Issue #4

Hello to all!

We are pleased to bring you Issue 4 of Farm Radio Weekly. Over the past week, we have received great feedback from many of you, and were excited to hear that this new service is supporting your work to inform and entertain your listeners.

Matojo Tiguragara, the station manager for Radio West in Mbarara, Uganda (Radio West…Radio Best!) told us “We have used Locust invasion stories in Kenya and others. Radio West is happy for your effort.” We also heard from Bernard Mukesi from DATIC (District Agricultural Training and Information Centers) in Uganda, who said: “In the coming days we shall be using your stories in our programs and we’re to be regular contributors of stories to the new service of DCFRN to better the needs of our people.”

Your feedback is extremely important to us, because it helps us learn which news stories and information pieces are most relevant to you and your listeners! We invite you to share your thoughts with the FRW community by posting a comment on the FRW website (http://farmradio.org/english/weekly/) — to post a comment, click on the links below each section that say “No Comments” or “1 Comment”, etc. We also welcome e-mails directly to us at farmradioweekly@farmradio.org. Another simple way to tell us what you think is to take our poll on the FRW website. The current poll asks: Which issues related to agriculture and climate change interest your listeners the most?

We know that many will be celebrating Christmas today, and we wish a Merry Christmas to all who mark this holiday! This is also the beginning of a holiday for our staff, and so there will be no issue of Farm Radio Weekly next week. You will find Issue 5 of Farm Radio Weekly in your mailboxes on January 8.

We hope you enjoy this issue and look forward to continuing to work with you in 2008! Happy New Year!

-The Farm Radio Weekly Team

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African Farm News in Review

1. East Africa: US $13 million project aims to connect small-scale farmers with supplies (Various Sources)
2. Africa: Curing vanilla adds value, improves profits for farmers (UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, New Vision, AllAfrica.com)

Upcoming Events

-New deadline for UNICEF radio drama competition

Radio Resource Bank

-Free radio programs aim to fight poverty

DCFRN Action

-New resources for scriptwriting competition on climate change

DCFRN Script of the Week

-Fonio

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You are welcome to use the news stories below in any way that suits your radio organization. You may wish to read one or more of the news stories directly onto the air, adapt them to be more relevant to your audience, or simply use them as ideas for news stories to research locally. However you use the African Farm News in Review, we would like to know! Please post a comment on FRW’s online site or e-mail farmradioweekly@farmradio.org.

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A new initiative has begun to connect small-scale farmers in East Africa with agricultural inputs such as seeds, tools, and fertilizer. The project aims to revive small-scale farming and agricultural markets that have been limited by the scarcity and high cost of these basic farm supplies.The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, or AGRA, has already awarded grants totaling 13 million US dollars, or 9 million Euros, to establish networks of rural agro-dealers in Malawi, Tanzania, and Kenya. This project is just one of many initiatives planned and undertaken by AGRA, which was started in 2006 by two American foundations – the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Its stated goal is to help small-scale farmers increase their yields and thereby “lift themselves out of poverty and hunger.”

AGRA is also investing millions of dollars on research stations in 13 African countries, in an effort to adapt seed varieties from Africa and other parts of the world. Dr. Roy Steiner is a Senior Program Officer with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He says these new varieties will be bred for resistance to drought, pests, and disease, as well as better yield and improved nutrition.

The agro-dealer initiative is intended to make it easier for farmers to access these adapted seed varieties, in addition to other inputs. The strategy is to provide local small entrepreneurs with training, capital, and credit, thus quickly improving their ability to reach farmers with appropriate products. AGRA estimates that farmers in East Africa currently travel up to 100 kilometres to reach agricultural supplies. Up to 1.6 million farming families in the three project countries will benefit from improved access through the agro-dealer initiative.

The AGRA plan will significantly increase the number of agricultural dealers selling to small-scale farmers. It intends to train and support 600 dealers in Malawi, 840 dealers in Tanzania, and 240 dealers in Western Kenya.

Dr. A. Namanga Ngongi is the President of AGRA and a former Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations’ World Food Program. He says the agro-dealer initiative should halve the average distance that farmers travel to reach supplies. Input prices are also expected to drop. The project’s ultimate goal is to increase the income of small-scale farmers by about 30 per cent.

A number of African and international organizations are closely observing AGRA’s work. Although AGRA has stated that it seeks to support Africans in solving African problems, critics remain concerned that a “green revolution” may impose Western agricultural practices and discount the traditional knowledge and skills of local farmers.

