Issue #14

Hello to the FRW community!

As we send you this issue of Farm Radio Weekly, International Women’s Day has just passed. We hope that our special issue marking the occasion provided you with some ideas on how to celebrate the event on your airwaves. If you would like to see other topics related to agriculture and rural development covered in a special FRW issue or series, please e-mail your ideas to FRW Editor Heather Miller at hmiller@farmradio.org!

This week, we are pleased to bring you more voices of women and men who make their livelihoods in food production. We have a special report from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, prepared by Sylvie Bora, a journalist with the NGO, Search for Common Ground. Ms. Bora investigated how landmines, placed in the ground during the civil war, are affecting farmers who are returning to their land in the South Kivu province following years in refugee camps.

We also have stories about two very different trends that are helping farmers to increase their yields and profits. One story describes how access to community animal health workers is helping herdsmen in Northern Tanzania to dramatically reduce livestock mortality rates. Another story from Central Uganda explores how farmers are increasing their crop yields by fertilizing with human urine.

As always, we invite you to visit the FRW website (http://farmradio.org/english/weekly/) to comment on any of these news stories, or to share an idea or resource with other broadcasters.

Happy reading!

-The Farm Radio Weekly Team

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African Farm News in Review

1. Democratic Republic of the Congo: Civil war landmines threaten returning farmers (by Sylvie Bora, for Farm Radio Weekly, in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo)

2. Tanzania: Para-vets help keep herds healthy (Farm Radio Weekly, Arusha Times)

3. Uganda: Farmers find that human urine is an effective fertilizer (The Monitor)

Upcoming Events

-March 31, 2008: Deadline for nomination to Award of Excellence in HIV and AIDS Communication

Radio Resource Bank

-AGFAX Radio provides audio interview packages

DCFRN Action

-DCFRN urges Canadian government to stand up for food security at the WTO

DCFRN Script of the Week

-Farmers can earn income producing compost

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Echa Byaombe spent almost a decade of her life in a Tanzanian refugee camp. The civil war in her native Democratic Republic of the Congo – formerly called Zaire –
tore her from the land she called home. While she lived through the hardships of refugee life, she was sustained by the dream of returning to her farm – to once again enjoy sunny mornings in fragrant fields.

In October 2007, it seemed like Mrs. Byaombe’s dream was about to become a reality. As peace returned to the DRC’s South Kivu province, she returned to her homeland as part of a large repatriation effort through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. After years of lying fallow, Mrs. Byaombe’s farm was in a much different condition than she remembered. But with hard work, she was able to control the weeds and re-establish maize and cassava crops.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Byaombe did not know about the greater threat that lay below the surface of her field. One day while tending to her crops, her left leg struck something hard. The next thing she remembered was waking up in a hospital bed. She had been wounded by a landmine and half of her left leg was gone.

Elisée Masakala is the wife of the medical director at the hospital in Fizi territory. In the months since refugees returned to their land, she has seen many people like Mrs. Byaombe who have lost limbs due to explosions in their fields.

DanChurchAid is a Danish NGO working to reduce the impact of landmines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It reports that more than 160 people in South Kivu province have been injured by landmines.

DanChurchAid is one of a small number of organizations that can safely remove landmines. As the work is both dangerous and very time-consuming, the organization focuses mostly on schools, clinics, and roads. Farms are not considered a high priority.

However, DanChurchAid is working to educate returning farmers and their families about the risk of landmines. It advises farmers that, before returning to their fields, they must find out if any part of their community is known to be affected by landmines. They must not touch unfamiliar metal objects. And if they suspect there may be landmines around, they must report their fears so that others in their area will know of the risk.

Farmers who find or suspect landmines in their fields often have to leave their farms and seek other employment until their land is made safe. This is the case with Mrs. Byaombe. No longer able to grow food for her family, Mrs. Byaombe has found a new dream. She hopes to secure a loan to start a small business.

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Gidinyangu Ginyudu’s bright red robe contrasts sharply with the drab-coloured plane in Northern Tanzania where he watches over his livestock. The herdsman is surrounded by cattle and donkeys grazing on scrub. As with most Barabaig people in his district, Mr. Ginyudu’s livestock are his livelihood.

Until recently, these livestock were constantly threatened by disease. Mr. Ginyudu says he lost up to five animals each month. The only veterinary practitioner available was a government agriculture extension officer who lacked the necessary equipment and drugs. And Mr. Ginyudu couldn’t afford the officer’s fees, in any case.

