Production of Radio Dramas on Climate Change by Women, Imo State, Owerri

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Production of Radio Dramas on Climate Change by Women, Imo State, Owerri

Smallholders Foundation, NigeriaProduction of Radio Dramas on Climate Change by Women, Imo State, Owerri

Title: Women Small Farmers play out Climate Change Radio Drama on their Airwaves

Partner

Smallholders Foundation was established in 2003 and is a non-governmental, membership driven and based, organisation which develops radio broadcast scripts focussing on the economic development of smallholders (rural small farmers) in South-Eastern and Southern Nigeria.

The Smallholders Farmers Rural Radio (FARM 98.0 FM)is a community radio established by the Smallholders Foundation in 2007 with support from the UNESCO International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC). The station reaches 250,000 smallholder farmers living in three local government areas of Imo State and broadcasts ten hours per day programmes for farmers on crop production, livestock rearing, soil management, erosion control, the application and use of fertilizers, etc.

Project Objective

More than 550,000 small farmers especially women living in Ohaji/Egbema, Oguta and Owerri West Local Government Areas of Imo State have no access to climate change mitigation and adaptation information.
The women know little about risks associated with climate change and its impact on agricultural productivity and income. Smallholders in these three local government areas can only prepare for and adapt to the negative effects of climate change if they fully understand it and know its impacts. Effective
communication approaches are therefore critical to help farmers adapt to climate change and radio is the most effective way to reach the smallholders in these three remote local government areas.

Expected Results

The project is foreseen to strengthen the knowledge of smallholders on climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies and empower women to develop indigenous micro climate risk management techniques to secure their livelihood.

Actions and Schedule

During the project phase, implementation of the following activities are planned: 

  • Preparation of a baseline survey to identify the existing farmer’s knowledge on climate changes
  • Selection of women smallholders broadcast team from Ohaji/Egbema, Oguta and Owerri West Local Government Areas of Imo State (30 women) – January 2012
  • Two weeks training for women smallholders broadcast team – January 2012
  • Discussion of story lines, characters etc. of Radio Dramas in a two weeks “radio drama development session” – February 2012
  • Recording of a ten episode radio drama on climate change risk management strategies in the local language Igbo – March 2012
  • Editing of the radio dramas – April 2012
  • Establishment of listener clubs in each of the twenty villages of broadcast coverage. The listener clubs will provide feedback to the radio station using a simple solar powered communication system called AIR (Advancement through Interactive Radio) – May 2012
  • Broadcast of ten episode radio serial drama for twenty weeks (30-minutes every Wednesday for a period of ten weeks and every Friday per week for another period of ten weeks) – June-October 2012
  • Monitoring and evaluation. Monitoring of the project is executed on an on-going basis and a final evaluation is prepared at the end of the project phase – November 2012