A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD.

Mozambique New Alliance ICT Extension Activity EXTENSÃO MULTIMÉDIA

Cooperative Agreement No AID-0AA-A-16-00003

Quarterly Report [October 16 -September 2017] Submitted: 31 October 2017

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. Contents

0.Executive Summary…….…………………………………………...…………………….…………...………………...…4

1.Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….………………………………..6

2.Major impacts or accomplishments over reporting period………………………….……….……...……6

3.Summary of collaboration with other new alliance stakeholders and how activities are consistent with the SSTP road map…………………...………………...……………………….……..…………...13

4.Discuss of major implementation problems and deviations from expectations for performance indicators in MEL Plan…………………………………………...... …...... …...…14

5.Challenges and lessons and deviations from expectations for performance indicators…………………...……………………….…………………………………………………………………………….22

6.Planned activities for the next 6months ….…………………………….....…...……………………..……….24

Appendix 1: Success story…………………………………………………………………………………………………..25

List of figures

Picture 1. Community listening groups……………………………………...…………………………………...... 10

Picture 2. ICT service printing marketing material…………………….………………………………………….12

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. List of acronyms

DNEA National Directorate for Agrarian Extension FRI Farm Radio International HNI Human Networks International ICT Information and Communication Technologies MASA Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security SSTP Scaling Seeds and Technology Partnership AGRA Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa CLGs Community listening groups IVR Interactive Voice Response PRC Participatory Radio Campaign

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. Executive summary This report provides details of the implementation progress achieved by the Extensão Multimédia project during the Y2, covering a period of October 2016 to September 2017. Progress was made in the following areas:

• The project continued to facilitate the provision of extension services through the 321- service and participatory radio programs. • Through the 321-service, the project disseminated agricultural information which included material related to improved technologies and good agricultural practices of SSTP promoted crops, including a technical manual for extension officers. The agricultural messages are in three local languages, namely Portuguese, Macua, and Changana.

• The 321-service has also hosted dynamic information, including market pricing and information relating to other agricultural products and services available for smallholder and emerging farmers. The source of the pricing information is the national Agriculture Market Information System (SIMA), whereas the agricultural service component includes contents from public and private sector organizations who disseminated promotional information regarding their products and services. During this reporting period dynamic information was disseminated from 17 organizations in different categories (e.g input providers, finance services, output buyers, mechanization services and among others).

• The project trained and supported two community radio stations, namely Ribaue and Alto Molocue. The partnership with Ribaue radio station had a duration of 6 months (March to August 2017) and broadcasted agricultural programs focusing on the maize value chain. For Alto Molocue radio station, the partnership lasted 4 months (May to August 2017) and focused on broadcasting good agricultural practices (GAP) related to cassava. During the partnerships, both Ribaue and Alto Molocue radio stations broadcasted a total of 35 episodes.

During this time, a survey conducted by the project to assess the use of provided ICT services indicates that: • ICT services reached to 688,435 farmers, constituting 83% of the Y2 cumulative target (825,000). The project failed to reached its targets because a late start of the radio component meant that it worked with only 02 (out of 04) of the expected radio stations in the until Y2.

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. • A total number of 139,920 smallholder farmers have engaged with the ICT services, constituting 50% of Y2 target (281,250). The project was not able to reach its targets not only because it could not work with the total number of expected radio stations, as indicated above, but also due to lower number of users of the 321-service due to the fact that most of farmers have are still not aware of the system. Another important factor is the limited Vodacom mobile phone service in the rural community, which reduced the number of farmers with access to the 321-platform.

• Despite a lower than expected use of the 321 service and radio programs, the project was able to exceed its target in terms of number of farmers applying at least one of the good management practices promoted. A total 115,335 smallholder farmers have applied at least one of the promoted technologies, corresponding to 151% of the target (76,250). This may be a result of two main factors: 1) the design and dissemination of appropriate content for smallholders, including dynamic information from a range of agribusiness organizations, and 2) the provision of significant field support that leveraged existing CLUSA field staff from other projects, who supported and encouraged farmers to implement the practices.

• The number of hectares under the improved technologies was 116,507ha, corresponding to 611% of the target (19,063). The over achievement of this target is due in part to the fact that the project overachieved in terms of the number of smallholder farmer applying improved practices (as indicated in 1.3). In addition, the increase was partly a result of the fact that the CLUSA managed survey showed an average farm size of 1ha as opposed to the original assumption (upon which the original target was based) or 0.25ha. Note, however, that even using the original assumption of 0.25ha per farmer the project still would have exceeded this target.