But now, the British-based NGO, FARM Africa, is supporting programs to improve access to veterinary care for nomadic herdsmen. FARM Africa trains community animal health workers, or “para-vets,” to prevent and treat common diseases.

In the communities of Hanang District where FARM Africa provided training to para-vets, animal mortality rates dropped from 20 per cent per year to three per cent per year.

Dr. Jaribu Sultan is a veterinarian in charge of FARM Africa’s animal delivery program. He explains that many livestock, especially young cattle and goats, were dying from diseases that are simple to prevent or treat. Diseases carried by ticks and tsetse flies are very common, as are worms.

Para-vets learn how diseases are carried, and how to prevent as well as treat them. They are not only called to a herd when an animal is sick – they also apply pesticides that kill disease-carrying insects and carry out routine vaccinations and deworming.

Healthier animals produce more milk and meat. They even produce more manure that can be used as fertilizer in gardens. And when herdsmen sell their livestock, healthy animals fetch a much better price.

Para-vets enjoy improved livelihoods, too. In addition to learning about veterinary care and disease control, the para-vets learn to run a small business. The fees they charge for their services help them earn a living and ensure that they can replenish veterinary drug supplies.

Stephano Naaly is one of more than 100 para-vets trained though the FARM Africa program in Northern Tanzania. He says that working as a para-vet has allowed him to purchase more nutritious foods for his family and send his oldest daughter to school.

However, many of Mr. Naaly’s customers still do not have enough money to pay for animal care. To these people he offers credit – which some will be able to repay, and others will not.

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Jane Mugerwa has found an innovative and inexpensive way to revitalize her banana plantation. Her crops were affected by a disease called banana bacterial wilt and she knew that better soil management, including improved fertilization, was necessary to manage the disease. But she learned that costly chemical fertilizers weren’t required – in fact, good fertilizer was as close as her backyard latrine.Like an increasing number of Ugandan farmers, Ms. Mugerwa is now adding human urine to the soil where her crops grow, following research that revealed it to be a safe and effective fertilizer.

Human urine contains many minerals that are beneficial to plants, including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Researchers in many parts of the world have found that it can double vegetable production yields – working as well or better than chemical fertilizers.

The Kampala City Council Health Department recently worked with public health and agriculture experts at Uganda’s Makerere University to test the safety of urine fertilizer. They found that human urine should be fermented in a tightly sealed container for two weeks before it is used. Any disease-causing pathogens are destroyed during this time.

The city council used this information to launch a project aimed at improving sanitation in parts of Kampala while providing fertilizer for farmers in nearby rural areas. Ecological Sanitation toilets – specially designed to separate urine from solid waste – were installed in some urban areas.

Members of the Nezikokolima Farmers Group in Mukono District received the urine. They learned to store it for two weeks and dilute it before using it to fertilize their maize and vegetable crops. The urine fertilizer was applied every week for two months.

Cissy Mukasa is one of the group members who tried the new fertilizer. She said it was much less labour intensive than traditional manure fertilizer, which was important to her and other elderly members of the group.

She also said that the urine fertilizer repels aphids that damage vegetable leaves. This makes her vegetables look healthier, and allows her to sell them for a better price.

The Nezikokolima Farmers Group is so pleased with the results of urine fertilizer that they plan to buy an EcoSan toilet for a nearby school, thus ensuring a good supply of urine. The members also plan to save money to construct EcoSan latrines by their own homes.

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It’s estimated that five to 10 million landmines are produced each year. Already, more than 110 million are buried in the soil of some 70 countries, including an estimated 20 million in Africa. The enduring threat that landmines pose long after conflict has led to an international movement against them, namely the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. In 1999, an international treaty banning the production and use of landmines came into force, but some countries, including the United States, Russia, and China, refused to sign.

This story illustrates just how devastating landmines can be to people working to rebuild their lives following a conflict. Organizations like DanChuchAid work to warn communities of the threat of landmines, but, unfortunately, not every person at risk can be reached. And preventing death and injury by landmines is only part of the battle. This story also illustrates how the threat of landmines in farmers’ fields can limit agricultural production. Survivors like Echa Byaombe face a double burden of learning to live with their amputation and finding new livelihoods away from the fields they know.

