Issue#45

This week we extend a warm welcome to our newest subscribers: Augustin Bicaba, from a farmers’ organization in Burkina Faso; Guy Julien Makouezi from NG MESSACO in Congo-Brazzaville; Aro Leo from BBC World Service Trust in Nigeria; Alachu Davies from Voice of Teso and Joshua Kyesimira from The Kyesimira Foundation, both in Uganda; and Esther Mwangabula from the NGO, Mediae, in Tanzania. We invite all of our subscribers – old and new – to discuss this week’s news stories on the FRW website: http://weekly.farmradio.org/.

There certainly is much news to discuss! Two of our stories look at a dilemma that many farmers face – which crops to focus on in order to secure the best livelihood for their families. Our correspondent Sawa Pius reports on a group of women farmers in eastern Uganda who boosted their earnings by meeting the local need for cooking oil. We also look at a report from Syfia Granda Lacs about Congolese women farmers who are choosing apiculture and fish farming over traditional farming, raising concerns about local food security.

We also wanted to inform you of some breaking news from Madagascar. The Financial Times reports that a South Korean company, Daewoo, has signed a deal with the Malagasy government to lease half of Madagascar’s arable land at no cost. At this time, we do not know what impact this will have on Madagascar’s farmers or local food security, but we will investigate further and bring you more information as it becomes available. If you have additional information about this news story, please e-mail FRW Editor Heather Miller at: hmiller@farmradio.org.

Finally, you won’t want to miss this week’s Radio News Flash for the story of Congolese radio reporters who assist survivors of rape by bringing their voices out of the shadows, or the Farm Radio Action section, to learn about Classic FM’s new initiatives to support Ghanaian farmers.

Happy reading!
-The Farm Radio Weekly Team

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African Farm News in Review

1. Uganda: Women farmers drive the economy with sunflower oil (by Sawa Pius, for Farm Radio Weekly, in Kampala, Uganda)

2. Madagascar: Half of country’s arable land leased to South Korea for 99 years (Financial Times, BBC)

3. Democratic Republic of the Congo: Bushi men and women turn away from agriculture (Syfia Grands Lacs)

Upcoming Events

-November 25-December 10: 16 Days broadcast campaign to denounce gender violence in the media

Radio Resource Bank

-Questions that unlock doors

Radio News Flash

-Congolese radio reporters empower women, de-stigmatize rape survivors

Farm Radio Action

-Classic FM marks National Farmers Day in Ghana (contributed by Kwabena Agyei)

Farm Radio Script of the Week

-Women produce most of our food

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A group of women farmers in eastern Uganda is earning up to 441 million Uganda shillings per year (about 220,000 American dollars or 170,000 Euros) by meeting local demand for organic sunflower oil.

The Kumi Women’s Initiative started in 1993 as a group of 25 women growing sunflowers as an alternative source of income. Today, the group includes 1,000 women farmers – a number that continues to grow as the demand for organic cooking oil increases.

Anna Grace Akong is one of the pioneer sunflower farmers in the Bukedea district of eastern Uganda. She says that when the group started growing sunflowers, there was no market for the crop, and they earned little income. This prompted them to add value to the sunflowers.

The group purchased manual presses to extract oil from the sunflower seeds. But when the market for oil grew, the manual presses could not manage the huge yields. At this point, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization secured a motorized milling machine for the group. With this machine, the women now process 800 litres of sunflower oil per day. The cooking oil is packed in plastic containers ranging from one- to five-litres, which are sold locally and in Kampala.

Ms. Akong explains that, after extracting the cooking oil from the seeds, a by-product called seed cake remains. Half of the seed cake is given to group members, who use it as chicken feed. The other half is sold to farmers. And the cycle of re-use doesn’t stop there: the women use poultry manure to fertilize their citrus trees.

Sunflowers have proven to be well-adapted to local conditions. They can be harvested four times a year on the same piece of land. The crop is affected neither by heavy rains nor prolonged droughts, and is dry within two days of harvest.

