" By providing farmers with up to date market prices they can make informed decisions. "To leave a message for the radio presenters press 3" would give the farmer a chance to ask a question or leave a message for the programme."For a summary of last week's radio program press 2" would allow the farmer to hear a summary of the previous week's broadcast."To listen to market prices press 1" which would give the farmer updated market prices for the top 3 commodities from 3 local markets in the Volta Region.The farmer could select from a variety of menu choices: In Ghana, the Voice Menu function of Freedom Fone was used to share a variety of agricultural information with farmers in two local languages: Akan and Ewe. This encouraged Radio Maria and Farm Radio International to use Freedom Fone to make radio more interactive and create more participatory radio campaigns. The Kuku Hotline became popular because it included the actual voices of farmers on the radio. On the final two broadcasts of the campaign, the 20 winning messages were broadcasted on Radio Maria. The service received over 1,400 calls in one month. Neema Mbise, One of the winners, Chicken Farmer in Morogoro, Tanzania Secondly, I will open a bank account to save money for my children's school fees. "First, I plan to build a proper house for my chickens to keep them safe and care for them - the money I get from their eggs, I will use to improve my business. Awards to winners were 20 colourful Kuku Hotline T-shirts.
FREEDOM NEWS RADIO INTERNATIONAL SERIES
The competition was set up using Freedom Fone's Leave-a-Message (LAM) function and was advertised on-air through a series of radio jingles.įarmers were invited to call in and comment on the impact of the campaign and asked what they intended to do to improve their farming practices. In partnership with Radio Maria, Farm Radio decided to hold a competition to assess how the poultry farmers of the area had been impacted by the campaign. One specific objective was to help decrease chicken death rates from 60% to 20% with simple, low-cost, very practical advice. Since January 2010, Farm Radio has been using Freedom Fone to increase the impact of their educational radio programmes and involve more farmers' voices.Įarly in 2010, Radio Maria in Tanzania conducted a campaign on best practices for small scale poultry farming. Bart Sullivan, ICT and Radio Specialist at Farm Radio International This is a pitfall for Farm Radio because although radio is the primary 'media' source of information for farmers, we know that their favourite source is their peers - other farmers!" Radio also lacks a reliable channel for interacting with listeners. there are a few shortcomings of radio: if you miss the show, you miss the info with radio it is not possible to make information available on demand. Farm Radio works with over 290 partner radio stations across Africa to train broadcasters, create radio scripts and conduct educational radio campaigns on agricultural topics that can improve the livelihoods of farmers.
Farm Radio International ( is a Canadian-based, non-profit organisation, that assists small scale farmers in Africa with food security.
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