• A total of 95% of the costs of ICT-enabled services has been covered by non-donor sources, corresponding to 479% of the target for Y2 (20%). The over achievement of this target is due in part to the fact that the project had assumed that Vodacom would only contribute with free 321-service (SMS, USSD, IVR). Actually, Vodacom donated more than expected - it also promoted the 321-service by sending promotion SMS to all Vodacom subscribers and sponsoring the launch event of 321 service.

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. 1. Introduction This report relates to the progress achieved by the Extensão Multimédia project during Year 2 of the project (October to September 2017, or the 2016/17 agricultural season). It includes discussions on the major accomplishments during the reporting period, challenges and deviations for performance indicators in the MEL plan and planned activities for the next agricultural season. 2. Major impacts or accomplishments over reporting period During the Year 2 progress was made in the following areas:

Project aligned with SSTP and national priorities through the DNEA. Year 2 was primarily focused on engaging with the National Directorate of Agrarian Extension (DNEA), resulting in the signing of an MoU between DNEA and Extensão Multimedia. This showed DNEA´s willingness to collaborate with the project on the preparation and harmonization of agriculture related messages and ensuring that the project is aligned with national priorities. DNEA also actively participated in the development of the agriculture contents by participating in the content committees and engaging with key agriculture stakeholders in the process of content design.

Agricultural content available on the 321-platform The project prepared and made available the first batch of the agriculture content for the 3- 2-1 service. The information available is related to technologies and good agricultural practices for three SSTP promoted crops: cassava, maize and soybean, using three languages: Portuguese, Macua, or Changana. This means that since December 2016 smallholder farmers are able to engage with the 321-platform and learn about GAPs including land preparation, the use of certified seed, post-harvest practices and accessing output market, amongst other issues.

The project also prepared and uploaded a job aid in a form of technical manual for extension officers. The manual is available in the 321-service in the form of IVR (voice message). The manual, which also focused on the same main three value chains (soya, maize and cassava) aims to reinforce extension workers’ existing knowledge and keep them up to date on new technologies and GAPs.

Dynamic information In addition to GAPs, the project also uploaded and regularly updated dynamic information on the 321-system, which includes two main elements: 1) agricultural market pricing information and 2) promotional and other informative material. All material is updated every two weeks.

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. Price information includes the following value chains: Maize, groundnut, sugar beans, cassava, sweet potato, groundnut, cowpea. The information is sourced from the national Agriculture Market Information System (SIMA), from which NCBA CLUSA has a formal approval for the use of data. SIMA passes the information to NCBACLUSA, who is responsible for updating the information and sending to HNI for uploading in to the system.

Promotional and other informative material comes from the private sector and other partners, who disseminate relevant and promotional information regarding their products and services under the 321 agriculture services sub-topic. The 321-agricuture services component includes information regarding available agricultural inputs (e.g. seeds, chemicals, etc.), services (e.g. commodity processing services), new technologies (e.g. hermetically sealing storage bags), agribusiness finance products, output buyers’ information (products, prices, quality, location etc) and other existing opportunities in agriculture sector. During this reporting period dynamic information of 17 organizations in different categories was made available (see table 2 below). NCBA CLUSA has dedicated staff who are responsible for contacting private and public partners and promote the services, support the partners in the creation of appropriate messages and send the prepared information for review by project partners before it is finally sent to HNI for upload onto the system. Efforts are made to as constantly “refresh” the organizations who use the service and the type of information disseminated to ensure that the information is as dynamic, up to date and relevant as possible.

Table 1. List of organizations who disseminated information on 321-agriculture service component during Year 2. Category Service/product Organizations Ikuru, Oruwera, Phoenix seed, JNB, Agrodalton, K2, Agrosikadza, Buenzi-Ya Alime, Comp.Zambe, I Input suppliers COPEPAMO, ADECOZA, AgriInsumos II Finance services GAPI Mechanization III services Centro de maquinas de Ribaue IV Processing services Ikuru V Output buyers Matharya impreendimentos, AMPCM

Formative research

The project conducted research formative with sample communities and radio stations of two districts, Ribaúe in province and Alto Molocue district in Zambézia province. The method and questions used were developed in consultation with FRI Ottawa, using FRI’s Formative Research Method and Toolkit documents. By conducting this research with the

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. communities, the project was able to learn about their experiences with radio programs and their expectations regarding agricultural themes, as well as assess their needs in terms of airing future agriculture related programs. The project took all this information into consideration during the support and training provided to the radio communities.

