The Effect Of Sponsors On Content In Vernacular Agricultural Radio Programs: The Case Of Kass Fm Kenya

Abstract

Agricultural information dissemination is an important aspect in the quest to improve agricultural productivity both in Africa and specifically Kenya. Many experts have over the years identified radio as the best media for this purpose. Therefore, vernacular radio is ideally, best placed to provide agricultural information to its listeners because majority of them live in rural areas, practice agriculture as a source of livelihood, and might not have an in-depth understanding of English and/or Kiswahili. However, the commercial leanings of most emerging vernacular radio stations could be hampering this important role. This study was conducted on agricultural programmes aired on Kass FM radio, a vernacular radio station broadcasting in the kalenjin language in Kenya. A content analysis was done on agricultural programmes aired in the months of June July and August 2012, to find out the effect sponsors had on the content of the agricultural programmes they sponsored. Based on the findings, it was concluded that sponsors of agricultural programmes in Kass FM greatly influence the content of the programmes they sponsor. This has in effect greatly limited the number of topical issues in agriculture discussed in these programmes and thus creating a bottleneck in the amount of agricultural information that can be transmitted to farmers in Kass FM’s agricultural programmes.