Improving Food security for Ugandans: Voice of Teso’s Participatory Radio Campaign on Akena Cassava

Greetings to all our listeners. My name is ___.

And my name is ____. Today we are going to tell you about a radio campaign that was broadcast a few years ago by Voice of Teso in eastern Uganda. The campaign introduced farmers to a new disease-resistant variety of cassava called Akena. It gave them a lot of information on the new variety, enough so that farmers could make an informed choice whether or not to plant the crop.

That’s right. Stay tuned to hear more on how this unique project not only helped bring greater food security to the Teso region, but how it involved farmers closely in the production and broadcast, and put farmers’ voices on the air!

(Twenty second music break, fading out under voice of host)

Welcome back. Now we will tell you more about this successful radio campaign. Farm Radio International is a Canadian NGO that conducted a project called the African Farm Radio Research Initiative, or AFRRI, from 2007 to 2010. The project was conducted in five African countries – Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Ghana and Mali.

One of AFRRI’s breakthrough activities was called the Participatory Radio Campaign or PRC. PRCs were broadcast by local radio stations and involved local farmers. For each radio campaign, farmers were asked to choose a particular agricultural practice that would help them increase their food security. Extension workers and other farming experts also contributed to making the choice of practice. The chosen practice then became the focus of the campaign.

Once the practice was chosen, farmers and others helped shape the content of the program. The farmers interacted with the radio station throughout the campaign. They used their mobile phones to talk to hosts and producers. The information they received on their mobile phones helped them make a choice whether or not to implement the improvement.

(Pause) Cassava is a major staple crop for communities in the Teso region of eastern Uganda. But it hadn’t been easy in recent years to grow cassava. Here is a little bit of history to set the stage.

In 1990, there were major outbreaks of two cassava diseases. The diseases hit farmers hard, forcing them to reduce their cassava acreage. Many households had to buy cassava from neighbouring districts.

Things looked brighter by 2005. Plant breeders had developed new varieties which were resistant to cassava mosaic virus. These new varieties were introduced to the Teso region. Unfortunately, in the following year, this hope turned to disappointment. The new varieties were susceptible to a new strain of the cassava brown streak. Farmers lost thousands of acres of cassava.

So, in 2007, with this recent history in mind, farmers, extension workers, district and national governments, agricultural scientists and consultants gathered together through the AFFRI project. They met to choose an agricultural practice to be promoted in the AFRRI Participatory Radio Campaign. After much discussion, they decided that the campaign would focus on a new and disease-resistant variety of cassava called Akena. Farmers and other stakeholders were confident that Akena would bring greater food security to the Teso region. So, in November 2008, AFRRI and the Voice of Teso launched a Participatory Radio Campaign on Akena cassava.

(Music break for 10 seconds)

Voice of Teso broadcast a weekly program called Akoriok Akoroto Emwogo, which means “Scaling up production of Akena cassava.” The show focused on expanding the amount of acreage planted with Akena in the Teso region. It was broadcast in the local Ateso language on Wednesday evenings, and ran from November 2008 to April 2009. Davies Alachu produced the program and Okotel Jonathan was the host.

The campaign provided detailed information on Akena cassava. It included information on how to grow Akena cassava; information on pest and disease management; information on harvest, storage and processing; and information on how to find planting materials. The campaign offered farmers many opportunities to ask questions.

The broadcasts generated a lot of interest! According to extension workers, NGOs, and Uganda’s National Agricultural Advisory Service, the programs caused a big spike in demand for Akena planting materials and for advisory services. The acreage planted to Akena cassava rose from 25 to 82 acres in those communities that listened to the campaign and interacted with the broadcasters.

But did this success persist? And were the farmers happy with their decision to plant Akena cassava? You are about to find out. In July 2011, more than two years after the completion of the campaign, Farm Radio International spoke with Davies Alachu, the producer of the Voice of Teso campaign on Akena cassava. In September and November 2011, Davies Alachu interviewed a local farmer and an extension worker. We will hear the interview with Davies Alachu after a short musical break.

(Thirty second musical break)

Welcome, Davies Alachu. My first question is: How has the acreage planted to Akena cassava changed since the end of the AFRRI radio campaign in April 2009?

The acreage has increased; people are planting more Akena cassava right now than before the campaign.

Are they planting more cassava just in the active communities, the communities that interacted closely with the radio campaign? Or are all communities planting more Akena cassava?

Mostly, we see the increase in the active listening communities. But people in communities beyond the listening area are now demanding cassava planting materials and asking for more information on post-harvest handling. They see how other farmers have learned from the campaign, and they want those benefits too.

Are the farmers satisfied with the performance of Akena cassava?