MoU signed with two community radio stations During the reporting period the project signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of two community radio stations Radio e Televisao comunitaria de Ribaue (RTCR) and Rádio e Televisão Comunitária de Alto Molocue (RTC Molocue). The partnership for Ribaue radio station had duration of 6 months (March to August2017) and broadcasted agricultural programs focusing on maize value chain. The partnership with Alto Molocue radio station lasted for 4 months (May to August 2017), focusing on broadcasting cassava GAPs.

During the partnership Ribaue and Alto Molocue radio stations broadcasted a total of 35 episodes and 35 repeat programs between them. For both radio stations this was the first time that they had broadcast a structured and consistent program with an agricultural theme. The new radio series were on air every Thursday and repeated in Saturdays and were aired in two languages: Portuguese and Emacua (Ribaue)/Lomue (Alto Molocue). In Ribaue, they were on air every Thursday at 1:10 p.m. until 1:45 p.m. in Portuguese, and 4:10 p.m. until 4:50 p.m. in Macua. In Alto Molocue, programs were broadcasted at 13.10 until 14.00 horas in Portuguese, and 15.10-15.40 pm in Lomue. In both radio station episodes were repeated on Saturday.

Ribaue radio station had planned to broadcast a total of 28 live episodes from February to July 2017. However, electrical and other technical problems at the station meant that it actually broadcasted 22 episodes. Alto Molocue radio station, on the other hand, aired all of the planned 13 live episodes from March to August 2017. Table 2 below indicates the breakdown of the two radios.

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. Table 2. Broadcast table for the radio stations in Ribaue and Alto Molocue districts.

Day of No. of live No. of live Day of Time of Time of No. of repeat Station broadca Language broadcasts broadcast repeat repeat broadcast broadcasts st (plan) s (actual) broadcast 1:10 to Portugue 1:10 1:45 Thursda 28 22 22 1:45 p.m se Saturday p.m Ribaue y 4:10 to 4:10 to Emacua 28 22 22 4:50 p.m 4:50 p.m 13.30- Portugue 20.30 to Alto Thursda 13 13 13 14.00pm se 21pm Molocu y Saturday 15.10- 15.10- e Lomue 13 13 13 15.40 pm 15.40 pm

Support and training given to radio stations During the formative research, the project learnt about radio stations’ experiences and constraints on broadcasting farm radio programs, in addition to the community’s experiences, interest and preferences. Based on their limitations and community needs, the project provided them with equipment and training to enable them to broadcast quality agriculture radio programs efficiently and in a timely manner.

Training content to radio officers included: ✓ The use of the FRI Log for interaction with FRI technical personnel on monitoring and archiving programs ✓ How to work with ULIZA/VOTO platform for the weekly pooling of questions ✓ Use of Adobe Audition ✓ Good interview practices and gender balanced radio ✓ Use of Runsheets and Log sheets ✓ Use of Gmail and Google Drive

The equipment provided as grant by the project to each of community radio stations included: i. 01 x HP Desktop (Monitor, keyboard and processor) ii. 01 x UPS Line Interactive 725 VA iii. 01 x SONY Recorder iv. 02 x Movitel Modems (D-com 3.5G, with SIM Cards) v. 01 x Tablet Samsung Galaxy Tab E

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD.

Formed Community Listeners Groups (CLGs) A total of 10 community Listener Groups (CLGs) were formed during the reporting period (3 in Ribaue districts and 7 in Alto Molocue) with a total of 339 participants (160 women and 179 men). The list of CLG is presented in the table 3.

This groups were formed in order to facilitate engagement between the radio stations and the communities that they serve. Likewise, the CLG participants were trained in how to interact with radio programs through the ULIZA system, which is a platform which enables the weekly pooling of listeners’ questions and feedback to radio stations. This means that on a weekly basis the CLGs interacted with the project radio officer and radio station technician for general feedback. Apart from this weekly engagement, and in order to stimulate the groups, the project also provided one radio device to each of the formed community listening groups (picture 1).

