Audio Postcard: What the beep? Interactive radio using mobile voting

Farmers in Africa want to do the best they can for their families. We know that. But they need practical information they can trust before they make changes. Like farmers everywhere they see change as a risky business. But we also know that when radio is interactive, involving farmers themselves, change is much more likely to happen.

One of the easiest ways to find out what farmers know or think is to conduct what we call a “beep-to-vote” poll. The program presenter gives out two phone numbers, one for option A and the other for option B. Listeners call the number corresponding to their chosen option. The trick is the calls are not answered and just show up as missed calls. Counting the number of missed calls on each of the two phones is how the votes are tallied. Best of all, missed calls are free. It is a clever technique and has been used for years by resourceful African broadcasters.

Farm Radio International has, working with several different software developers, added a twist… the ability to tally the voting as it happens and to send automated thank you texts to each listener-voter. In addition the software makes sure each listener only votes once. All a radio station needs is access to the internet to set up the poll (in Nkhotakota it was a nearby internet cafe) and a tablet computer for each phone line.

In this, the first test ever use of the system by an African radio station, more than 120 callers registered their preferences via the beep to vote technique in the 20 minutes the lines were open. That is not bad considering each of the two phone numbers was eight digits long and had never been used by the station before.

About the author
David Mowbray is a Senior Consultant (Strategic Opportunities) with Farm Radio International.  He has worked extensively in sub-Saharan Africa and continues to spearhead the training program at Farm Radio International.

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8 Comments

  1. Edward kuwacha on June 13, 2013 at 2:07 pm

    This is of the ideal technology to small scale farmers like in our case Nkhotakota in Malawi since it very cheap to both a farmer and abroadcaster



  2. Marian Henry on June 14, 2013 at 11:33 am

    Farm Radio International is such a wonderful means of helping farmers
    share their knowledge of farming and receive knowledge from experienced farmers around the world. May this great work continue.



  3. Phil Chinkhokwe on June 15, 2013 at 10:09 am

    This was a great and amazing experience, just with a beep, farmers voices are heard and translated



  4. OYEWOLE BABATUNDE DAVID on June 17, 2013 at 9:11 am

    An ingenious approach at cheap effective 2-way communication to solve farmers’ problems.



    • Farm Radio International on June 28, 2013 at 11:25 am

      Thanks Oyewole. We love exploring technology that makes the job of a farm broadcaster easier, especially when it is low to no cost.



  5. […] Check out Farm Radio International’s latest audio postcard! It is relevant to this week’s action piece: https://farmradio.org/2013/06/06/audio-postcard-what-the-beep-interactive-radio-using-mob… […]



  6. […] Internationales! Elle se rapporte à l’article de la section Actions de cette semaine: https://farmradio.org/2013/06/06/audio-postcard-what-the-beep-interactive-radio-using-mob… (en anglais […]



  7. […] have facilitated smallholder farmers to produce their own videos on climate adaptation strategies. Radio call-in shows about farming allow listeners with mobile phones to provide feedback without incurring any charges […]



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