Yeah, people are happy about it. In one of the markets, some farmers from Amootot village brought their cassava to the market, and, interestingly enough, the cassava they brought was very, very clean. They have obviously paid attention to the programs and knew that they should wash it and dry it in a clean environment. Because it was so clean, it made first class flour and received a higher price than the other cassava.

Have there been any changes in how cassava is marketed since the radio campaign?

Yes. First of all, the quality of the cassava has improved and the farmers are getting a high price for it. And farmers are also trying to do collective marketing, which was promoted in the campaign. For example, if one farmer has two basins of cassava, another farmer has one, and a third farmer has three, they pool them together and choose some people to bring them to market. They keep records of how many basins of cassava each farmer contributed. Then, after the sale, they divide the money accordingly.

There’s also been some value added because of the lessons they’ve learned from our program on post-harvest handling – washing the cassava, drying it, and so on.

Did your involvement in the Participatory Radio Campaign change the way you see your role as a broadcaster?

Well, the formats that AFRRI used and the trainings they gave us really helped us to interact with the farmers. The different formats of the programs – the field recordings, the call-outs to technical people and the call-ins from the farmers – they changed the situation so that the farmers really owned this program.

When we went to the field, farmers would talk to us very freely. They felt they were part of the program and the program was theirs. It was really very open – they could have good discussions with extension workers and really raise their issues. The extension workers conducted demonstrations right in the farmers’ fields. For example, the farmers might bring some cassava with a certain disease, and the extension workers would show them all the precautionary measures to avoid the disease right there in the field.

Was that kind of free interaction between farmers and extension workers and broadcasters happening before the campaign?

There was really very little interaction before the campaign. It was one-way communication. Perhaps when there was a disease outbreak, some technical experts would come to the station to buy airtime and then just give a lecture – it was a lot of talk, talk, talk. People would call in and they would answer a few questions. And that was about it. It was not continuous; it was something that would happen whenever there was a crisis.

But the kind of interaction that began during the campaign continues up to today, because even now we are running that program. We are broadcasting to the communities that we were working with during the campaign, and trying to expand it to other areas. Some of the farmers in the communities that we were working with have really learned a lot. They are sharing experiences with farmers in areas that we didn’t work closely with. So farmers are now learning from each other.

It’s been said that farmers like to hear their own voices and the voices of neighbouring farmers on the radio. Did you find that was true?

Yeah, we really found that. Farmers in communities that we were not working with called in and asked when we were coming to interview them. They said that they also needed to have their issues raised on radio and addressed by the technical people. They realized that radio could be a very good platform for them to learn, but also for them to talk about their challenges.

Did being involved in the campaign change the way you research and create programs for the farmers?

Yeah, it really changed a great deal. Before, maybe you would just have an NGO come to the station. They would have their particular point of interest, some issues that they wanted to raise about farmers, about agriculture, or maybe they just wanted to talk about their activities. But this might not really interest the farmers. Farmers want to know how they can get high yields from their bananas or cassava or other basic foods that they grow. It would just be a missed opportunity if you talked about watermelon, for example, because very few of our farmers grow watermelon. That was how we used to do farm radio programs, which was really not very professional.

When we started the AFRRI campaign, we realized that you have to first go and find out from the farmers what their needs are. Then you determine who would be the right person to address those needs. And the farmers were really very grateful for that kind of approach. That approach has helped us to change not only our farming and agriculture programs, but even our health programs.

From your point of view, was the campaign successful?

Yeah, the campaign was successful, though the farmers still have a lot of needs. And that’s why we decided to continue the program, though there are sometimes limitations on field visits. When there is no transport to go the field, we call a few farmers and record the calls. We get the technical people to come to the offices here.

But it would be much, much better to go out and freely interact with the farmers, and record them. It would really make a much stronger message. So the biggest challenge is getting to the field for visits and interviews.

Next, Davies Alachu will speak with a local farmer who adopted Akena cassava as a result of the AFRRI campaign. Stay tuned.

(Fade up farm sounds – animals, birds, sounds of people working in the field. Fade and hold under interview.)

Good morning, Ms. Alaso. What did you learn from the AFRRI radio programs on Akena cassava?

We learned about different varieties of cassava such as Akena, 2961, and many others. You know that some people used to take advantage of us farmers because they thought we were ignorant. But now we have all the necessary knowledge. This has helped us to save money which the people selling chemical treatments used to rob from us. We have learned how to identify most of the cassava diseases. For most, the treatment is just to uproot the affected plant and burn it. Also, the AFRRI programs helped us to freely interact with the extension workers in the studio and in our fields.

