Enhancing Rural Farming through Radio - the case of Mlera Nthaka on ZBS

 
Radio has been described as the most powerful tool to inspire change of mindset in people. This is a widely perceived notion, but practically not an easy thing to achieve. 

In fact, not many radio stations have a thing to showcase in this respect. If at all they have, then most have fallen short of bringing up evidence to support their case.


Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) has a different story in rural Malawi. 


In three villages where the bulk of the populace could not harvest enough maize to last 12 months due to poor soils, now the story is largely different.  


People of Lavu, Makombe and Lovimbi in Mvera Extension Planning Area in the area of Traditional Authority Chiwere in Dowa got their fortune through a research project of the African Farm Radio Initiative (AFRRI). 


Through the radio programme run under the initiative Mlera Nthaka, or Soil Conservation in English, people of these three rural communities have adopted two significant farming technologies that could have a long lasting impact on their food security. 


The AFRRI project rolled out in Malawi in 2007 with the sole aim of researching on the role of radio in promoting agriculture.


It involved five radio stations drawn from the private, public and community spectrum. 
The process a Participatory Radio Campaign (PRC) in which the participating radio stations, extension workers and farmers, conducted a baseline survey to identify key agriculture problems in the impact areas.


The first phase spanning between 2007 and 2008, ZBS focused on the use of Vetiver grass in controlling soil erosion. 


In the second phase from September 2009 to April 2010, the focus was on proper use of organic manure. 


The 30-minute weekly programme I produced was aired every Friday from 18:30 local time and repeated on Tuesday from 16: 30.


As the research project comes to an end this September, AFRRI Malawi Coordinator, Mr Rex Chapota says primary results point to something important. He says one notable outcome is that farmers adopt quickly agriculture technologies aired through radio messages when they are involved in the programming process.

“As we all know we have few extension workers in the country, the research has indeed proved that radio is a major means of communication to encourage farmers adopt technologies. We have seen that farmers who followed exactly what they heard on the programme will have a bumper maize harvest,” Mr Chapota told this reporter during an exhibition and award ceremony organized to mark the official closure of the project.


According to Mvera Agriculture Extension Planning Area Coordinator Mr. Andrew Kaipanyama, the acreage using manure in the impact areas has increased in the last six months owing to the radio program. “We have seen a tremendous change. Previously in this area, the acreage of farm land applied with organic manure used to be 1068. But now, the figure has increased to 3205 hectares,” he observed. 


Mr. Kaipanyama says the rate of soil degradation in the three villages has also decreased owing to lessons on the use Vetiver grass as a means of controlling soil erosion and water runoff.


Mr. Chapota says, there are expectations that the results of the two campaigns combined will lead into a bigger project. 


“This was a research project…we are documenting the lessons and we will be submitting our report to donors to show them what radio can do. We hope from these lessons we can come up with the second phase to implement a bigger project on the role of radio in agriculture,” he said.
The lead researcher says it is his hope that people in the three villages will continue following the messages they heard in the radio programme even after the closure.


“The major issue for me is whether the farmers are convinced that the technology they are being taught is important. When they know that the technology is important for their food security, they will continue using it,” explained AFRRI national coordinator.


At the closure of its second campaign ZBS awarded its impact communities with a radio set each as a way of encouraging them to continue listening to agriculture programs on the network. 
The communities also received three shovels each while twelve individual farmers received plastic buckets to be used in boosting their organic manure production.


AFRRI is a 42-month action research project implemented in five sub-Saharan African countries: Ghana, Mali, Malawi, Uganda, and Tanzania. 


The collaboration of Farm Radio International (formerly Developing Countries Farm Radio Network) and World University Service of Canada (WUSC) is funded through a US$4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.


Its goal is to gather, implement, evaluate, and share best practices for using radio-based communication strategies to enhance food security in rural Africa.


But it also offered capacity-building and training services for broadcasters in the five selected radio stations as a way of helping them improve their programming skills for rural listeners.


Adding onto Zodiak, other radio stations involved in the project in Malawi are Mudziwanthu Community of Mchinji bordering Zambia, Nkhotakota Community of Nkhotakota, Dzimwe Community Radio of Mangochi and public broadcaster Malawi Broadcasting Station.