Publications

CCAFS Working Paper: Interactive radio’s promising role in climate information services

Farmers require relevant, timely and continuous information and advice regarding historic climate variability, probabilistic seasonal forecasts, and monitoring and short-lead information about growing season weather. This information can help them to make informed decisions about their farming practices and enable decision-makers to understand and act on the information (Tall et al., 2014). These services are especially important for farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, where up to 95% of crop production is

75 ways to fix your farmer program

Radio, more than any other medium, speaks the language of farmers. Farmers count on radio to provide the information they need, when they need it. However, too often, radio lets farmers down. It doesn’t have to be this way- stemming from our numerous interviews conducted across radio stations in Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi, we are publishing a list of tips for broadcasters who want to improve their programs.

Collaborative Change: A communication framework for climate change adaptation and food security

Nowadays, compelling issues such as climate change and food security require primarily multidisciplinary approaches and multistakeholder action in the process of social learning for adaptive livelihoods. This implies an increasing demand for information, knowledge and participation that puts the need for planned communication activities at the centre of development initiatives. Within this framework, it is essential to support rural knowledge institutions and national programmes for climate change and food security

Farming for the future: Communication efforts to advance family farming

This document has been prepared to inspire reflection about the role of communication in advancing family farming. It includes an analysis of examples of ComDev approaches applied to smallholder farming and rural development and the issues that they encompass: food security, natural resource management, rural livelihoods, agricultural innovation, and capacity development. One emerging concept is that of “rural communication services,” which seeks to enhance rural livelihoods by facilitating equitable access

Use VOICE to make good farmer programming

If you are looking for ways to improve your farmer program, Farm Radio International’s online learning module is a great place to learn new techniques. This self-guided learning module uses simple pictures, questions, and short activities to explain key concepts. Use VOICE to make good farmer programming This module explores Farm Radio’s VOICE Standards. You will learn why farmers turn off a farmer program, why your station should have a

CCAFS Working Paper: Delivering climate services for farmers and pastoralists through interactive radio

CCAFS-led activities in the GFCS Adaptation Program in Africa include: training agricultural extension staff and other intermediaries to communicate climate services with farming communities; implement research-based assessment of needs, and monitoring and evaluation of improvements in the access and use of climate services by rural communities (farmers, pastoralists), and design scalable mechanisms to communicate climate information through interactive radio and ICT platforms. This working paper presents a summary of findings

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to Provide Agricultural Advice to Smallholder Farmers

Abstract Agricultural advisory services generally rely on interpersonal knowledge transfers in which agricultural extension agents visit farmers individually or in groups to provide information and advice. This approach is not always effective and has often proved hard to bring to scale, particularly in highly dispersed smallholder farming systems. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been advanced as a promising way to overcome these problems associated with information delivery. We evaluate

Planning Communication for Agricultural Disaster Risk Management

Planning Communication for Agricultural Disaster Risk Management provides a guide for designing and implementing communication activities in support of ADRM. It focuses primarily on experiences gained in the English Caribbean region that have been also validated elsewhere. This field guide provides a complete overview of the ComDev planning in the context of the ADRM process, as well as concrete recommendations for its implementation. It can be used to orient ADRM

Communication for Rural Development: Guidelines for planning and project formulation

These guidelines have been developed for managers and formulators of rural development projects and programmes, who recognize the value of ComDev and are willing to integrate it in the project cycle to enhance its overall effectiveness and sustainability. In particular, this document seeks to provide practical orientation during the initial phases of project identification and formulation, as a way to ensure effective planning and implementation of ComDev activities. Section 1

Communication for Rural Development Sourcebook

This sourcebook is meant to equip development and communication professionals with a useful set of guidelines, reference materials and learning resources to apply communication in rural development initiatives. The main goal is to enable readers to design and implement rural communication strategies combining participatory methods with communication processes, media and tools best suited for a specific situation. In particular, the sourcebook aims to develop the following capacities in ComDev: 1.