We and our partners continue in our mission to communicate with farmers and the public in local languages and engage across different media wherever Aflasafe is sold. In Senegal, Aflasafe SN01 manufacturer BAMTAARE has hit the airwaves to get the Aflasafe message out to listeners, with audio clips in no less than five tongues: French, Mandingo, Pulaar, Serer and Wolof. BAMTAARE are also working on a business-to-business video, so watch this space!
We’ve revelled in radio stardom in Ghana too. In an unusual, and innovative, addition to the farmer field days and training sessions at our Aflasafe demonstrations, on 5th September we participated in an hour-long radio broadcast on Sene FM, based in Kwame Danso with widespread listenership in Brong Ahafo and parts of Northern Region. It was part of a series of weekly talk-shows on agricultural products and practices, jointly produced by Sene FM and Allah is Able Agrochemicals, one of our partner agribusinesses. This made the radio programme a perfect platform for tackling low aflatoxin awareness and publicising Aflasafe GH02, which is still a new and relatively unknown product. The audience, predominantly farmers, heard all about aflatoxins and how they can best be managed – and eager phone-in calls showed their willingness to purchase Aflasafe to cut down on contamination.
We’re also reaching Ghanaian farmers in a more visual way, with a point-of-sale poster designed for agro-dealers to display in their shops, providing vital information on how and when to apply Aflasafe. Excitingly, Aflasafe is conquering new territories beyond the geographical, and this is our first communications product to feature sorghum alongside maize and groundnuts.
Travelling east, in Kenya we’re speaking the most modern language of all: that of the internet. Aflasafe has been listed on Shambaza, a popular site on agro-inputs, under the category of aflatoxin reduction. For those in the agriculture business with a techy mindset, this is the perfect way to reach them.
In Nigeria, our colleagues at AgResults have released a documentary video all about their approach to encouraging Aflasafe adoption, as well as a policy brief – read more here. Meanwhile on our own website we offer a diving board into the waters of Aflasafe and aflatoxin research with our publications page; we’ll be adding more gems over the coming weeks so keep checking back.
Stepping back to see the bigger picture, we prepared some exciting materials for a recent international side event on food safety co-hosted with partners. We have two fantastic infographics that are great places to start if you need an overview: Where are we with Aflasafe in Africa? for a bird’s eye view of the current status of Aflasafe commercialisation, including distributors and the area protected, and How do we go from Aflasafe science to market? on our approach to commercialisation. We also contributed to a highly informative brief on the Food safety challenge in Africa and possible solutions.
We have more to come next quarter, including the latest in our series of videos for farmers. So, stay tuned to find out which country we’ll be covering next!