The Kumi Women’s Initiative now ships 250 tonnes of sunflower oil to Kampala every year. The Serena Hotel alone purchases 300 litres of oil each week. But Ms. Akong says that the group has even bigger plans. They are setting up a marketing wing in hopes of exporting sunflower oil to other East African countries.

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A South Korean company has leased 1.3 million hectares of farmland in Madagascar – about half of the country’s arable land. The company, Daewoo Logistics, plans to grow maize and palm – for palm oil – on the land, for shipment back to South Korea.
According to the London, England-based Financial Times, Daewoo Logistics says it has an agreement with the Malagasy government to lease the land at no cost. In return, Madagascar would gain employment opportunities. The period of the lease is 99 years.

The governments of Angola and Ethiopia have expressed an interest in following suit. Angola has offered farmland for development, while Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, has said he is eager to see foreign companies invest in his country’s agricultural land.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned this year that the race by some countries to secure overseas farmland risks creating a “neo-colonial” system. Concepcíon Calpe is a senior economist for the FAO. She says Daewoo Logistics’s move comes on the heels of this year’s food crisis and reflects the interest of countries to improve their food security by buying or leasing foreign land.

South Korea is a heavily populated but resource-poor nation. It is the world’s fourth-largest importer of maize and one of the top-10 importers of soybeans.

More details are available in this Financial Times article: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6e894c6a-b65c-11dd-89dd-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1.

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Along the Mitumba Mountains in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, fields used to brim with food crops. Women and men grew bananas, maize, sorghum, rice, peas, , sweet potato, and taro – producing enough food for their families with a little extra to sell in the market.

Today, a different scene is common. One morning in a South Kivu village, seven men gather around nine in the morning. They play a local game of marbles, called sombi, and drink kasikisi, a local banana beer. By the end of the morning, they are drunk.

Similar scenes can be found across the traditional Bushi region of South Kivu. In Mushekere, a village just outside of the town of Bukavu, there are 279 married men. Only one of these men works the land alongside his wife. In the neighbouring village of Kanoshe, only three men spend a good part of the day in the fields with their wives.

Martin Nshagi is chief of the Kasha neighbourhood in Bukavu. He says that the men have abandoned their fields, discouraged by low profits. Over-cultivation and erosion have wrecked havoc on soil fertility and farm inputs are hard to come by. According to Mr. Nshagi, the result is that fewer and fewer people grow enough food for their families.

In the market, food prices have risen. Basic staples such as cassava, maize, and beans are now imported from other parts of the country. A 1.3 kilogram sack of beans that sold for 800 CDF (about $1.4 American dollars or 1.1 Euros) in April now costs 1,300 CDF (about $2.3 American dollars or 1.8 Euros).

More and more women are also putting down their farm tools. They say they cannot work the land alone, so have turned, instead, to digging fishponds or tending beehives. Sifa Kasole has taken up apiculture. She says it is much less labour intensive than farming. Once the beehive is built, all she has to do is dig around the hive from time to time to keep out ants and other bugs. Last year, Ms. Kasole’s hives produced over 200 kilograms of honey, earning her the equivalent of $1,000 American dollars (about 770 Euros).

In areas further inland, fish farming is growing in popularity. Raising tilapia is a profitable business. Local leaders are concerned, however, that lucrative activities such as beekeeping and fish farming cannot replace locally-produced food crops which are vital to local food security. Some crops that require heavy labour, such as sweet potato and cassava, have all but disappeared from the area.

Jean-Pierre Bahizire is president of a farming and beekeeping association in Mudaka. He says that men must be pushed into returning to the land to avoid a food catastrophe.

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This story illustrates how profitable it can be for a farmers’ group to meet a market need, especially if the group adds value to crops. We thought this would be the perfect opportunity to re-print some tips from Janet Lowore, a consultant for Bees for Development, on packaging and marketing a new agricultural product. These were her suggestions:

1) Understand the market opportunities. Talk to people who run gift shops in or near tourist attractions. Talk to supermarkets. Look at what else is on the shelves and in the market. Look at the prices and trends.

