The context
Irish potato is one of the most productive crops that contributes substantially to food and nutrition security around the world. Nigeria is the seventh largest potato-producing country in Africa, and produces over one million tons of Irish potato each year, with 45% of production in the central Plateau State.
But studies show that Nigeria has one of the lowest yields of Irish potatoes compared to regional averages in West Africa, Africa, and worldwide. This is mainly as a result of limited access to agricultural innovations for producers and processors, as well as low knowledge and low use of “Good Agricultural Practices.”
Our approach
The “Green Innovation Centres for the Agriculture and Food Sector (GIAE)” initiative was implemented by GIZ in Nigeria to identify and share innovations in the agriculture and food sector to increase regional food supplies, boost the income of smallholders, and create more employment opportunities. In Nigeria, the GIAE initiative was implemented from 2019-2020 in the Irish potato value chain, as well as in maize, rice and cassava in 8 states across the country.
Farm Radio’s broadcasting partner, the PRTV radio station in Plateau State, reached 266,000 Irish potato producing smallholders with weekly radio programs and ICT-enabled advisory services. The two-part series, ‘Dankali Rumbum Azik’, was aimed at assisting farmers to improve Irish potato production and marketing through Good Agricultural and Business Practices.
With training and support from Farm Radio, PRTV produced and aired 44 episodes on topics including land preparation, fertilizer application, crop protection, harvesting, marketing and more. Local experts featured on the program provided farmers with critical support and information about marketing services along the Irish potato value chain.
Results
The COVID-19 pandemic had an effect on the original design of FRI’s monitoring and evaluation tools and processes. Due to this, the reach number below is gathered from mid-term evaluation data and is considered conservative.
0
Community Listening Groups
0K+
People reached
0K
Mobile interactionsHere are some highlighted results from this project :
- 40 community listening groups were formed to listen to and discuss the radio programs together. They also sent feedback directly to the radio station via Farm RadioI’s Uliza system. Of the 742 members, 249 were women.
- 28 potato farming tips were pushed to farmers who had registered their phone number with the radio station. This totaled 18,428 individual messages delivered to farmers.
- 4,652 individual farmers made 19,000+ interactions with the radio program via Farm Radio’s Uliza system.
- Agricultural extension workers answered 700 questions left by farmers live on air. These questions were posed on Farm Radio’s Uliza mobile interactivity platform.
- 30 project episodes were archived and posted as a podcast online available publicly online.
Gender equality
This project was specially designed using gender-sensitive approaches:
- Women's community listening groups (249 members of the total 742 were women)
- Women's participation in topic choices through formative research
Our evaluation revealed that more could have been done to include more women in programs. Regarding the gender-responsiveness of the program, information from key informants suggests that women’s listening and participation could be boosted by reaching out to and collaborating with women’s groups and organisations and addressing barriers related to culture and literacy.
🔈 A radio clip from this project
This project is supported by GIZ, the German Society for International Cooperation, through the Green Innovation Centres for the Agriculture and Food Sector program.
Project snapshot
- Duration: 12 months, 2019-2020
- Budget: $247,718 CAD
- Radio stations: 1
- Languages: Hausa
“I was wondering who will take in seeds that we develop in the labs, but seeing the number of potato farmers now, I’m certain there is demand.”
Prof. P.A Wuyep,
Department of Plant Science University of Jos
