POSSIBLE AREAS OF COLLABORATION BETWEEN FARMERS AND THE MEDIA ON AGRI-BIOTECH COMMUNICATION

1. POSSIBLE AREAS OF COLLABORATION BETWEEN FARMERS AND THE MEDIA ON AGRI-BIOTECH COMMUNICATION • Presentation By Audrey Dekalu

2. OUTLINE: • Introduction • General Role of the media in national development • Role media in Agric Communication • Role of farmers • Possible Collaboration between the Two • Way forward • Conclusion

3. INTRODUCTION: • The significance of communication for human life cannot be over emphasised. This is true because beyond the physical requirements of food and shelter, man needs to communicate with his/her fellow human beings. • This urge for communication is a primal one and in our contemporary civilization a necessity for survival. • That is to say without communication no society can exist, much less develop and survive. For the existence as well as the organization of every society communication is a fundamental and vital process

4. GENERAL ROLE OF THE MEDIA: • The media plays multiple roles in almost all fields of life, manifesting a vital task in the all round development of the society. • The media informs and educate the masses on critical societal issues that enable them to actively participate in the development of a civilized society.

5. ROLE MEDIA IN AGRIC COMMUNICATION • The essential role of the media is to create opportunities for farmers to have accurate information, offer them the platform to express themselves (print &electronic) This is the only way they will have a say and participate in the decision process. • Some have also argue that the media has a potentially broader role in raising the profile of agriculture amongst decision-makers as well as the wider public, in communicating farmers' needs. • Communication for agric-biotech is not seen as a major priority in some developing countries and the role of the media as an effective player in agricultural and rural development is undervalued.

6. THE ROLE OF FAMERS • Farmers play a crucial role in the development of the economy in developing countries and provide the main source of food, income and employment to their rural populations. • According to FAO 2000, the share of the agricultural population in the total populace is 67 percent that agriculture accounts for 39.4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) whilst 43 percent of all exports consist of agricultural goods. • For this reason farmers will continue to play an important role in the economic development and poverty alleviation in developing countries in the era of economic liberalization and globalization.

7. WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE COLLABORATIONS? • Traditionally the use of the media has been communicating research findings but the media has the potential to be agents of change themselves if they have a thorough understanding of agric-biotech issues. Though some collaboration existed between the two, it has not been consistent due to funding. Previous collaboration has been the offer of a media platform to engage farmers including fishermen to share their concerns and bring them to the doorsteps of policy makers. (Eg. Adwumapaye GJA/Business Sector Advocacy Challenge Fund (BUSAC) prog on Adom FM 2011-2012, 5-6 pm every Saturday)

8. WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE COLLABORATIONS? CONT’D • Another was the Farm Channel which is a TV. Radio. Multimedia Channel. It had a weekly TV show, weekly Radio programmes in partnership with Adom FM and mobile content which sent text messages on farming issues. • In 2011, an educational agricultural television programme series on GTV was launched and that programme was showed on Fridays 5.30pm -6pm. It had 12 episodes that focussed on proper and effective use of agricultural inputs.

9. WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE COLLABORATIONS? CONT’D Though the media is made up of the print and electronic electronic has proven to be more effective with farmers than print. Radio(community owned) can be used in: • Mobilising community - to share best practices • Simplifying research findings and translating them into local languages • Link NGO and extension officers to farming communities • Link Researchers to communities on various issues

10. WAY FORWARD: • . Radio programmes on Agric must be dynamic and topical in order to compete with a growing other programmes • (should be attractive and sustained) • The media needs to be engaged more as a partner right from the beginning, during the work and at the end and not be as a special invitee to events, seminars and openings of events. • The media can also profile the work of farmers so that lessons and experiences can be shared and also create awareness of research findings through the use of Television and community radio

11. CONCLUSION: • In this breath, electronic media has forever time stood out as a major dialogue initiator, temperament respondent and untiring arbitrator. The link therefore between electronic media, the rural community, agriculture and development cannot be over emphasized. • This is not to say that the print media is not an effective tool. (Useful in communicating to famers who are literates, farmer organisations, NGOs in Agric. etc.) • The media (Radio and TV) programmes cannot grow more food. However, planned radio and TV campaigns complementing face-to-face advise and extension, with administrative and material support available can motivate, inform, entertain, unify and contribute towards desirable change.

12. THANK YOU