‘ROLE OF INTERACTIVE RADIO PROGRAMMING ENHANCED BY MOBILE PLATFORMS FOR EFFECTIVE INTER AND INTRA COMMUNICATION ACROSS VALUE

CHAINS’

A Case Study of Radio Market Place of the Radio for Farmer Value Chain Development Project

By Rex Chapota, Clement Shema, Catherine Mloza Banda, Phillip Chinkhokwe

INTRODUCTION• Africa is a rich continent.

– Oil, gas and minerals have been driving the African economy over the past decade

– However, Africa has fared badly on reducing poverty and hunger or improving health and education.

– In order to sustain growth that improves the lives of all Africans, there is need for economic transformation that ably taps into Africa’s other riches such fertile land, fisheries and forests and the energy and ingenuity of its people.

– This call puts Agriculture at the heart of the Africa’s economic transformation (Africa Progress Report 2014)

• Agriculture in Africa is largely traditional, mostly practiced by smallholder farmers and is predominantly rain-fed. – Lack of access to critical information, market facilitation leads to low

yielding production and low income returns (World Bank 2010).

• In Malawi Agriculture is a crucial sector as – it contributes about 39 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), – accounts for about 80 percent of the foreign exchange earnings, and – contributes about 80 per cent of the total workforce. The Sector also – contributes significantly to household and national food security

(Government of Malawi 2011).

Introduction Continued…………

• Malawi faces the continuous increase in number of farming families, following population growth. This has overwhelmed the existing agricultural extension services, thereby spurring demand for new approaches that could reach more farmers while facilitating inter and intra communication among actors across the value chains.

Introduction Continued…………

Intro Continued…………….• Information and Communication Technologies’ (ICTs) on the other hand, offer an

enormous opportunity of access to information and interactivity. Its ability to bridge the critical knowledge gaps makes it pivotal in development (ITU 2011).

• The world is witnessing continued growth in ICT services and uptake worldwide. – World Bank Press Release for July 2012 indicated that three quarters (75%) of the world’s

population had mobile phones; from 1 billion subscribers in 2000 to 6 billion subscribers in 2012 of which 5 billion is in developing countries.

– In Malawi mobile subscription is currently at 6 million for all the service providers (GSMA intelligence 2015).

– On another front, radio is a universal medium of access to information. According to UNESCO radio is used by 95% of the world’s population; and 75% of households in developing countries own at least a radio (UNESCO PRESS 2014).

• ICTs such as mobile phones and audio integrated in Interactive radio programming offer

farmers the voice to access better markets, negotiate for better prices and advocate for favorable market environment (R. Chapota 2014).

FOCUS OF THIS PAPER

• Therefore, this paper highlights the success of the role of radio programming enhanced by mobile phones platforms in ensuring effective inter and intra communication across value chains, a case study of “Radio for Farmer Value Chain Development Project”.

The Case History: Radio for Farmer Value Chain Development (R4FVCD) Project

• This case study is a product of the work Farm Radio Trust (FRT), a local agricultural extension and advisory services Non Governmental Organization (NGO), established in 2009, registered as a Trust under the Trustees Incorporation Act, the NGO Board and a member of Council for Non-Governmental Organizations in Malawi (CONGOMA).

• As a knowledge broker, FRT promotes use of radio enhanced by other Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in to ensure improved sustainable livelihoods in Malawi.

• The Radio for Farmer Value Chain Development (R4FVCD) project is a 5 year initiative by Farm Radio International (FRI) implemented in Tanzania, Malawi, Ghana and Mali, with funding from Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The main goal of the project is to improve the food and income security on one million small scale farmers in sub Saharan Africa by using radio to enhance the benefits gained from engaging in select agricultural value chains.

•

The Case History Continued…..• In Malawi, the project was implemented by Farm Radio Trust for the first 2 and

half years (from July 2012 to December 2014). Through a participatory and rigorous enterprise selection, the groundnut value chain was selected to be the prime focus in Malawi owing to its huge potential for the export market coupled by the systematic linkages of value chain actors and the greater role that women play in the value chain.

• It was through the implementation of the ‘Radio for Farmer Value Chain

Development (R4FVCD) Project’ that Farm Radio Trust in collaboration with Farm Radio International (FRI) pioneered an innovative ICT enhanced interactive radio programming called Radio Market Place (RMP). Being under specific objectives of the R4FVCD project, Radio Market Place aimed at working with radio stations, market access organizations to design, develop and broadcast market information services that could help farmers understand and identify new markets and buyers for products related to the value chain.

Radio Market Place• Radio Market Place (RMP) is defined as a tailor made participatory

radio series that focus on addressing market services related to specific value chains through use of innovative radio formats and ICTs for increased interactivity, near to real time feedback and expanded reach.

• RMP interactive programming was being done under the programs locally known as “Tipindule ndi Mtedza” (translated “Let us benefit from groundnuts”) produced and broadcast by Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS), a public and a private national broadcasting stations, respectively; Mudzi Wathu and Nkhotakota Community Radio Stations.

