How can you listen to the radio when there’s no signal? Via motorbikes!

    | June 30, 2014

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    Radio boda boda is an innovative Information and Communication Technology, or ICT, project developed and supported by Farm Radio International’s Radio and ICT innovation lab.

    Many farmers live in remote rural areas. Those living in the village of Ngarenairobi, west of Mount Kilimanjaro, cannot receive radio signals from FRI’s broadcasting partners Moshi FM and Sauti ya Injili. Radio boda-boda supplies pre-recorded farming programs on SD memory cards. The cards are delivered by motorcycle taxis, or boda bodas, to the remote community listening groups.

    With this innovative delivery system, Farm Radio International has supported projects run by World Vision Tanzania and Irish Aid.

    The memory cards operate on FreePlay wind-up or solar-powered radios. This makes it possible for community listening groups that are unable to tune in to live farmer programs to reap the benefits from the programming.

    The radio sets can also to record listeners’ comments on the memory cards. Thus, when the cards are returned to the stations, the program makers and project staff can hear feedback on their programming from these remote communities. To find out more about the projects in question, visit the FRI website: http://www.farmradio.org/projects/