Campaign to up farming adopts radio broadcasts
What you need to know:
- According to the chairman for Solidarity Group of Ihanzutwa Village, Wanging’ombe District, Njombe, Mr Isaki Mwema, through Kings FM’s Kilimo Sound Programme, farmers get to know everything that they need to raise production of Irish Potatoes.
Njombe/Mbeya. Several organisations in Njombe, Mbeya and Iringa regions are working on a joint initiative to turn around farmers’ economic fortunes.
Farm Radio International (FRI) -- through its “UPTAKE” project, which is financially supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad), under the New Alliance ICT Extension Fund Activity -- is undertaking an initiative that farmers say will boost growers’ economic positions through the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor for Tanzania (Sagcot).
“FRI, through the Njombe-based Kings FM Radio, and Sagcot, have really helped to bring smiles on our faces. We are much better than what we used to be years back,” said Mr Chesco Ng’eve, the chairman of Isowelu Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Society (Amcos) Limited which is based in Lunguya Village, Mtwango Ward in Njombe Rural.
Each of Isowelu Amcos’ 412 members produces between 50 and 100 bags (each weighing 120 kilograms) of Irish potatoes per acre, largely due to the education that farmers get via the radio. Currently, a bag of Irish potatoes fetches between Sh40,000 and Sh65,000, suggesting that on every acre, a farmer can bag up to Sh6.5 million.
“The entire Njombe Rural is very suitable for production of Irish potatoes. However, before the coming of FRI and Sagcot, we could produce only between five and 35 bags,” he told journalists who visited the area with a view to learning the effectiveness of radio programmes in boosting production of the crop at the weekend.
Through UPTAKE Project, FRI works with eight radio stations across the country to provide services that share knowledge and augment the voices of small-scale farmers.