CLGs of Nlema, Ribaue districts

CLG of Mohiua, Alto Molocue district Picture 1. Community listening groups

Table 3. List of CLGs formed Male Administ. Female Total # Province District CGL member post menbers members s 1 Nampula Ribáuè Iapala Ehikite 8 9 17 2 Nampula Ribáuè Iapala Inlema 16 14 30 Ribaue- Olima 3 Nampula Ribaue 61 111 172 Sede Ovilela Alto 4 Zambézia Lugela 12 7 18 Molócuè Novanana Alto 5 Zambézia Nauela Mohiua 15 15 30 Molócuè

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. Alto 6 Zambézia Muhitxo 11 5 16 Molócuè Novanana Alto 7 Zambézia Napacala 9 6 15 Molócuè Novanana Alto 8 Zambézia Novanana Novanana 13 4 17 Molocue Alto 9 Zambézia Rugula 15 8 23 Molócuè Novanava Total 160 179 339

Interaction with radio programs through the ULIZA platform A total of 858 (332 female and 526 male) unique respondents interacted with radio programs through the Uliza platform. In total these people interacted a total of 1,738 times. It was found that men interacted more with the system than women – perhaps because more men own cell phones and are often more familiar with technologies. During field visits to the groups project staff ensured that the groups were meeting regularly and were encouraged and supported to use the ULIZA platform.

Table 4. Total number of interactions Male Female Total Radio station Number of interactions Alto Molocue 800 511 1311 Ribaue 277 150 427 Total 1077 661 1738 Unique users Alto Molocue 373 200 573 Ribaue 153 132 285 Total 526 332 858

Video production The project, facilitated by an identified a local external service provider, prepared two videos which demonstrates key GAPs, including land preparation and cassava planting material preparation/planting, all of which are based in agriculture conservation principles. The videos will be made available at beginning of the next agricultural season (2017/18) so that farmers can start planning and integrating the practices on their upcoming agricultural activities. Project staff will distribute them to 10 selected NCBA supported agro dealers to be played in their stores on project funded solar powered video screens. NCBA CLUSA technical field staff will have also access to them in order to use when providing extension services to the farmers, to be played on their cellphones or through organized viewings at agrodealers’ stores and field days.

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD.

Marketing ICT enabled services

In order to increase ICT services, demand the project invested heavily in the promotion of these services though awareness campaigns using local radio spots and distribution of printing marketing material. Radio spots were broadcasted by local radio stations such as Alto Molocue, Ribaue and . Spots were broadcasted using Portuguese and local languages and were used to promote both the 321-service and radio programs.

For marketing material (picture 2), the project produced and distributed 75 posters, 500 pamphlets and 2,500 instruction cards during the first phase. Posters were placed in prominent community locations such as the offices of District Services for Economic Activities (SDAEs), farmer fora/associations, schools and markets. Pamphlets and instruction cards were directly delivered to smallholder farmers during the field days, local fairs, group discussion and other forum. The project also leveraged resources from other CLUSA project extension workers in promoting the service in the communities. This includes exposing ICT services and demonstrating how practically services can be access in meeting with farmers groups, public and private extension workers.

Poster: 321-service

Instruction card-radio Instruction card- 321 service programs Picture 2. ICT service printing marketing material

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. 3. Summary of collaboration with other new alliance stakeholders and how activities are consistent with the SSTP road map The project has been collaborating with SSTP project in several aspects, including a) the development of agricultural content to be disseminated thought 321 service, b) the development of content for radio programs and participation in radio programs, c) video production and d) the promotion of SSTP grantees service and products on the 321- agricultural service subtopic. SSTP and its grantees, such as Oruwera and IFDC, are part of the Steering Committee who oversees the whole process of producing the agricultural content to be broadcasted on the 321-service. SSTP and its grantees participated in the content committee’s meetings, ensuring that the messages produced were aligned with their priorities and that the ICT enabled services were promoting the technologies and management practices that SSTP-AGRA was supporting them to promote. SSTP and its grantees were also directly involved on the development of the radio programs in both districts. IIAM and Oruwera, for instance, participated in the development of the table of contents for radio programs, defining the priorities in terms of themes to be broadcasted each week, identifying the radio program formats most adequate to each topic and identifying the key experts to interviewed or be invited for debates. SSTP grantees were also involved on the weekly plan of farm radio programs. As mentioned above, the project facilitated video production of some technologies and GAPs such as land preparation using the conservation agriculture principles and preparation of cassava cutting for planting. SSTP and its grantees were involved in the preparation and production of the videos, insuring that messages were also aligned with their interest. Apart from participating in the preparation of agriculture contents for 321 service and radio programs, SSTP grantees were also invited to promote their product and services on the 321- agriculture services component. In this sub-topic, grantees such as Oruwera and Companhia do Zembe (two seed companies) were able to use the 321-platform to market their products and services and provide their contact details.

