Regional Radio in Tunisia Linking Indigenous Innovation and Formal Research and Development NotesKI W hen the Arid Region Institute Closing the distance between (Institut des Régions Arides, stakeholders IRA) in Médenine, Tunisia, set out to seek the dynamics of IK in mar- The broadcast was, in itself, an innova- ginal rural areas of central and south- tion. It was the first time that a Tuni- ern Tunisia, it discovered a large num- sian radio station had systematically in- ber of farmers --both men and vited farmers to present and discuss women--who were developing their their knowledge and experience. In the own innovations without the support of past, it had been scientists and techni- formal research and development ser- cal advisors who passed on information vices. In order to spread information and recommendations to farmers, in http://www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/default.htm about these innovations and to forge line with the "transfer-of-technology" links among farmer innovators, and be- model of research and extension. In tween these and other researchers and Tunisia, as in so many other countries extensionists, the multi-disciplinary in the world, agricultural extension research team at IRA organized field meant talking to and teaching farmers, visits. However, a much further-reach- not listening to and learning from ing mechanism to disseminate and them. stimulate farmers' ideas and experi- The radio program not only invited ments proved to be a weekly radio pro- farmers to present their innovation, it No. 72 gram on agricultural innovation. also involved researchers, training spe- September 2004 Since most of the farmer innovators who had been identified were living in IK Notes reports periodically on Indigenous Knowledge (IK) initiatives the part of Tunisia covered by the in Sub-Saharan Africa and occasionally Gafsa regional radio station. IRA on such initiatives outside the Region. It is published by the Africa Region's sought to collaborate with this radio Knowledge and Learning Center as station. The existing program on "Agri- part of an evolving IK partnership cultural Extension" was replaced by a between the World Bank, communi- ties, NGOs, development institutions new program on "Agriculture and Inno- and multilateral organizations. The vation." The new two-hour program views expressed in this article are those of the authors and should not be World Bank was broadcast on the same weekday attributed to the World Bank Group and at the same time as the old one, or its partners in this initiative. A and the presenter of the earlier pro- webpage on IK is available at // www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/ gram (El Ayech Hdaidi) assumed re- default.htm sponsibility for the new one. 2 cialists and development agents in debates about these inno- Box 1: A woman's innovation--Incubating vations. Sometimes these stakeholders in development sat chicken eggs in cattle dung together in the studio; sometimes they phoned in. This meant that innovators did not need to travel long distances Ms. Mbirika Chokri, a 70-year-old woman living in Sidi to the radio station to share their ideas with others. Innova- Aich (Gafsa), practices rainfed farming and specializes in poultry. On her own initiative, she developed a way tive farmers and other listeners with telephones could take of incubating chicken eggs in cattle dung. She puts part in the debate from anywhere in the region. the eggs with some straw in plastic bags to preserve To stimulate the participation of as many listeners as pos- some humidity. Each bag contains 16­20 eggs. She sible, the "Agriculture and Innovation" program was an- puts the bags in small holes dug in the manure, covers them with a piece of cardboard to protect them nounced in the weekly bulletin of the National Union of Ag- against damage, and covers the cardboard with a thin riculture and Fisheries. IRA also made sure that all regional layer of manure. Each day, she opens the bags to check Departments of Agriculture in central and southern Tunisia the temperature of the eggs and to turn and aerate were informed about the topics of upcoming broadcasts, and them. From day 20, the eggs start to hatch. She puts the chicks into a box to protect them from the cold invited staff to take part. and feeds them couscous, vegetables, and bread. Farmers from the region (about 85 percent men and 15 Mbirika started this innovation in 1995 when one of percent female) presented a wide range of innovations, in- her hens, whose eggs were about to hatch, suddenly cluding economizing on water use in rainfed crop produc- died. She tried to save the chicks by putting the eggs into a pile of dry cattle dung. After some days, the tion, managing soil fertility, fruit-tree husbandry (grafting chicks indeed hatched. Delighted at this success, she fruit trees on to the roots of a shrub that indicates good soil continued to use manure to hatch eggs and tried out fertility