African Rural Radio Program Analysis (Full report)

Radio is widely acknowledged as the best medium for delivering farming information to smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, even as newer technologies are increasingly developed and adopted. In fact, rural radio has experienced a renaissance of late, both with respect to the widespread acknowledgement of its unrivaled potential for disseminating information and supporting positive change, and also in terms of the growing interest in radio on the part of donors and international NGOs.

But, prior to Farm Radio International’s (FRI) first African Rural Radio Program Analysis (ARRPA) study in 2011, little was known about the circumstances in which African farm broadcasters operate. As far as we know, this type of study had not been conducted before. There was little documentation or analysis of the production practices used in farmer radio programs, nor of whether the farmer programs broadcast by radio stations in sub-Saharan Africa effectively served listeners’ needs.

The goals of the ARRPA project were to deepen understanding of the state of farmer radio programming in sub-Saharan Africa, and to gain insights which could help make Farm Radio International’s services more responsive and effective. This new updated research study was done in Burkina Faso and Mali.

To read the shorter summary of this 2016 report please check it our here.

For our previous research study in 2011 on the same subject check it out here.