For more information on landmines and efforts to reduce their impact, you may wish to visit the following sites:
-The website of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a network of more than 1,400 organizations in 90 countries: http://www.icbl.org/
-The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction: http://www.international.gc.ca/foreign_policy/mines/VII/VII_AA_i-en.asp
-DanChurchAid’s description of their work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo:
http://www.danchurchaid.org/sider_paa_hjemmesiden/where_we_work/africa/congo_drc/what_we_do-A report on an effort to clear mined roads in order to re-establish agriculture in Angola: http://maic.jmu.edu/Journal/9.1/Focus/kempf/kempf.htm
-An academic review of the economics of landmine clearance in farmlands:
http://ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Special-Programs/SP-776Spring-2007/1D6AA249-92E4-410B-8946-EE188F570863/0/06farmi_mine_uwa.pdf
-“101 Great Ideas for Socio-Economic Reintegration of Mine Survivors”: http://www.standingtallaustralia.org/pdfs/101GreatIdeas1.pdf

You may also wish to refer to the following articles from past issues of Farm Radio Weekly:
-“Low cost white fly traps save mango crops” (FRW Issue 1, December 2007), which describes an agricultural alternative pursued by farmers in Casamance, Senegal, whose fields were planted with landmines
-“Farmers rebuild agriculture sector against all odds” (FRW Issue 9, February 2008), which describes the challenges of Liberian farmers working to re-establish livelihoods following a long civil conflict

If you broadcast to an area that is threatened by landmines as a result of past conflict, you may consider inviting the following guests to your studio for an on-air interview or panel discussion:
-A representative from a group working to mitigate the threat of landmines, who can explain the steps farmers – and others – can take to identify and avoid landmines, and how to pinpoint areas where landmines may be present.
-A survivor of a landmine explosion, who can share his or her experiences in learning to live with an amputation and exploring new livelihood options.

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The training and use of community animal health workers, or para-vets, is increasingly seen as a solution for communities where veterinary services are limited. FARM Africa’s Dr. Jaribu Sultan explains that the Tanzanian government was initially reluctant to sanction the practice, but came to accept the value of para-vets in treating and preventing common animal diseases. Dr. Sultan also notes that para-vets trained by FARM Africa are established members of their communities, selected through community meetings, and are therefore trusted by community members to provide advice and use quality drugs.

Para-veterinary practitioners often use traditional or local animal care methods to complement their medical training. In FARM Africa’s programming, para-vet candidates must come from families that rear livestock. Dr. Sultan says this ensures that the para-vets bring indigenous knowledge to their practice.

For more information on the use of para-vets, you may wish to review some of the following materials:
-FARM Africa’s description of its programming:
http://www.farmafrica.org.uk/programmes.cfm
-A BBC news story from 2003 describing how para-vets helped to preserve the livelihoods of the Turkana people in Kenya, by vaccinating their cattle against rinderpest:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2794981.stm
-A study on the role of community health workers in strengthening disease surveillance in Tanzania:
http://www.oie.int/downld/imprimeur/pdfs%20review24-3/Allport921-932.pdf
-A study of the selection process, impact, and sustainability of para-vets in pastoralist areas of Kenya (long document):
ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ag277e/ag277e.pdf

You may also consider whether the following DCFRN scripts on animal health would interest your audience:
-The value of indigenous veterinary practices (Package 63, Script 7, April 2002):
-Biosecurity – a new way to look at Avian Flu prevention (Package 79, Script 7, November 2006)

You may also wish to research and produce a news story on access to veterinary care in your area. Questions to ask may include:
-What kind of livestock production is carried out in your area? Are there herdsmen or other farmers whose livelihoods depend on livestock? Do many farming families keep animals in addition to planting crops?
-How many veterinarians and para-vets serve your area? How well do farmers feel that these practitioners are able to meet their veterinary needs? For example, can farmers access veterinary care in a timely fashion, and can they rely on the quality of care?
-If there are community animal health workers, or para-vets, in your area, what is their typical working day or week like? What sorts of disease care and prevention methods do they regularly practice?
-What is the role of traditional veterinary knowledge in preventing and treating disease in local livestock? Can you find examples of particular indigenous techniques that herdsmen or farmers find effective?

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The farmers quoted in this story are part of a small but growing trend. In some parts of the world, human urine has long been exploited as a soil fertilizer. But a growing number of studies proving its safety and effectiveness have created unprecedented interest in human urine as a cheap and natural alternative to chemical fertilizers. And as this story indicates, the careful use of urine in agriculture may also help to alleviate sanitation problems caused by poor management of human waste.

