Reflecting on 2017-18 in our annual report

It was quite the year — both for Farm Radio International and for Africa’s farmers.

While much has happened since the end of March 2018 (our annual report covers from March 2017 and March 2018), we’re excited to reflect on our successes and challenges in 2017-18 as we look towards 2019.

In rural Africa, 2017 and 2018 saw many farmers face changing climates, a drought, and on top of that, a new invasive species attacking their crops — the Fall armyworm.

Our work, in many instances, focused on just that — spreading critical information during emergencies over the radio and modifying our programs to quickly produce important radio resources for the farmers facing these issues. We changed radio topics on a dime to respond to crisis situations, and showcased the experiences of farmers themselves as they found their own solutions.

Through our innovation teams based across our country offices, we also made significant improvements to our interactive radio platform, Uliza, which captures live data from radio listeners as they call in and ask questions or respond to polls. Not only have we improved the program so broadcasters can archive farm radio broadcasts for feedback, we’ve also made it so when farmers call into programs they can leave a message with a question, which we can forward to experts who can them in a voice recording sent directly to the listener.

We also:

  • Provided 143 resources to 713 broadcasting partners in 40 African countries.
  • Worked directly with 149 of these partners on 62 projects in 11 countries.
  • Reached a potential audience of 49 million people, with 20 million listeners.
  • Advanced new technology solutions and radio formats that will make radio even better next year thanks to our digital innovation teams in Africa.

And that’s not even the half of it. For more information about our achievements in 2017-18, read our full annual report.

Our full audited financial statements from the same year can also be found on our publications page.

Until next year,

– The Farm Radio International team

 

Photo courtesy of IDRC/Bartay

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