and soil humidity) and various innovations related to different ways to improve the technique. She is now small ruminants and bee keeping. an expert who produces numerous chicks in this way. She had not been very open in sharing her new knowl- To encourage listeners to follow the program closely, a sys- edge with her neighbors, but she proudly accepted tem of prizes was introduced. Once every two weeks, a prize IRA's request to present her innovation in the "Agri- of 50 Tunisian dinars (about US$35) was awarded to a listener culture and Innovation" program on Radio Gafsa and who had responded by post to a question posed during the later also on television. Since then, Mbririka has been invited several times program about the innovators and innovations. Not only IRA to Tunis to present her innovation at agricultural fairs but also the agricultural cooperative in Gabès provided and meetings, and has received several awards. prizes. Listeners were also invited to report on new innova- tions. This proved to be a good way to identify additional fowl and small ruminants, and managing rainfed vineyards to innovative farmers, both men and women. produce table wine. Some listeners asked for more details about specific innovations they wanted to try out for them- Letters from listeners selves. Some described how they had already tried out inno- vations presented on the radio. These included hatching After each weekly broadcast, Radio Gafsa received 20­30 let- chicken eggs in piles of dry manure (see Box 1), grafting ters from listeners, mostly from rural areas and by far the prunes and peaches on jujubier (Zizyphus lotus), planting ol- majority from women. In the case of older, illiterate women, ive trees on cactus paddles, and drip irrigation using plastic the letters were written for them by their school-going chil- bottles. dren or by younger women in the village. Some listeners Many of the letters offered congratulations and encourage- wrote to offer information about their own innovations, and ment to the presenters to continue the radio program. Some many requested an opportunity to present them on the radio. listeners even suggested starting a parallel television pro- Innovations identified in this way included techniques for gram to show the best innovations. planting cactus and fig trees, local remedies for diseases of 3 Impact of radio on extension Box 2: Farmers stimulated to continue innovating A socio-economist in IRA (Noureddine Nasr) evaluated the Mr Béchir Nasri, an innovator in Médenine Region, in- impact of the radio program on "Agriculture and Innovation." vented a new system for pumping water from cisterns He analyzed the listeners' letters for content and visited the and a new technique for conserving wax honeycombs men and women who had presented their innovations on the in beehives. He then developed a simple mechanical system to control the timing and amount of water radio in order to find out whether they had continued to de- used in localized irrigation, and a technique to filter velop their innovations and whether other farmers or sediment from runoff water in order to avoid deposi- extensionists had visited them. He visited listeners who had tion in cisterns. Together with the IRA research team, received prizes. He interviewed farmers in villages along the he further developed his water-pumping and irrigation systems. Gabès-Gafsa and Gafsa-Maknassy-Mazouna roads in places Mr Khlifa Dadi, an innovator in Mareth Region, de- where farmers frequently meet, such as in shops, at refores- veloped new techniques of localized irrigation in or- tation sites, and in the local offices of the extension service. der to economize the use of water. These were adapta- This evaluation revealed that the radio program had four tions of an innovation he saw during a visit to another innovator featured on the radio. major areas of impact. Ms Naziha El-Fahem increased her production ef- · Providing an incentive to continue innovating. For forts after she was interviewed on the radio about her most of the men and women farmers who had presented innovations in poultry-keeping. She began to supply their innovations on Radio Gafsa, this experience had been chicks to other women who had started raising poul- try, taking advantage of a women's micro-credit an important social incentive. After the broadcast, several scheme developed by a project in Mazouna as a result innovators continued to develop their innovations or started of Naziha's radio presentation. to develop new ones (see Box 2). · Encouraging visits to innovators. After they had spo- ken on the radio, most innovators were visited by other farm- developed by Rgaya Zammouri, an elderly woman from ers and experts. During his presentation, one innovator who Zammour village who had presented this on Radio Gafsa and distils cosmetic plants asked other farmers listening in if on national television. Five women were found to be using they would like to grow these plants