• RMP went beyond sharing general market information. It provided a platform for comprehensive engagement among value chain actors.

Radio Market Place Programming

• Was Based on the '4Ps' of marketing – Product – Place – Price – Profit

•

RMP Programming Continued..........

• Was ICT enhanced

• In the R4FVDC project, using ICT enhanced RMP model was developed and envisioned as in Diagram 1 below:

ICT Platforms

• ICT Platforms were central to Radio Market Place. • The major ICT platforms used in the RMP were: Interactive Voice

Radio, Telerivet and Voto mobile and Mobenzi Researcher.

• The ICT platform were used as follows:– Farmers call to a dedicated number anchored by the Interactive Voice

Response (IVR) system where a farmer could get the latest market prices and leave a question on marketing for the broadcasters to handle in consultation with experts.

– Beep to receive an automated SMS on the current prices – Beep to vote, to register listenership– SMS Push – questions, comments, queries– SMS Pull - marketing tips, program alerts, current market price updates

Smallholder Farmers

• Smallholder Farmers were an integral part of the RMP as: • They were both recipients and users of the ICTs mentioned above. • The decision to have ICT functions originated from them (during the baseline

study) specifically on the need to have 'near to real time' price information; opportunity to dialogue with other value chain actors.

• They were involved in the actual design of the ICT enhanced radio show and prioritization of the marketing information needs.

• They were deciders of program content, timing of broadcasts.

• This category includes policy makers, market linkage organization, structured market, and other relevant key actors in the private sector. These were involved at enterprise (value chain) selection, designing RMP messages, content generation by providing market information in relation to their core businesses, responding to farmers’ feedback and participating in the broadcast of RMP.

Traders and Other Value Chain Actors

Radio Stations (Broadcasters)

• The four radio stations (MBC, ZBS, Nkhotakota and Mudzi Wathu) involved in the programming of Radio Market Place series were trained in accessing the ICT platforms after a thorough capacity needs assessment, which revealed the need for technical knowhow to integrate ICTs to compliment radio programming of RMP.

• Radio stations were capacitated with ICT Software, hardware and skills to enable them access to and utilize the centralized ICT system based at FRT, as well as be able to manage and update the feedback system.

• Mostly the broadcasters are responsible for responding to questions and queries from farmers by referring the issues respective value chain actors. They also send broadcast alerts to farmers about the shows, including topics being covered in that particular period.

Farm Radio Trust

• FRT has and manages the centralized robust feedback system which was used for RMP programming. FRT accesses price data base from partner on prices which broadcasters are able to access through the system.

• The ICTs were also used to promote communication and sharing of broadcasts and feedback data between the stations and FRT.

• To ensure that broadcasters can easily use the ICT platform, messages are developed (in collaboration with experts) in a simple but detailed, clear and appealing way. For example, for any voice call, beep or SMS in, an auto reply service has been set to any interaction farmers may do with the system.

RESULTANT IMPACT1. The ICTs empowered the farmers to have a voice and to fully participate in market

related discourse.

Resultant Impact Continued………2. Increased awareness of available markets among farmers, hence, a wider choice of market for

their produce.

Resultant Impact Continued……………

3. Farmers adopted good strategies for better markets and price negotiation skills in order to have good return on their agricultural investment (collective selling- selling through cooperatives, associations etc.)

Resultant Impact Continued…………..4. Interactivity between, among and across actors, enhanced (farmers, private sector

(companies), buyers, NGOs, Government, Vendors). Minimizing cases of cheating, discrepancies in pricing within sister companies.

Resultant Impact Continued………..…

5. Awareness of the private sector’s services that could benefit farmers businesswise (ETG, AHCX, ACE, NASFAM etc.).

Conclusion• The significance of ICTs is not in the technologies as such, but in

the possibilities they open up for access to knowledge, information and communications, which are crucial elements in the present day socio-economic interaction (Jesus Martinez-Frias, 2003).

• As the case study examples demonstrate, Interactive Radio programming enhanced by other ICTs such as mobile platforms delivers a wide range of benefits for farmers, local businesses, and large companies.

The benefits include: better, faster and easier access to information, improved interaction and two-way/multi directional communication, cost efficiency and lower transaction costs, automation and standardization, economic and other opportunities, and improved data visibility or transparency.

• Charles Darwin said “It is not the strongest of the species, nor the most intelligent that survive, but the ones most adaptable to change.”

• We are living in a world where things are changing rapidly. We would be fooling ourselves if we think we can do same

things the same way and expect different results (Albert Einstein).

• Therefore, it is extremely important for institutions to adopt Interactive Radio Programming enhanced by mobile platforms and other ICTs in agricultural sector because this is crucial to vital value chains actors such as farmers, researchers, the academia, government, the private sector and citizens in ensuring garanteed effective inter-intra communication for economic transformation.

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