admin | September 26, 2024
Our two stories this week from Tanzania are about agroecological practices, one to improve soil health and one to manage pests. Our Script of the Week is also about agroecological practices, and using indigenous plants to manage pests and livestock diseases.
Changa ndi nyamanso is a Malawian proverb that translates into English as “Bushbabies are meat, too.” This means that, just as bushbabies are commonly overlooked but are still a useful source of protein, so can overlooked plant-based biochemicals be an effective way to manage pests and livestock diseases. It is in this context that MAFFA, the Malawi Farmer to Farmer Agroecology project based at Ekwendeni Hospital in northern Malawi, is promoting the sharing and use of indigenous knowledge amongst farmers.
Dictionaries define “agroecology” as the scientific study of ecological processes in agricultural production systems. Applying ecological principles to agroecosystems can help farmers find innovative approaches—using materials they find right in their own fields—that they might not otherwise consider.
Farmers in two parts of Malawi—in the Ekwendeni and Lobi areas—are working with MAFFA. These farmers have their own definitions of agroecology, based on their experience with using a variety of practices in the project. But all agree that they have benefited from adopting an agroecological approach and moving away from dependency on chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
This script is based on interviews that took place in Ekwendeni, a town in the Mzimba district of the Northern Region of Malawi. You could use it as inspiration to research and write a script on a similar topic in your area. You might choose to produce this script as part of your regular farmer program, using voice actors to represent the speakers. If so, please make sure to tell your audience at the beginning of the program that the voices are those of actors, not the original people involved in the interviews.
You could adapt this program for your audience and then invite listeners to call or text their comments and questions. Here are some possible questions for discussion:
- Are there farmers in your area who use local plants to manage pests or diseases? If so, what has been their experience?
- Are there farmers in your area who have adopted other practices common in agroecological farming, such as intercropping and crop rotation with legume and cereal crops? If so, what has been their experience?
- Generally speaking, do farmers in your area have a negative feeling or bias against traditional or plant-based ways of managing pests and diseases? Why?
Note: In the script, the speakers usually use the local name for different types of plants. The local name is followed in brackets by the scientific name when the plant is named for the first time. There is a list of common or local names for the plants named at the end of the script.
This script is divided into three parts: The duration of the first two parts, including intro and extro music, is about 20 minutes, while the third is about 10-15 minutes.
Read the script: https://scripts.farmradio.fm/radio-script/bushbabies-meat-farmers-malawi-use-indigenous-plants-manage-pests-livestock-diseases/