GRAIN is an international NGO that believes Western intervention could lead to a loss of traditional crops or displace traditional seed distribution systems. In a statement released this month, GRAIN raised questions about the agro-dealer program. The organization fears that by helping agricultural suppliers reach more farmers, AGRA may also make farmers more dependent on non-indigenous seeds or chemical inputs produced by large international companies.

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Vanilla farmers hit by a steep drop in the price of raw vanilla are working together to process their crops and bolster their profits.Just four years ago, vanilla farming was a booming business, and producers were receiving up to 500 US dollars, or 350 Euros, per kilogram of vanilla beans. These higher prices were welcome in Madagascar and Comoros, where large sections of the population have cultivated the spice for generations. The strong market also encouraged farmers in other countries, particularly Uganda, to take up the crop, which was sometimes referred to as “green gold.”

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Each week, we use the Notes to Broadcasters section of FRW to share additional information and resources that we come across while researching the African Farm News in Review. We will also pass along ideas on how you could further explore issues from the news at your radio organization. If you have an idea or resource related to any of this week’s news stories, we invite you to share it by posting a comment on FRW’s website at: http://farmradio.org/english/weekly/.

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One of Farm Radio Weekly’s goals is to keep you up-to-date on news that may directly affect farmers. AGRA’s new agro-dealer initiative will certainly impact many farmers in Malawi, Tanzania, and Kenya (up to 1.6 million farming families in their estimation) – but it is not without controversy. International critics such as GRAIN worry that AGRA’s approach may displace the current dispersed seed distribution network which provides locally-adapted seeds with a more privatized and centralized breeding and seed distribution system. Dr. Roy Steiner of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spoke to Farm Radio Weekly to clarify AGRA’s position. He said that the agro-dealer initiative is aimed at supporting and leveraging local knowledge and systems, not replacing them. “In many markets in rural Africa today, you find seeds imported from Europe,” Dr. Steiner says. “Our goal is to replace these with the seeds of African crops, developed by African breeders, and supplied by African entrepreneurs.”

If you broadcast in one of the three countries where the agro-dealer initiative will be implemented, farmers in your area may be interested in obtaining additional information and sharing their thoughts. You may consider:
-Asking a representative from one of the organizations implementing the agro-dealer initiative to participate in an in-studio discussion. (In Malawi, the initiative is led by the Rural Market Development Trust, or RUMARK; in Tanzania, the Tanzania Agro-dealer Strengthening Program (TASP); in Kenya, the Kenya Agro-dealer Strengthening Program (KASP).)
-Producing a call-in show that encourages farmers to talk about their current access to farm supplies, and any hopes or concerns that they may have about the agro-dealer program.

All broadcasters may wish to explore the issue of agricultural inputs with their listeners by asking questions such as:
-What systems do farmers and farmers’ associations in your community use to share and replicate the best varieties of seeds?
- To what extent do farmers in your area use non-commercial inputs such as manure or crop residue?
-How many small-scale farmers in your area believe they can afford to purchase commercial inputs such as pesticides and inorganic fertilizers? Would they purchase these inputs if prices were lower?

The full text of AGRA’s press release on the agro-dealer initiative, which includes details of how it will be implemented in Malawi, Tanzania, and Kenya, is available here: http://www.agra-alliance.org/news/pr121307.html.
The full text of GRAIN’s critique of AGRA, including the agro-dealer initiative, can be found here: http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=205.

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This story provides another great example of how farmers working together can make the marketplace work in their favour. The vanilla farmers’ groups from Madagascar and Uganda adopted two different approaches to add value to their products – post-harvest processing and organic certification. You may wish to explore what methods farmers in your area are using to add value to their crops:
-Are there farmers in your area who have tried new kinds of post-harvest processing, sought organic certification, or found other means to add value to their crops?
-What role do farmers’ cooperatives in your area play in helping farmers to obtain a better price for their products?
We would love to share the stories of farmers in your area with the FRW community! If you have researched a story, or have a story idea, please contact FRW Editor Heather Miller at hmiller@farmradio.org to discuss contributing an African Farm News in Review story for a future edition of FRW.

For another example of farmers adding value to a local crop through post-harvest processing, please see the DCFRN Script of the Week, entitled “Fonio.”

