Liberia: Community Radio Enhances Food Security

The United States Aid for Development (USAID) Food and Enterprise Development (FED) Program for Liberia has formed partnerships with 14 radio stations in rural Liberia to promote the country's agriculture sector over the nation's airwaves and enhance food security in the country.
The partnership is part of USAID FED's strategy to increase productivity among small and medium scale farmers in Liberia. The rural radio program training gave 28 community journalists from Grand Bassa,
Margibi, Bong, Lofa and Nimba counties hands-on experience creating agriculture-focused radio programs.
Over a ten-day period, USAID FED radio specialists led mentoring and coaching exercises for the journalists.

The release noted that under the partnership, journalists are tasked with creating a series of 30-minute agriculture-focused programs by interviewing area farmers about issues they face.
To complement the programming, journalists are free to interview USAID FED agriculture extension agents in order to provide complementary information on farming.
As a result, listeners will have the opportunity to hear both farmers and USAID FED agriculture specialists speak on rice, cassava and vegetable farming and animal husbandry.
The programming targets farmers as well as wholesalers, input suppliers and others engaged in agribusiness.
"The community radio journalists are key partners in the dissemination of USAID FED's agriculture extension messages. Radio is an excellent tool capable of reaching thousands of farmers in Liberia.
USAID FED looks forward to hearing the programming tailored to farmers on Liberia's rural radio stations," explained Boima Bafaie, USAID FED's Deputy Chief of Party was quoted as saying.
Due to the lack of print media and television, community radio is often the most important source of information for rural farmers

The release maintained that transmitting useful information to farmers over community radio is a new idea in Liberia's rural areas, where one radio tower has the potential to reach over 200,000 listeners.
"In the past, we didn't think much about farmers as listeners. The radio is one way to make them see farming as a business and not just for survival. We can share a lot of useful information with them," says
Chester Dolo from Ganta's Kergheamahan Radio.
For many of the journalists, the training was the first time they have covered agriculture related issues in their areas, and seen themselves as a medium capable of transmitting farming best practices to farmers. These messages are expected to assist farmers in generating higher yields, higher incomes and provide business opportunities for rural farmers to improve their lives.