Interview with Farm Radio's Bart Sullivan at the 2009 W3C Conference in Maputo

Interview with Bartholomew Sullivan of Farmer Radio International (Ottowa Canada) at the Digital World Forum "Africa Perspective on the role of Mobile Technologies in fostering social and economic development" Maputo - Mozambique 1 - 2 April 2009.

Bartholomew explains how Farmer Radio International was approached 2 years ago by the Gates Foundation with the question if the effectiveness of radio for African farmers had been researched.

As this what not the case Farmer Radio conducted research with 25 different radios in 5 countries: Ghana, Mali, Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania.

The second phase will study and implement tools that allow for farmer feedback to the broadcasters through the use of mobile phone and mp3 players (listen on demand).

The approach adopted by Freedom Fone Interactive Voice Response (IVR) (Zimbabwe) which was presented at the W3C conference on 01/04 would allow to listen to more detailed programs whereby the farmer could also leave his/her questions in an audio file.

A very special thanks to the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) for conducting the interview in Maputo and posting it on their site: http://farastaff.blogspot.com/2009/04/connecting-farmer-radios-to-mobile.html

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

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