Radio offers agribusinesses and other organisations significant opportunities to communicate with smallholders. Especially in times when travel and personal meetings are limited, radio is particularly effective. In most regions, a large proportion of farm households own a radio. Rural people are also increasingly using mobile phones to listen to the radio, allowing them to do so while working in the fields or travelling.
What are the benefits of radio for communicating with smallholders?
Most farmers do not have landlines or have problems with phone coverage.
Do you have access to farmers’ phone numbers?
Many farmers are illiterate (making communication via text message difficult).
You have to convey complex information. Farmers need to be convinced of new farming methods. This is more likely when radio is used to build relationships.
How does the cost of radio compare to text message and voicemail? Radio stations usually charge a fixed price per broadcast hour. Therefore, it is possible to calculate whether radio offers better value for money than text message or voicemail. You need to calculate how many messages are required to convey the same basic information.
Radio stations and communications providers charge varying rates, and these rates generally decrease with increasing message volume. For example, if a radio broadcast costs $100 per hour, a text message costs $0.03, and a voice message costs $0.08 per minute, one hour of radio is equivalent to the cost of 3,300 text messages or 1,250 voice messages.
So you can convey a lot of information in one hour of radio, but you have to actively ensure that farmers listen.
It is impossible to determine which farmers will be reached by radio broadcasts. However, this can open up opportunities for collaboration with other companies. For example, you could jointly produce a program for all farmers in the region – not just those who have a contract with your company – and share the costs.
What are the challenges?
Farmers typically only listen to the radio at specific times, in the morning and evening. This means that there will likely be competition from other organizations trying to access these time slots.
With the proliferation of radio stations, it is difficult to ensure that farmers actually listen to the station they have chosen.
It is therefore crucial that radio programs are engaging and interesting. Farmers often complain that the programs designed for them are boring and do not captivate them.
If farmers miss a radio broadcast, there is no way to catch up. This affects the way information is disseminated.
Although radios are often widely available, rural households do not always have access to electricity or batteries.
Program selection is often determined by men, making it difficult to reach women in farming families. Telephone calls and other interactions are often dominated by younger men with disposable income.
Determining the reach of a radio program can be complex. The population of the broadcast area can be a useful indicator of the potential audience. However, to find out how many farmers were reached, it is necessary to conduct market research or an analysis of evaluation reports from established projects that have collaborated with radio stations in the region.
As smartphones become increasingly popular, more and more farmers can access a variety of radio stations via the internet. Local radio stations therefore have to work particularly hard to compete for listeners.
What additional opportunities does radio programming offer?
Radio allows you to reach not only your existing network of farmers, but all farmers in the region. If you want to collaborate with more farmers, radio broadcasts can be an effective advertising tool.
Radio broadcasts are particularly well suited to reaching farmers who are very busy with work and have difficulty attending trainings or meetings in person.
In addition to discussing good agricultural practices, you can also include up-to-date information on weather, pest warnings or market prices. Such information is important for farmers. Choosing the right radio station
There are many radio stations in Africa, ranging from local stations with regional reach and ambitions to commercial or public broadcasters with a much wider audience. The choice of radio station may be influenced by the language or religious affiliation of the farmers. Given the growing number of stations, it may be necessary to partner with several stations to reach your entire target audience.
Some stations already broadcast a weekly program on agriculture. This is an additional advantage, as many farmers are familiar with this and are used to listening at the right time.
If a radio station does not offer specific programs for farmers, you will need a strategy to market your programs to this target audience.
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