Issue #9

Warm Greetings to All!

As Farm Radio Weekly enters its third month of publication, we are thrilled to see how the FRW community has grown. We thank you all for your interest and participation in this service, especially those who have taken the time to share ideas and information.
This week, we continue our series on conflict and food with a look at how farmers and traders in Liberia are working to rebuild the agricultural sector following civil war. We also have a very special feature in the DCFRN Action section. Aggrey Omondi, Executive Coordinator of the Ugunja Community Resource Centre in Western Kenya – an active DCFRN partner that frequently writes radio scripts for our script packages – has written a commentary on the causes and solutions to conflict in his country. We provide a link to this article from Pambazuka News.
We are also pleased to bring you two stories that demonstrate how West African women remain integral to the production of staple grains – and stay on the cutting edge of the cash crop market. These stories remind us that International Women’s Day will be here soon. Farm Radio Weekly will publish a special edition in the first week of March, highlighting the role of African women in small-scale agriculture. We invite you to help us mark this occasion by sharing the stories of women farmers in your area!

Please remember that there are several ways to share your thoughts and ideas with the FRW community and staff. You can post a comment on the online site, http://farmradio.org/english/weekly/. Or you can e-mail us directly at farmradioweekly@farmradio.org.

Happy reading!

-The Farm Radio Weekly Team

Send article as PDF to

Post your comment »

African Farm News in Review

1. Liberia: Farmers rebuild agriculture sector against the odds (allAfrica.com)

2. Mali: Women traders play crucial role in providing locally-adapted seeds (International Food Policy Research Institute)

3. Burkina Faso: Cotton and shea producers satisfy Western taste for organic products (Agence France-Presse)

Upcoming Events

-March 15, 2008 – Deadline for scriptwriting competition on climate change

Radio Resource Bank

-Financial Sustainability Model for Community Radio Stations In Southern Africa

DCFRN Action

-DCFRN partners publishes commentary on roots of violence in Kenya

DCFRN Script of the Week

-Rural women process and sell shea butter

Send article as PDF to

Post your comment »

Looking over his fields of rice, plantain, and root vegetables, Lincoln Yeneken sees a successful farm that lay fallow three years ago. Like so many other farmers, Mr. Yeneken’s family fled their home during Liberia’s civil war. Peace brought the ability to return, and the challenge of rebuilding livelihoods from scratch.In the Zolowee village of northern Liberia, one of the country’s breadbasket areas, Mr. Yeneken began with a small garden of crops he knew well. Today, the farm produces enough for the family to eat. Fish from the stream and game from the bush also provide food and income.

James Logan is Liberia’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture. He says the government recognizes that rebuilding agriculture will be key to rebuilding the country’s economy. As more than a million former refugees return home, the agricultural sector is needed for food and employment.

While farmers like Mr. Yeneken are focusing on their families’ survival, the government is encouraging farmers to move beyond subsistence, to produce extra food to sell or save as seeds.

But farmers striving to restore their fields must do so without the types of support they enjoyed before the war. Lusu Sloan is the chairperson of the Liberia Marketing Association. She says that, previously, farmers had access to microcredit loans. They could borrow money for fertilizer and farm tools, and pay back loans when they harvested their crops. Small banks also allowed farmers and traders to establish savings.

But today, without access to savings and loans, farmers are limited in their ability to purchase inputs and expand production. Roads are another obstacle. Much of Liberia’s road network collapsed during the war – either through deliberate destruction or neglect. The federal government says it has a master plan to rebuild the roads. But in the meantime, accessing agricultural tools and getting crops to market is a struggle.

Despite all the barriers, the agriculture sector is recovering. For years, the country has imported rice. But last year, Liberian farmers grew enough rice to meet demand for the staple food.

Send article as PDF to

1 Comment - Post your comment »

It’s early morning in a Malian village. As the sun rises, traders prepare for the weekly market. A woman spreads a cloth on the ground and arranges her wares. She hopes to sell has a few buckets of grain from her family farm to sell. Other traders, mostly women, group themselves nearby.Over the next few hours, the small grain traders will sell millet and sorghum to local farmers. Most will use their earnings to purchase vegetables and spices. As they conduct their business, they also play a crucial role in their community’s agricultural system.

The International Food Policy Research Institute discovered the importance of women seed traders when they set out to study how grain varieties – regarded by the institute as crucial genetic resources – were distributed. They focused on millet and sorghum because they are Mali’s most important food crops.

The institute found that, unlike wholesale traders, small women traders typically sell grain that has been washed and hulled by hand. And unlike traders who buy and re-sell grain from many farmers, small traders have key information about their product. Since the millet and sorghum comes from their own farms, they understand its qualities and how it grows.