For more information on the use of human urine in agriculture, you may refer to some of the following articles:
-A report on a Finnish study that found human urine can be more effective than chemical fertilizers in increasing plant growth:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071008093608.htm
-A story in The African Executive discussing the economics of urine as fertilizer:
http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=2568
-A study conducted by a South African soil science professor who found that human urine should not be used in soils with salinity problems:
http://conference2005.ecosan.org/papers/mnkeni_et_al.pdf
-An earlier news story from The Monitor describing some of the other agricultural uses urine can have when mixed with other materials:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200708200263.html

This story demonstrates that, with innovation and careful research and testing, many waste materials can become useful products. Your listeners may be interested in these DCFRN scripts describing different ways that farmers can improve their income and access to food by cleverly transforming discarded materials:
-Making something out of nothing: the rubbish garden (Package 70, Script 5, March 2004):
-Farmers can earn income producing compost (Package 80, Script 3, March 2007):

You may wish to host a call-in or text-in show inviting local farmers to share their experiences using unconventional “waste” materials in agricultural production:
-Have any farmers in your area tried using human urine as a fertilizer? What sanitary measures did they take? What application procedure did they find most effective (for example, how much did they dilute the urine and how often did they apply it)? What kind of results did they see?
-What other locally available “waste” materials do farmers use to make fertilizers, pesticides, or other useful materials? Where did they get the idea? Did they develop it from an existing practice or adapt it according to their needs? How did they test the materials and what were the results? Can they describe exactly how they make and use the material to get the best results?

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The African Network for Strategic Communication in Health and Development (AfriComNet) is calling for nominations for its Award of Excellence in HIV and AIDS Communication in Africa. Five awards will be given to initiatives that advance the field of strategic communication and can be evaluated, adapted, and applied elsewhere, in the following categories:
-Best mass media strategy, campaign, or tool;
-Best community/interpersonal strategy, campaign, or tool;
-Best folk media strategy, campaign, or tool;
-Best social marketing strategy, campaign, or tool;
-Best multi-channel strategy, campaign, or tool.
One of last year’s winners was a radio drama and comic book series called Rock Point 256 produced by the Young Empowered and Healthy Initiative (Y.E.A.H.) in Uganda. The series was based on research conducted among 15 to 24 year olds, with characters modeling positive behaviour change in a realistic way. The radio drama has been broadcast on 13 radio stations, and three volumes of comic books have been produced and distributed in English and indigenous languages.
Each award winner will receive a fully paid trip to the awards ceremony, to be held in Kampala, Uganda, in June 2008, as well as a plaque recognizing their contribution to strategic communication for health and development. (No prize money will be offered.) For more information, or to download a nomination form, visit: http://www.africomnet.org/news/awards/2008/index.php.

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A British multimedia production company called WRENmedia produces interview packages aimed at providing African and Asian radio stations with useful and interesting materials. AGFAX interviews can be downloaded free of change at http://www.agfax.net/, or can be mailed (free of charge) in CD or cassette form to registered members. In addition to audio interviews, AGFAX supplies suggested introductions as well as contacts for further information. Full transcripts are also provided for those who may wish to edit a script or translate it into a local language. Interviews in the March 2008 package focus on: the impact of post-election violence on the Kenyan horticulture industry; the value of indigenous agricultural knowledge; the use of agricultural lands to grow food crops; and methods of increasing yields on small plots. AGFAX has also produced packages on the themes Africa’s Entrepreneurs: Farmer Innovations and Biofuels for Africa.

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As part of a coalition of Canadian organizations concerned with food security in developing countries, DCFRN has signed an open letter to Canada’s Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food about the country’s role in World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations. The letter stressed that Doha Round negotiations have privileged developed countries seeking market access and failed to adequately consider their priority obligations to development and human rights.
The Canadian Food Security Policy Group has therefore called upon the Canadian government to express its commitment to local food security and rural livelihoods through negotiations at the WTO, particularly in the following areas:
-Special Products. These are products deemed essential to local food security. DCFRN urges Canadian negotiators to support positions on special products that will protect the breadth of crops on which local food security depends and protect small farmers’ access to local markets.
-Special Safeguard Mechanism. This mechanism is intended to allow developing countries to protect local food and local livelihoods against import surges and price drops. DCFRN urges the Canadian government to support positions that will ensure the tool is sufficiently strong to stem surges that threaten local markets.

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This week’s news story on the effectiveness of human urine as a fertilizer reminds us that many materials that traditionally go to waste can actually be very valuable – if put to use properly. This week’s featured script discusses how other materials available on farms, such as food waste and crop residues, can be converted into fertilizer through composting. Composting can help increase a farming family’s income in two ways. Applied on their field, compost fertilizer increases crop yields. But it can also be sold for profit.
This script can be found online at:
http://farmradio.org/english/radio-scripts/80-8script_en.asp.

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