2) Be prepared to experiment – new products are, by their very nature, risky. Test a product in different outlets and for different prices. If it sells well, try a higher price; if it sells badly, try a lower price (but not below cost).

3) If you venture into a market that you know little about, ask for some help or advice.

4) Consider a joint venture. For example, an owner of a gift shop may prefer to give advice about how a product should be packaged, and then place an order. Take this advice!

5) Food products require adherence to food standards, for handling, processing, and labeling. Find out about the standards in your country and follow them. Being able to show adherence to these standards can sometimes differentiate your product from others on the market.

6) Think about product combinations. Selling a candle with a candlestick (made by someone else) may bring a higher price than selling the component parts.

You may also wish to revisit Farm Radio International’s script series on marketing agricultural products, “To Market, To Market,” which was published as part of Package 66 in March 2003:

-“Episode 1: Trusting the trader: the importance of reliable information”
-“Episode 2: A glut in the market – how supply and demand affect prices”
-“Episode 3: Where to sell: making the best choice”
-“Episode 4: Marketing: calculating your costs”
-“Episode 5: Farmers’ helpers: radio and extension help farmers plan”

The Natural Resources Institute has also produced a radio series designed to encourage small-scale farmers to form groups in order to market their produce more effectively. The series “Together to market” can be found at: http://www.livelihoods.org/info/audio/audio_NRI_TM.html.

Finally, you may wish to interview a local entrepreneur or entrepreneurial group about their experience preparing and marketing a new product – either for a news report or an on-air discussion:
-How did they come up with the idea for the product (or the idea to market a local product)?
-What kind of market research did they conduct?
-How do they package the product to make it attractive to customers? What else do they do to add value to their product?
-How did they determine the best price for their product?
-Did any partnerships or other types of support assist them to produce and market their product?
-How much money do they earn from their business? What role does this play in their family income?

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The following Farm Radio International resources deal with the subject of farmers choosing alternatives to traditional food crops:
-“Market forces persuade some farmers to abandon traditional crops” (FRW #15, March 2008)
-“Fruit Changes Farmers’ Lives” (Package 81, Script 10, August 2007), discusses how even a few fruit trees can improve family income and nutrition.
-“Comparing Crop Varieties: Start Small, Go Slowly” (Package 68, Script 8, September 2003), provides an example of a farmer comparing the success of a new crop variety with a traditional variety.

You may wish to produce a call-in or text-in show which asks listeners to share their thoughts and experiences on the following subjects:
-Which crops in your area are the most important to food security? Do the farmers who produce these crops feel they get a good return on their investment?
-What non-traditional cash crops or niche crops have farmers in your area recently tried? Have they tried raising different kinds of livestock? What were their experiences in learning to produce and market the new crop or animal?

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Last week’s Radio Resource section looked at the “right” and “wrong” questions to ask when collecting an oral testimony (http://weekly.farmradio.org/2008/11/17/asking-the-right-questions/). This week, we offer more insights on good interviewing techniques that “unlock doors” to the storyteller’s experience and memories. Both of these resources are adapted from The Panos Institute of West Africa’s guide to using oral testimonies, entitled Heeding the Voiceless. To view the entire guide online, go to: http://www.panos-ao.org/ipao/IMG/pdf_Heeding_the_voiceless.pdf. You may wish to try these types of questions when you are profiling an individual or seeking to explore the subtleties of particularly complex or sensitive social issues.

Main key question: If you had all the power in the world to make one change in your life, what would it be?

Other potential key questions:
-Why this change?
What is it about your present situation that made you call out this change?
What have you tried to do to bring about this change?
How did you feel, what did you experience in doing this?
-If people who know you were to describe how you feel about your situation, what do you think they would say?
Why do you think they would say this? Please explain.
Would you agree with them? Please explain.

-Whom do you live with?
If living alone or with people other than parents, what are the circumstances/reasons for the situation?