Malian farmers don’t typically turn to the market for grain seeds. But when they do, the need is vital. Generally, farmers store some of their own grain for seeds. They may also exchange seeds with their neighbours. But years of drought or pest damage can deplete their supplies. They may also turn to the market if poor rains cause the first planting of the season to fail.

Small grain traders ensure access to seeds that have adapted to the Sahel’s harsh growing environment. Farmers looking to purchase seeds need to know precisely where grain seeds have grown, because some seeds only grow well within a 50 kilometre area.

The women traders bring their knowledge to the market as well as their grain. Those with particular expertise are often sought out by farmers. They sell more grain and get a better price.

As the sun begins to set on Mali’s village markets, traders pack up their goods and begin the journey home. The commerce they have done will help them prepare meals for their families – and it will also help ensure the sustainability of local agriculture.

Send article as PDF to

2 Comments - Post your comment »

The Western world has fallen in love with organic products. And cotton producers in Burkina Faso couldn’t be happier.

One out of every two workers in the emerging organic cotton market is a woman. Korotimi Sory is the president of the cotton producers association in Tiéfora, in Burkina Faso’s southwest. She says women in her association have been producing organic cotton for three years. And they are seeing the benefits of this new Western desire.

Victoria’s Secret – an American lingerie retailer – is planning a line of organic underwear. It signed a contract with Burkina’s national union of cotton producers for 600 tonnes of organic cotton seed in 2008.

In 2006, Burkina Faso’s cotton seed production was 350 tonnes. It’s estimated that the country’s producers will harvest nearly ten times that amount in 2008.

But it’s not only Burkina’s cotton that has caught the Western eye. Shea butter is another crop riding the popularity of everything organic. Companies like The Body Shop and L’Occitane are driving demand.

According to the magazine New Agriculturalist, farmers who cannot afford to invest in high-intensity crops like cotton are often excluded from markets that provide higher prices. But shea is the exception. Shea nuts grow naturally in the semi-arid Sahel region – especially in Burkina Faso – which allows women to tap into a lucrative market.

For years, shea nuts have been used locally, both in food production and to make soap. Shea is also knows as “women’s gold,” as women have always been the ones to harvest the nuts and make the butter. The profits go directly to the poor rural women who produce the butter.

For Burkina Faso’s women, the shea tree is synonymous with a better life. The export of shea butter and shea nuts generates profits of up to 5 million CFA, or about 7 million US dollars, each year. Organic certification boosts profits even higher – and can help assure that the women’s families have enough to eat, and their children can attend school.

Send article as PDF to

Post your comment »

We began our series on conflict and food with a story that explored how violence in Kenya is crippling the agricultural sector by keeping farmers away from their fields. While we are saddened by the human toll of this recent conflict, we are also heartened by the stories of post-conflict recovery in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

In many countries in the Great Lakes region and West Africa, the emergence and restoration of peace is allowing for a return of citizens – refugees and internally displaced people, as well as former combatants. In each of these countries, restoring agriculture is crucial not only to ensuring food security and economic growth, but also to promoting long-term peace.

If you broadcast to an area that is recovering from conflict, farmers in your area surely have many stories to tell. You may consider hosting a phone-in show to ask farmers questions such as:
-When you returned to your farm, what were the first steps you took to begin providing food for your family?
-Have you altered your farming practices since your return (for example, does the farmer now plant “survival” crops to provide food in difficult times)?
-What challenges have you faced – and what challenges do you continue to face – in rebuilding your farm and farming business?
-How has your community and/or farmers’ association worked together to overcome these challenges?

You may wish to refer to scripts from DCFRN’s package 67, June 2003, for more information on how communities can work together to re-establish food security following a conflict. (You may also find this information useful if your broadcast area is recovering from another type of emergency, such as a natural disaster, which has forced farmers to leave their land):

-Rebuilding Local Seed Supplies After Armed Conflict or Other Emergency Situations
-Sharing the Load After Conflict: Villagers Start a Revolving Loan Fund

Send article as PDF to

1 Comment - Post your comment »

This story describes the vital role of small-scale women traders in ensuring that Malian famers have access to locally-adapted seeds in case of crop failure. But as this story describes, purchasing seeds is often a last resort for farmers. There are many ways in which farmers ensure their access to all-important seeds, including storing and protecting some of their own grain. Some communities also collaborate to ensure access to seeds, sometimes with community seed banks.

