FVR makes a difference in Wotala village
The Luso Listener Club (“Luso” meaning “skill” in vernacular
Chichewa) from Wotala village in Blantyre was set up with the
help of the area’s Radio Extension Officer (REO). The club’s
mission is to ensure food sufficiency and increase income for
their families.
Headed by a dynamic female chairperson, the group started
listening to Farmer Voice Radio (FVR) programming on
Tuesdays and Thursdays, and has continued to listen
consistently from Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC),
apart from when there is a funeral or a wedding in the village.
The club has a constitution in place and has recorded all FVR
programs. Members have implemented many FVR practices.
Luso Listener Club dance to the official
FVR tune composed by the group for FVR
programming on the Malawi
Broadcasting Corporation (MBC)
The Listener Club members have established a group farm
where they plant tomatoes and maize to improve their
nutrition and sell the excess to buy a group radio and a
group uniform to identify them in public places. The club
now has a potential yield of about 1000 green maize cobs
and 270 kg of tomatoes on their farm. These crops are
valued at MK38, 000 and MK40, 500 ($253 and $270)
respectively.
The Listener Club also planted approximately 876 trees,
(worth
approximately MK1, 050,000, or $7,000, after 3
Luso Listener Club maize and tomato farm
years) for fire fuel. The chairperson reports: “Our average
monthly income before FVR intervention was MK 860 (under $6)
per month per member and, after [the] FVR intervention [our]
average monthly income now stands at MK1400 (more than $9)
per month, per member”.
Listener Club members also store their cereals better due to an
AgTip aired by MBC that taught them to mix wood with hot chili
to preserve their cereals from pest attack. “How could we have
known that wood ash preserves grains from weevil attack if it was
not for the radio?” remarked the club chairperson. “Our husbands
now even help us to work on our farms and do some house
chores. FVR has made us aware of gender issues”, she states.
Tree nursery for Listener Club afforestation
project