Scribes urged to communicate agricultural information effectively

Participants discuss the importance of effective communication - Picture By Bright Sakala

By Gloria Siwisha, Notulu Tembo and Mary Mweemba

Lusaka, 10 July, 2020………DESPITE the huge potential that Zambia’s agricultural sector has in food production, it continues to face challenges of low productivity per unit area especially among smallholder farmers.

According to a 2019 Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) baseline survey report, yields for maize were currently around 1 to 1.5 tons per hectare against the potential of 5 to 8 tons per hectare.

Low crop yield trends also hold for grain legumes whose yields are said to be stagnantly at 0.7 tons per hectare against a potential of 2.3 tons per hectare.

Experts say that one of the reasons for the status quo is that specific information needed by smallholder farmers to increase yields is not packaged nor disseminated effectively.

In view of this, the Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder Farming Systems (SIFAZ) project in Zambia convened a three day media training at the Zambia Institute of Mass Communication (ZAMCOM) aimed at building the capacities of the National Agricultural Information Services (NAIS) staff in effective agricultural communication.

SIFAZ project Chief Technical Advisor Mtendere Mphatso said during the opening of the event that the motivation for holding the training followed the realization of the important role that effective communication plays in societal transformation.

 “You who report or document things; can shape the narration; you can shape the story…you can increase people’s hopes and understanding; you can also destroy and damage how people look at various issues… The key issue that we are trying to do here is recognizing the critical role that information officers play and how critical it is not only to the SIFAZ project but the Ministry of Agriculture in general,” he said.

He urged participants to begin to disseminate agricultural information effectively as it is critical in changing the perceptions of smallholder farmers towards sustainable agricultural practices.

“Those of us who work on the technical side of issues expect information to go out there to farmers; to the general public not only about the project but about what sustainable intensification practices entail ….We are interested in making sure that the information is not only in a radio programme but how systematic we can be to change people’s perceptions, provide knowledge, and change people’s attitudes towards sustainable intensification practices being promoted,” he said.

The Deputy Director of the National Agricultural Information Services Mutukelwa Mukelabai, urged participants to put into practice what they learned from the training.

“If you are trained today and you do not put it into practice, the farmer is not going to benefit. We have heard stories and complaints that the research stations have come up with various technologies and that some of the them are gathering dust on the shelves because they are not reaching the farmers,” he said, “So, when we communicate to the farmers, we should be able to reach them with the relevant technological information for them to improve their productivity.”

Participants talked to, commended SIFAZ Project for organizing the training saying it would help them tell agricultural stories which impact society.

“From this training I have learned that one of the reasons journalists are not communicating agricultural information effectively is because we are not investing in research nor reading widely on science and technology.  As a result, we may not fully understand the subject so that we are able to put together a good story that would motivate farmers to adopt best methods of farming to improve their yields,” said Chunda Botha, the Lunte District Agricultural Information Officer.

He pledged that his contribution to agricultural information dissemination from Lunte district would now be more effective than before.

The training was attended by Agricultural Information Officers from NAIS Headquarters and 27 SIFAZ project implementing districts.

SIFAZ, a 12 million euros worth project, is funded by the European Union and being implemented by FAO in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT).

It runs from 2019 to 2024.

The project whose goal is to improve sustainable and climate smart crop production and management practices with a gender sensitive approach, is targeting to benefit 16,000 smallholder farmers, 8,800 who should be men and 7,200 women.

SIFAZ project is promoting technologies with respect to prevailing climatic conditions in agro ecological regions IIa, IIb and III.

The expected outcomes of the SIFAZ project are that ‘sustainable intensification practices are co-developed with farmers and made available for scaling up; that farmers are trained, mentored and capacitated to use SIPS, and that they are better able to manage farmer enterprises and engage value chain actors.

The project also hopes to bring about the establishment of an enabling institutional and policy environment for scaling and adoption of SIPS by smallholder farmers.

With this training, it is hoped that communication personnel will effectively disseminate agricultural information to meet the needs of smallholder farmers and positively influence their behaviors towards sustainable intensification practices.