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. 4. Discuss of major implementation problems and deviations from expectations for performance indicators in MEL Plan

This section includes methodology of evaluation and performance and impact data. It also discusses key findings and limitations of the evaluation. Evaluation Design The assessment for the ICT project was designed to assess the impact of the two ICT enabled extension services provided by the project: the 321-service and radio program.

Since during the reporting period, the project facilitated farm radio programs in two districts - Ribaue and AltoMolocue - therefore when assessing the impact of the radio programs these two districts were considered as the evaluation universe. Within this universe some communities were sampled from each of the districts using computer generated random sampling method. A simple random sampling method was again used in order to generate a sample of beneficiaries to be interviewed within each community, thus ensuring an equal chance of being interviewed for each smallholder farmer. For the 321-service, data for indicator 1.2 (number of people using the service) has been captured from the HNI/Vodacom managed system which automatically logs all use of the 321 platform. To calculate Indicator 1.3 (the number of farmer applying technologies) & 1.4 (the number of hectares under promoted management practices), the project used the survey results from survey conducted in Ribaue and AltoMolocue and extrapolated it to the entire farmers reached under 1.2 to give a result for the entire country. It should be noted, however, that the results from Alto Molocue and Ribaué are not necessarily representative of all SSTP target districts.

Sample size - the total rural working age population within the coverage area is 163,435 (table 1). Due to this large size, a statistical sample size of 589 smallholder farmers was planned. In reality, the survey actually exceeded this and interviewed 633 people (Table 5). Therefore, the study considered a margin of error of 12%, at 95% level of confidence. 푍2(푟)(1−푟)(푓)(푘) The formula used is: 푛 = ℎ (푝)(ñ)(푒2)

Table 5. Estimate of population within survey area/radio station coverage area

District Total Population Total rural Total rural working age population within radio population within population within coverage area radio coverage area radio coverage area Ribaue 190,721 183,222 102,928 56,693

AltoMolocue 275,000 269,161 192,675 106,742

Total 465,876 452,383 295,603 163,435

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD.

Table 6. No of farmers to interviewed per district

Districts Total number of farmers Number of female Number of male interviewed farmers farmers AltoMolocue 380 195 185 Ribaué 253 131 122 Total 633 326 307

Key findings Indicator 1.1: Number of farmers with access to one or more ICT channels

During the reporting period (Year 2), the project managed to provide 321 service and radio programs in two community radio stations in Ribaue and Alto Molocue districts. It was able to reach 688,435, constituting 83% of the cumulative target (825,000). Radio programs The project failed to reached its targets because it could work with only 02 (out of 04) of the expected radio stations. This is because early on the project experienced challenges in hiring radio staff, resulting in a delay of radio activities. Since most local radio stations have a low potential audience (75,000), in order to reach the total target for radio programs the project will work with other 3 additional community radio stations (1) in Angonia in , 2) Manica on the Beira corridor in and Namialo in corridor (Nampula province) to reach an additional 225,000 (=75,000*3) smallholder farmers, thus reaching a total of 388,435 (=163,435 achieved +22,500) farmers by the end of the project. It is expected that this will constitute more than 100% of the radio program overall project target (375,000). 321 platform For this indicator the project uses the official data from HNI/Vodacom which has registered 525,000 Vodacom subscribers in the SSTP working area. Therefore, we have assumed a 100% achievement of this target. However, it should be noted that the actual number of users in the two sample districts may be lower than the official Vodacom figures. Survey results from Ribaue and Alto Molocue showed that mobile phone penetration in these regions is 38% for Movitel, 16% for Vodacom and 1% is Mcel. This is in comparison with an expected 25% of people using Vodacom, using Vodacom’s figures. The lower use of Vodacom in rural areas is mostly due to its limited signal in the majority of rural communities in comparison with Movitel, whose coverage is far wider. Vodacom’s limited services prevents farmers from accessing the 321-platform and may mean that there are fewer people with access to the 321 platform than was originally assumed. If

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. this is the case then it will have a trickle-down effect on Indicators 1.2 (the number of people using the 321 platform) and 1.3 (the number of people adopting improved practices) below, since they are all based on assumptions relating to the number of people with access to the 321 platform.

