Discussion Paper
The Role of Interactive Radio Programming in Advancing Women’s Empowerment and Crop and Dietary Diversity. Mixed Methods Evidence from Malawi.
Authors: Catherine Ragasa, Diston Mzungu, Kenan Kalagho, and Cynthia Kazembe, April 2020.
The provision of useful, timely, and quality information is crucial for agricultural development and rural transformation. However, delivering such information and skills to remote rural communities efficiently and cost-effectively is a challenge. While plenty of delivery tools and approaches are available, rigorous empirical evidence on whether and how those approaches work and under what conditions remains limited.
A recent newly published IFPRI discussion paper authored by Catherine Ragasa, Diston Mzungu, Kenan Kalagho, and Cynthia Kazembe, focuses on the evaluation of the interactive radio programming in Malawi. Radio programming has evolved over time –and the authors see more interactions between farmers and experts, greater opportunity for farmers to ask questions via call centers and mobile applications, and linkage to listening clubs. More than 60 percent of households and 52 percent of women in Malawi report listening to the radio at least once a week.
The study assesses the effect of interactive radio programming on women’s empowerment and agricultural development, employing nationally representative household panel data from 2016 and 2018 combined with gender-disaggregated focus group discussions and interviews of service providers. The study addresses four research questions: (1) Does access to radio messaging have an impact on awareness and adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices? (2) Does access to radio messaging have an impact on crop diversification and dietary diversity? (3) Does differential access to radio by women and men have an effect on technology awareness and adoption, crop diversification, and dietary diversity? (4) Is access to radio programming associated with greater women’s empowerment?
The study highlights four major findings. First, radio programming is the preferred source of agricultural and nutrition advice among many subpopulations: younger women and men use radio more than other sources for their agricultural information needs, while younger and older men use radio more than other sources for nutrition education. Second, results show a positive impact of radio programming on technology awareness but a limited impact on the adoption of most agricultural practices being promoted, with the exception of crop residue incorporation. Third, the study finds positive impacts on dietary diversity and the adoption of some nutrition practices among the rural population. Finally, the research shows a strong association between access to interactive radio programming and women’s and men’s empowerment scores. The association is greater for women’s empowerment and younger men’s empowerment, the latter being the most disempowered group in the sample.
Click here to download the discussion paper. (PDF 2,33 MB)
