- Barza Wire - https://wire.farmradio.fm -

Dear subscribers,

We welcome our new subscribers this week: Koulete Atassé from Radio Azur Anié in Togo; Samuel Senkunda from a meteorology agency in Uganda; Alioune Badara Diagne from ADEFA in Sénégal; Abdul Ibrahim from Media Trust in Nigeria et Oscar Dolo from Modia Drama Club in Liberia.

This week, we are launching a three-week-long series of stories on seed ownership. The series takes an in-depth look at some of the issues farmers face concerning ownership, access to and use of seeds. Farm Radio Weekly asked writers across Africa to talk to farmers about how they ensure their seed supply, how they select and store seed, and how they choose which varieties to plant. We are pleased to present a variety of farmer and community experiences, in which people tell their own stories. The stories profile community seed banks, highlight the value of traditional storage methods, and present farmers’ opinions comparing the value of hybrid and local seeds. We hope you find the series interesting, enlightening and inspiring.

We start our series this week with stories from South Africa and Burkina Faso. A community in South Africa tells us how they established a seed bank, building on local seed-saving traditions. The community is particularly interested in traditional crops. In our second story, farmers in Burkina Faso describe how and why they take care to preserve traditional sorghum seeds.

In other news this week, we look at how cocoa farmers in Cote d’Ivoire are affected by the recent ban on cocoa exports. You can find links to further updates at the bottom of the news item.

Many greetings,

-The Farm Radio Weekly team