Over the years, DCFRN has published several scripts that describe ways in which African farmers safeguard their access to seeds. You may wish to share one or more of these scripts with your audience:
-A Local Plant Prevents Pest Damage to Stored Seeds (Package 81, Script 1,
August 2007)
-Storing Cowpea Seeds for a Season and a Reason (Package 79, Script 8,
November 2006)
-Save your Own Seeds, Part One: Seed Selection, Part Two: Seed Storage (Package 42, Script 1 and 2, October 1996)

You may also wish to research a local story on how farmers in your area save and protect their seeds. You might focus your research on questions such as:
-What methods do farmers use to protect their seed supplies from pest damage?
-What sources do farmers use when their personal seed supplies have been depleted?
If you develop a local story, we would love to share it with the FRW community! Please e-mail FRW Editor Heather Miller for details about submitting a news story, at hmiller@farmradio.org.

Send article as PDF to

Post your comment »

This article provides an example of how farmers can get a better price for their crops by going organic. In the case of cotton, a product that is certified “organic” will fetch a much better price than the conventional variety. Cotton production that is both organic and “fair trade” ensures that producers will receive a minimum price for their product, regardless of fluctuations in the world market. But that’s not the only reason that more farmers are choosing organic cotton production. On conventional cotton plantations, pesticides often cause illness among farmers and their families. By definition, organic agriculture does not use synthetic pesticides.

You can learn more about the economic advantages of organic cotton in West Africa in the following articles (available only in French):
-Des nombreux débouchés aux États-Unis pour le coton biologique burkinabé: http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200707180199.html
-Coton biologique en Afrique de l’Ouest, le nouvel espoir des cotoncculteurs africains: http://www.malikounda.com/nouvelle_voir.php?idNouvelle=15212

Shea is another source of income – and one that is particularly beneficial to women. Almost 400,000 Burkinabe women are involved in the production of shea butter. And, as with cotton, organic shea products are worth more than their conventional counterparts. To learn more about the process that transforms shea nuts into shea butter, see this week’s Script of the Week, Rural women process and sell shea butter, from DCFRN Package 82, Script 8, November 2007.

But shea butter is not the only product that women create from shea. For example, women from the Burkinabe association Songtaab-Yalgré have created an organic jam from the fruit that surrounds the shea nut. The women in this association also produce other shea products, including soap, creams, and pomade. To learn more about the Songtaab-Yalgré association, visit their website at: www.songtaaba.net.

Send article as PDF to

Post your comment »

The deadline for submitting entries to the scriptwriting competition “African Farmers’ Strategies for Coping with Climate Change” is fast approaching! DCFRN and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) invite all African radio organizations to submitenter a script. Entries should be prepared with the input of local people (especially farmers), and should be on one of the following topics related to local adaptation to climate change:
-Water and soil management
-Cropping strategies emphasizing drought-resistant plants
-Livestock management practices
-Fisheries and Agroforestry
-Other (for original topics related to coping with climate change that are not listed above.)We thank Pius Sawa Murefu, of Radio Sapientia in Kampala, Uganda, for being the first to submit a script! We look forward to reading more of your entries. The top 15 submissions will be shared with the DCFRN network, and each of the 15 winners will receive a high quality digital audio recorder. Details on the competition – including an information kit on climate change and scriptwriting tips – can be found online at: http://scriptcompetition.net/.

Send article as PDF to

Post your comment »

The Southern Africa Institute for Media Entrepreneurship Development has created a manual for new or existing community radio stations to help ensure their financial sustainability. The guide includes information on how to establish a board, how to structure staff, and how to obtain funding from donors and advertisers. The manual can be found online here: http://www.misanamibia.org/Publications/Community%20Radioility%20Model.pdf.

Send article as PDF to

Post your comment »

“Humanizing the roots of violence in Kenya,” a letter by Aggrey Omondi, Executive Coordinator of the Ugunja Community Resource Centre in Western Kenya, was published in the latest edition of Pambazuka News (Issue 341). Mr. Omondi describes the link between poverty and unemployment and the violence that is occurring in Kenya. He also describes the work of Ugunja Community Resource Centre in helping to solve these underlying issues, by creating committees to address youth concerns, and by forming an association that provides small business loans. The commentary can be found online here: http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/current/#cat_4.

Send article as PDF to

Post your comment »

This week’s script provides more insight into the work of women who process shea nuts. It talks about The Fakocouru Women’s Binkadi Association in Mali, a group of 850 women who make shea butter. The labour-intensive process of producing shea butter provides the women with income and a useful product for their homes. The script also explains how, by making use of shea nuts, the association helps to preserve the shea trees and thereby fight desertification. You can find the full script below or read it online at:
http://www.farmradio.org/english/radio-scripts/82-8script_en.asp.

Send article as PDF to

2 Comments - Post your comment »