Farm Radio Weekly

Have you wanted to improve your station’s regular farmer program, but just can’t get started? Have you been contacted by farmers in your listening area who think your station should have a farmer program? Are you interested in starting a farmer program, but don’t know where to begin? Are you keen to join peers from across Africa to learn how to design a high quality radio program for farmers and share your ideas? If you said yes to any of these questions, then we have an exciting opportunity for you!

Farm Radio International, in collaboration with the Commonwealth of Learning, is launching a free 11-week online course for radio broadcasters in sub-Saharan Africa. The course focuses on designing a regular (daily or weekly) farmer program to serve small-scale farmers in a station’s listening area. It will be offered in English and begin in September 2012. Stay tuned for information on the exact starting date.

Through the course, participants will learn:

• What makes a farmer program effective
• How to create a purpose statement for your farmer program
• How to identify the audience for your program
• How to identify farmer needs that radio can serve
• How to present various kinds of information
• How to develop programming on issues of importance to farmers
• How to tell stories
• How to choose and use appropriate radio formats
• How best to serve both women and men farmers
• How to design a structure for your program
• How to keep the program interesting
• How to determine what resources your farmer program needs and where to find them
• How to gather audience feedback for ongoing program evaluation and improvement

If you are an African broadcaster and want to improve your existing farmer program, or create a new farmer program for your radio station, we invite you to apply.

There will be two categories of participants for the e-course.

1. People working at radio stations in sub-Saharan Africa who are interested in improving an existing farmer program OR creating a new radio program for farmers. Participants in this category must have the support of their station manager to apply what they learn during the course to their farmer programs. Each station is permitted only one participant or group of participants. If more than one person per station is interested in participating, participants will work in teams with their station colleagues. Participants will submit a complete program design and other program information at the end of the course. The best entries may receive one-time seed funding (max. $1000 CAD) to help them produce the program designed during the e-course.

1. Individuals working in radio stations in sub-Saharan Africa who will not have the opportunity to either improve an existing farmer program or create a new program for broadcast in the months following the course. These individuals will participate in the course’s learning modules and submit course assignments as a learning exercise. Participants in this category will not participate in the award competition.

Participants in both categories will take part in individual and group activities designed to provide feedback on knowledge levels at various stages of the course. Participants in both categories who complete all course activities will receive a certificate of course completion.

Participants with limited internet access can request a CD-ROM version of the course.

If you are interested in this opportunity, go to ecourse.farmradio.org to register. If you have any questions, please send an email to ecourse@farmradio.org.