FVR MAKES A DIFFERENCE IN WOTALA VILLAGE

Luso Listener Club dance to the official FVR tune

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 Tomato Garden

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 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”.

Luso Listener Club Nursary

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.