Finally, we would like to share some interesting facts about vanilla that we came across while researching this story:
-Vanilla is not native to Africa. It is originally from Mexico and was introduced to the islands off Africa’s east coast in the mid-19th century.
-Since there are no “natural vanilla pollinators” in African countries, farmers must pollinate each vanilla flower by hand – a painstaking process. This is just one of the reasons why vanilla is among the world’s most labour intensive crops.
-Madagascar is the world’s largest producer of vanilla, producing more than half of the world’s supply. Comoros and Uganda are also among the top 10 producers.
-An estimated 70 per cent of people in the Sava area of northeast Madagascar and some 90 percent of people on the island of Grande Comore, the largest island in Comoros, make their living by growing or processing vanilla.

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This section is a place to share information about events and training opportunities related to agriculture, rural development, radio broadcasting, or other topics of interest. If you know of an event or training opportunity that may interest other radio organizations, please post a comment on FRW’s website http://farmradio.org/english/weekly/ or e-mail the details to farmradioweekly@farmradio.org.

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There is still time to submit an entry to the “Unite for Child Survival” radio drama competition, as the deadline has been extended to December 31, 2007. UNICEF has invited youth under 25 from around the world to prepare creative radio drama scripts on issues of child health in their communities. Scripts must focus on one of four topics:
-nutrition
-maternal and newborn health
-water and sanitation/clean environment
-AIDS or other diseases, such as malaria, pneumonia or measles.
The winning script will be produced by UNICEF and broadcast on UNICEF radio. For more details, visit: http://www.unicef.org/voy/takeaction/takeaction_4002.html.

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When we hear about a resource that may help you in your radio work, we will post it here in the Radio Resource Bank. This is a great place to share your best tips and favourite online resources with the FRW community. Please post a comment on the FRW website (http://farmradio.org/english/weekly/), or e-mail farmradioweekly@farmradio.org and we’ll share it in the next Radio Resource Bank.

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A series of radio programs on topics such as setting up a small business, using organic fertilizers, and harnessing solar power, is available for free download. Each program describes an issue or practice, speaks to people involved, and offers practical advice. The programs can be downloaded as complete audio files – either in the long version (15-17 minutes) or in three shorter segments (5-7 minutes each) – or as transcripts which may then be translated into local languages. The programs were developed by Open Learning Systems Education Trust and the Commonwealth of Learning, and can be found online at: http://www.col.org/colweb/site/pid/3986.

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This section is devoted to news about DCFRN and the many partners in our network. We look forward to hearing news about your radio organization so that we can share it with the FRW community! If you would like to tell us about a new program, successful event, or any other news about your organization, please post a comment on the FRW website, or e-mail farmradioweekly@farmradio.org and we will post your story in the next issue.

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DCFRN has prepared an information kit on climate change and a series of scriptwriting tips for African radio organizations. These resources were designed to support participants in the scriptwriting competition called “African Farmers’ Strategies for Coping with Climate Change”, but all are welcome to download and make use of the resources, which are available online at: http://scriptcompetition.net/?page_id=25.

As you may have heard, DCFRN and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) have invited all African radio organizations – including broadcasters, production organizations, NGOs with a radio project, and farmers’ associations with a radio show – to participate in the scriptwriting competition. Entries should focus on one of the following topics:
-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).
All submissions must be received by March 15, 2008. The top 15 entries will win high quality digital audio recorders. For more information on the competition visit: http://scriptcompetition.net/.

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While DCFRN scripts are always available online at http://www.farmradio.org/english/radio-scripts/, we will use this section to highlight some of our new scripts, as well as past favourites that are still relevant today. If you would like to nominate a script for next week’s DCFRN Script of the Week, please post a comment on the FRW website at: http://farmradio.org/english/weekly/, or e-mail farmradioweekly@farmradio.org.

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This script was published as part of DCFRN’s most recent package, which was mailed to partners and posted online earlier this month. It talks about the cereal grain fonio, and how women’s groups in parts of Mali prepare fonio both for sale as a value-added product, and as a nutritious meal for their families. Fonio is considered to be one of the oldest cereals in Western Africa, but has not received much attention because of the smallness of the grains it produces. Today fonio is experiencing renewed interest due to its delicious taste and excellent nutritional qualities. This radio script is based on a debate produced by Radio Fanakan in Fana, Mali. You can read it online at: http://www.farmradio.org/english/radio-scripts/82-6script_en.asp.

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