If you think nothing good can come from the radio, then you better think
twice. While other women gather around a radio to listen to their favourite music,
some women use the radio to gain agriculture skills and make huge profits from
their farming.
Liskina Mastala a local Potato farmer and a widow from Malawi- Southern
Africa has made his first one Million Malawi Kwacha courtesy of a farm radio
program she had been listening to on her radio set.
The farm radio program is an initiative which emanates from an
understanding that extension workers are very few with respect to number of
farmers who needs immediate services. The ratio of extension workers to farmers
in Malawi is currently estimated to be 1:3000 which is far beyond the standard
ratio of 1:300.
It’s nothing magical or rocket science, farmers nowadays
can get complete and reliable advisory services from radio without meeting the
extension worker face to face.
A special radio program aired to provide good Potato husbandry and advisory
services in Malawi is being championed by Farm Radio Trust a local
non-governmental organization in conjunction with the Malawi government. The
radio program gets aired weekly on most of the radio stations, and feature a
series of sub radio topics on how one can grow potatoes and most importantly
make profits from those Potatoes.
Liskina Mastala revealed the secret behind the one
million Malawi Kwacha; a radio program from Farm Radio Trust called “Riches in
Potato farming.” Since Mastala started farming, she had been relying on
tradition farming methods told by her grandfather just like any other person in
her village.
Year after year, Mastala’s harvests kept getting
smaller and this worried her. How could I feed my three growing children all by
myself? She kept asking herself. One day as she was listening to the radio, she
come across a radio program that explained better techniques of growing Potatoes.
The radio program features an agricultural extension worker who speaks live on
air teaching people about Potato farming and Potato business. Mastala started
following the farm radio series and adopted every technology explained during
the radio program.
Liskina’s life has been transformed, she is now food
secure, self-sufficient, and able to send her children to school.