What else have you learned about Akena cassava?

We have learned how to plant – the spacing between the plants, when to weed, and when to harvest. All this contributes to a good yield.

We learned to handle our cassava properly after harvest, and ensure it’s clean. For example, we didn’t use to wash cassava after harvest. We would just dry it anywhere. But we were taught post-harvest handling practices to increase the value of the cassava. So now after harvesting the cassava, we wash and dry it on a clean surface. At the end you get very white flour, clean and with no sand.

When you think back to when the campaign started, has the size of your cassava planting increased compared to before the campaign?

Oh, it has increased a lot, as you can see. I am sure you saw as you were coming here that every home in the village now has a minimum of more than one hectare of cassava. It used to be less than half a hectare. We are going to plant more now that we know how to add value to cassava to fetch good money, compared to those days when we sold it very cheaply. We are even planning to make gari. (Editor’s note: Gari is a flour made from fermented cassava tubers.)

How were you marketing your cassava before the radio campaign and how are you doing it now?

(Chuckling) Some people sold cassava while it was still in their fields. Others took fresh tubers to the market and sold them in small heaps for 300 to 500 Ugandan shillings per heap (Editor’s note: about 12-20 US cents). Others dried it and sold it as cassava chips to the business people who grind it and sell cassava flour.

Also, we used to grow cassava just in small fields for consumption at home. But from the time AFRRI radio came, we now grow cassava in large quantities and we sell it as a group. This way we are able to get more money. It’s called collective marketing and we avoid the middle-men who cheat us.

Now that the campaign has ended, are you still using the Akena variety?

Yes we are, and also other varieties like Mygeria – which we call Nigeria locally. Akena has now succumbed to cassava brown streak disease. But we still plant it, because we have few options.

What other things did you learn from the AFRRI radio campaign?

Because the program was in the local language and because farmers were involved, it helped us learn from other farmers. So I realized that radio is a powerful tool to educate and teach farmers. I also learned that the radio people are not proud. The presenters would always come and sit with us, to record our voices and take the recording to the radio.

If the campaign were to continue, what would you like it to address?

We would like it to spread to other crops and teach us how to add value to other crops, like we have learned for cassava.

(Fade up farm sounds, then cross-fade farm sounds into music, then music down and hold under host)

We will be back after a short break with an interview with Mr. Opus Joseph, an extension worker who worked on the Akena radio campaign. Stay with us.

(Music up for 20 seconds then out)

Here again is Davies Alachu, interviewing Mr. Opus Joseph.

As an extension officer, could you comment on whether farmers have increased their adoption of Akena cassava since the radio campaign?

Yes, for a number of reasons. First, they received information on where to get the right planting materials, plus price and other information. Secondly, the radio programs gave them knowledge on adding value, collective marketing, post-harvest handling, identifying and managing diseased stems, and how to distinguish good planting materials from infected materials. It also helped them know when to plant and what type of soil gives a good yield.

Unfortunately though, Akena cassava succumbed to cassava brown streak disease. After that, most farmers stopped planting it and adopted the Mygeria or the 2961 variety. However, even 2961 succumbed to cassava brown streak disease.

For you as an extension worker, what were some of the challenges in conducting the Akena campaign?

While radio proved to be a very useful tool to educate farmers, not all households have radios. Also, the timing of the program was not suitable in some cases. Also, sometimes specific experts were not available to talk. Lastly, the program duration was too short.

As an extension worker, what did you learn in your involvement in the Akena campaign?

I learned the importance of using groups to pass along information; I learned how to use ICT tools such as MP3 recorders, and I learned how to produce the programs in the studio by editing the interviews and so on.

Looking back, do you think the campaign was successful?

Very, very successful because marketing and adding value were so strongly emphasized.
Davies Alachu: Thank you very much, Joseph Opus, for your time.

(Fade in music, hold for five seconds, then under hosts)

Today, you have heard all about a Participatory Radio Campaign conducted by the Voice of Teso Radio and Farm Radio International. The campaign considerably increased the acreage that farmers planted to Akena cassava in those communities that listened to and interacted with the programs – and even in communities beyond the listening areas.

That’s right. As you heard from the extension officer, sometime after the radio campaign was over, Akena cassava was unfortunately infected with a new strain of cassava brown streak virus. But this does not mean that the campaign didn’t work.

No indeed. The campaign showed that a series of radio programs based on a farming practice which farmers choose and in which farmers participate can increase adoption of that practice. This is good news for farm radio producers!

Yes, it is! This is ___ signing off for today. We hope you’ve enjoyed our program.

And this is __. Goodbye.

Music up, hold for 15 seconds, then fade out.