on a contract basis. A cattle dung to hatch chicken eggs, as had been described on few days later, a group of farmers visited him. This visit was radio by Ms. Mbirika Chokri (see Box 1). organized by the team of the Presidential Pilot Project on · Changing attitudes in research and extension. The Agricultural Extension based in Gafsa, which records all broadcasts also started to influence the attitudes of scientists broadcasts of "Agriculture and Innovation" for use in its ex- and development agents. When the research team first tension workshops. A few months later, when the farmer was started to seek local innovations as stimuli for rural develop- interviewed on radio again, he reported that he had already ment, this approach was strongly criticized by the majority of signed production contracts with 20 farmers. The Director of conventional research and extension staff, and some indi- the Gafsa Regional Department of Agriculture visited four of viduals even openly ridiculed it. After the first innovators the innovators, including one woman. These visits were in- had been identified and particularly after the program "Agri- centives to both the innovators and the extensionists, and culture and Innovation" started, even some of the more indicated the development of new relationships between skeptical staff members began to show an interest in this farmers, development workers, scientists, and policymakers. new approach to research and development building on the · Stimulating adoption and adaptation by listeners. dynamics of indigenous knowledge (IK). Analysis of the survey results and of the letters to the radio station showed that several listeners had adopted and, in Mass media and innovation many cases, adapted the innovations presented on the radio. For example, it was found that more than 50 men and women The costs of the first year of broadcast on local innovation farmers had tried out the bottle method of drip irrigation (5000 Tunisian dinars or about US$ 3,600) were covered out 4 of project funds. (The work of IRA Médenine in promoting tional radio. This can be done in an effective way only when local innovation was carried out as part of the Indigenous Soil development agencies and, in particular, farmers' organiza- and Water Conservation (ISWC) project funded by the Neth- tions become "co-owners" of these broadcasts, by making erlands Government.) Because the program was so popular contact between local innovators and the radio station, en- among farmers and development agents, and because the ra- couraging farmers to listen to the program, and helping dio station received more positive letters than it had ever farmers to form groups to listen, phone in, and discuss. previously received, Radio Gafsa decided to continue the Other mass media (the press and television) should be program and to fund it entirely from its own resources. The used more systematically to convey the message that men program is still on the air today (June 2004). and women farmers are taking initiatives and using their IK Since January 2002, Noureddine Nasr has been working and creativity in developing useful technologies to improve with the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute their livelihoods. A strong thrust in this direction was taken (IPGRI) as coordinator of a project of the Global Environ- in October 2003, when the Maghreb date-palm project orga- mental Facility / United Nations Development Program nized a workshop on "Public Awareness in Conserving (GEF-UNDP): "Participatory management of date-palm ge- Biodiversity," involving media specialists from radio, televi- netic resources in the oases of the Maghreb". This project sion, newspapers, and magazines in Tunisia, Syria, Egypt, linked up with the "Agriculture and Innovation" program of Libya, Algeria, and Morocco. At this workshop, an Arabic net- Radio Gafsa and developed a similar program with Ghardaia work of public awareness specialists in agro-biodiversity was regional radio in Algeria. established, under IPGRI coordination. This will provide Listeners have requested not only that the regional radio many opportunities for local innovation and farmer-led ex- broadcasts on local innovation be continued but also that perimentation to be made more widely known. they be extended to still more regional stations and to na- This article was written by Noureddine Nasr, formerly an agronomist and geographer with the Institut des Régions Arides (IRA) in Gabès, Tunisia, who now coordinates the IPGRI/GEF-UNDP project "Participatory management of date- palm genetic resources in the oases of the Maghreb." El Ayech Hdaidi is Director of the Tunisian Centre de Formation de Recyclage Agricole (regional agricultural training centre) in Gafsa. Ali Ben Ayed is agricultural technician with IRA Gabès Tunisia. This article is an updated version of one that appeared in the book Farmer Innovation in Africa (edited by Chris Reij and Ann Waters-Bayer), Earthscan, London, 2001.