Why Radio for agricultural extension?

At Kilimo Media International (KiMI), we understand the potential of radio to address some of the many challenges faced in delivering effective agricultural extension services to smallholder farmers. We believe that for radio to become a truly effective tool to capture the farmer’s voice and deliver innovative agricultural extension, it must evolve beyond entertainment and supply‐driven content to achieve measurable change through our flagship Farmer Voice Radio (FVR) model, a cost‐effective methodology that takes agricultural radio to the next level in scope, quality and impact.

Radio remains the most widespread, low cost, and ever-present mass-medium in Africa. Radio offers a cost-effective and sustainable option for getting relevant agricultural information to large numbers of farmers on time, for capturing farmers’ voices and for rapidly responding to their needs. One of the major selling points of Kilimo Media International’s Farmer Voice Radio project has been that it delivers alternative agricultural extension services to hard-¬to-¬reach populations, by giving extension officers and agricultural experts a ‘megaphone’ to reach a greater number of people in a less labour-¬intensive manner. The extension officers involved in FVR report that using the radio has helped them to do their standard duties more efficiently.