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.
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
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
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
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 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
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
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.
This toolkit is designed to help development practitioners use interactive radio to create compelling radio programming. The toolkit does not assume that radio is always the most appropriate solution for disseminating information. Rather, given the presence of radio in much of the world, this toolkit aims to help practitioners develop a systematic approach to using interactive radio as one effective way of sharing information with their target audience. Find the
Suppliers of radio extension programmes in Ghana have been supported by Farm Radio International to make their programmes more participatory and engaging for smallholder farmers. With access to interactive, accurate, timely and interesting information, farmers have reported increased yields and incomes. Radio broadcasters have also been able to make their radio programming more financially sustainable. Read the publication: https://publications.farmradio.org/making-farmer-programming-smarter-the-farm-radio-approach/ This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from