-Which person has had the greatest influence in your life?
What kind of an influence?
What difference has s/he made in your life?
Why do you think that s/he was able to influence you so much?
Have there been other major influences? Who? What?

-What is your most memorable experience?
What happened?
Why do you think you remember this most?
What difference has it made to your life?
Any other memorable experiences?

-What would you say is the main lesson you have learned in life?
-How do you feel about your community? Do you feel that your future belongs there? Please tell us more.
-What are some of the experiences you want to share with others?
-Is there any other information you would wish to share? Please, we are listening.

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In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a ceasefire has been observed since 2006. But violence against women, perpetrated by armed bandits, continues. The South Kivu Women’s Media Association is a group of 40 women media professionals who work to bring the voices of rape survivors out from the shadows, to de-stigmatize survivors, and ensure that women know their rights. The Bukavu-based organization creates women-focused programming for South Kivu’s six radio stations. To read a profile of the organization prepared by Women’s eNews, visit: http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=3819.

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Being situated in a food-producing area of Ghana, Classic FM holds it as a duty to support local farmers through agricultural broadcasts. Classic FM has been a partner of Farm Radio International since 2001. During this time, producer Kwabena Agyei has reached out beyond his radio station’s audience by writing several scripts for Farm Radio. Below, Kwabena tells us how National Farmers Day was celebrated in the Techiman District, and explains Classic FM’s latest efforts to support farmers.

The first Friday of every December is celebrated as National Farmers Day in Ghana, with various activities to commend farmers and reward them for their work over the years. This year’s celebration was held early, due to the general election, which is slated for December 7, 2008. The day is also set aside as a national holiday, where farmers and all who have a hand in the agricultural sector showcase their innovations.

In Techiman, the National Best Farmer for 2008 award was bestowed on a 54-year-old medical officer, Dr Simon Saku, from Wenchi, in the Brong Ahafo region. For his prize, Dr. Saku received a three bedroom house valued at 40, 000 Ghanaian cedis (about 33,000 American dollars or 26,000 Euros) to be built at a place of his choice. In all, 67 farmers, including 10 agricultural extension officers, and a radio station, Classic FM, engaged in different categories of agricultural activities were recognized for their contributions to agriculture and national development.

The theme for the celebration was Globalization: Its effects on agricultural development production in Ghana. The President of the Republic of Ghana, Mr. J A Kufuor, commended all farmers and appealed to them to focus on the Millennium Development Goals and the Millennium Challenge Accounts (a development fund offered by the United States for which Ghana is eligible). He further urged them to modernize agriculture by moving it from subsistence to a commercial occupation.

Classic FM took the opportunity to launch its first African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI) campaign, which focused on promoting a tomato variety called peptomesh at the National Farmers’ Day celebration. The launch was performed by the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Ernest Akobour Debrah, who was supported by the Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Price Yaw Donyina.

Mr. Debrah commended Classic FM for its innovativeness in agricultural broadcast, testifying that, as a farmer within Classic FM catchment’s area himself, he has benefited from the station’s agricultural broadcasts. He appealed to Classic FM to do more and reach more farmers with relevant and high quality information on food production, since it is the surest way to food security and poverty reduction.

The coordinator of the AFFRI campaign for Classic FM, Mr. Kwabena Agyei, thanked the minister and assured him that Classic FM will always innovate to reach more farmers since Classic FM, situated at a food producing area, holds it as a duty to ensure food security and poverty reduction though its agricultural broadcasts. The launch was performed at a stand erected by Classic FM at the durbar grounds of the National Farmers Day celebration.

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This week’s news stories about Ugandan women producing sunflower oil and Congolese men turning away from agriculture remind us of the importance of women farmers. Their work not only provides food and income for their families, but also contributes to local food security. This week’s script features two women farmers who share some of the secrets to their success, as well as a village chief who says the work of women farmers should be more highly valued. You can find this script online at: http://www.farmradio.org/english/radio-scripts/70-1script_en.asp.

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