million people.

Cameroon Link was created in 1992, but its head, James Achanyi-Fontem, has been active in Farm Radio International for more than twenty years, and received the George Atkins Award in 1996. We are pleased that Mr. Achanyi-Fontem will be joining other Network broadcasters for a week-long workshop in Ghana in March to help us develop training modules that will support them in their work.

The Ghana workshop is part of a CIDA-funded project in partnership with University of Guelph and the International Service for National Agricultural Research in the Netherlands.