Project: Scaling up Radio and ICTs in Enhancing Extension Delivery II (SRIEED II)
Beneficiary: Farm Radio Trust
Amount: 1.695.866 euros
Duration: 2020 - 2025
The objective of the project is to increase access and coverage of agricultural extension services for small-scale farmers through the use of radio and other communication tools. This project builds on the previous FRT project on the use of radio and ICT to improve agricultural extension services, which was successfully completed at the end of 2019.
This new project has a broader focus and pursues the following objectives:
- An expansion and quality improvement of the existing agricultural information services by using ICT and multimedia;
- Increasing the number of farmers entering the agricultural market through the use of digital platforms;
- To improve the policy context by, inter alia, increasing public and private investment in digital agricultural information (radio and multimedia).
The project has a potential reach of 3.5 million people. There is cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, private companies and non-governmental organisations for national awareness campaigns. FRT will also collaborate with the Flemish institute for technological research (VITO) to support classical agricultural information with data from satellite images via remote sensing.
In its cooperation with Malawi, Flanders focuses entirely on the agricultural sector. The majority of the population consists of small-scale farmers, who are enormously vulnerable to climate change. By providing better information about techniques and crops, these farmers are better equipped to face this challenge. Flanders chooses to contribute to an effective agricultural policy and the right to food security in Malawi. Extra attention is paid to ensuring equal opportunities for women and young people and supporting good governance within the agricultural sector.