About Farm Radio

Farm Radio International is a Canadian charity working with over 400 radio broadcasters in 38 African countries to fight poverty and food insecurity.
What we do – We help African radio broadcasters meet the needs of local small-scale farmers and their families in rural communities.

Resources for Broadcasters

We develop radio scripts, information packages, a weekly electronic news service, and a special on-line community called Barza, and share them with hundreds of African broadcasters. They, in turn, use these resources to research, produce and present relevant and engaging programs for their audience of millions of farmers. These resources are:

aimed at increasing food supplies and improving nutrition and health;
simple, safe, affordable and practical;
ecologically sound and environmentally sustainable;
suitable for communication by radio;
proven useful and transferable within the developing world;
appropriate to both female and male small-scale farmers;

Broadcaster Training

We provide training services to broadcasters, including direct in-station training, distance education and custom workshops to help them meet a higher standard of farm radio services. All training is directly targeted toward the practical needs and realities of broadcasters – as they do their work. We help radio stations measure the quality of their farm radio services, and take steps to improve them, by appraising their programs against a set of standards we call the V.O.I.C.E. standards.

Impact Programming

We work with partner radio stations to plan and deliver special radio campaigns and programs that have a specific impact on a development challenge such as soil erosion or banana bacterial wilt. Programs such as Participatory Radio Campaigns have been proven to increase farmers knowledge of improved farming practices , help them make decisions about whether to adopt the improvements, and realize the benefits of introducing these practices on their farms.

How to help – Read about our program, current activities, and challenges facing farmers in Network News, , our blog, Facebook Page, annual reports and here on this website. You can also follow us on twitter.

Farm Radio International welcomes donations. If you want to get involved or have any questions, we'd like to hear from you.