Indicator 1.2: Number of farmers using ICT services

In general, a total number of 139,920 smallholder farmers have engaged with the ICT services. This corresponds to 50% of Year 2 target (281,250). The project was not able to reach its targets not only because it could not work with the total number of expected radio stations, but also due to lower number of users of the 321-service (see explanations below).

Radio programs- Regarding radio programs, 124,211 farmers have listened at least one farm radio episode, equivalent to 83% of Year 2 target (150,000). The project failed to reach the Year 2 target because it engaged with fewer radio stations (as indicated in 1.1 above), which limited the number of people who could potentially have listened to the programs. However, it is promising to see that of the total pool of potential listeners the project assumed that 50% would listen at least one episode, whereas in reality actually 76% of potential listeners listened to at least one episode. This shows that the project would have reached the target if it had worked with all the 04 radio stations, and is an indication that the project will likely exceed this target by the end of the project (once it is working with 5 or even 6 radio stations). 321 platform-The 321-system registered a total of 23,074 unique users, corresponding to 18% of total Year 2 target (131,250). The project had assumed that 25% of those with access to the 321 platform (meaning 25% of Vodacom subscribers) would go on to use it. However, in reality this figure was just 18% of the total Vodacom subscribers (as per Indicator 1.1 above). However, the under achievement may be a result of the fact that the original assumption of the number of people with access to the 321 platform may have been overestimated (see indicator 1.1 above). Looking at the number of Vodacom subscribers in Alto Molócuè and Ribaue districts alone, and comparing this with the number of 321 users in those same districts, it appears that 28% of Vodacom subscribers have used the system – higher than the assumption of 25%. Had the project extrapolated the Alto Molócuè and Ribaue access/user figures it would actually have overachieved with relation to Indicator 1.2. From this we can conclude that the project is probably under this target due to the fact that there are fewer people with effective access to the service (with Vodacom having limited network coverage in the rural community). In order to compensate for this the project is making efforts to increase its results not for Indicator 1.1 (which in terms of the 321 platform it has little effect over) but instead the conversion rate - or, rather, the percentage of Vodacom subscribers who go on to use the

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. system. The project is doing this by way of increasing farmers’ awareness of the 321 platform at the same time as making it more appealing to them. One-way project has done this is by way of an ICT awareness campaign though marketing materials (posters etc), community fairs, field days, radio spots and the leverage of CLUSA field staff from other projects (as discussed above). The project will continue investing in this marketing campaign in Year 3. Another way project has tried to address this issue is to make the 321-system more attractive to users, by including additional information on the platform that was not planned at project conception – dynamic agribusiness information from private sector and other partners, which is updated on a two-weekly basis. In addition, in order to compensate for the lower than expected results for the use of the 321 platform the project will consider increasing the number of people accessing the radio programs. To do this, it will consider working with a 6th radio station, which will have the effect of increasing the number of farmers accessing ICT services in general.

Indicator 1.3: Number of farmers who have applied SSTP technologies or management practices

The project was able to exceed this target by reaching 115,335 farmers who have applied at least one of the promoted technologies (151% of the target of 76,250).

Although project is under target in the number of people who have used the service (indicator 1.2), it is doing better than planned in terms of application. The project had expected that at least 30% of farmers who have used ICT services would try out at least one of the promoted management practices, whereas our survey indicates 40% of farmers have tried one. This may be a result of combination of 1) design and appropriate content for ICT enabled services (321 service and radio programs) as well as 2) support for smallholders through existing CLUSA programs and existing CLUSA field staff, who provided technical assistance to smallholders and ensured that they were encouraged to implement the practices that they learned about.

Indicator 1.4: Number of hectares under improved technologies or management practices as a result of USG assistance

The number of hectares under the improved technologies was 116,507ha, corresponding to 611% of the target (19,063). The over achievement of this target is due in part to the fact that the project overachieved in terms of the number of smallholder farmer applying improved practices (as indicated in 1.3). The more people tried the promoted management practices, the more hectares that are produced under improved practices. However, a further contributing factor was that the project had assumed that smallholders farmed on average 0.25 ha, when in actual fact the 2017 survey showed that the average farm size was 1ha. All these have impacted positively the total number of hectares under improved management

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. practices. It should be noted, though, that that even if the project used the assumption of an average farm size of 0.25ha it would still have surpassed the target for this indicator.

The project survey showed that the most frequently used improved technologies related to crop genetics and pest management practices. The number of hectares cultivated with improved techniques involving SSTP crop genetics, including vegetative planting materials or superior varieties of identified target crops, is 68,506 ha. This includes improved varieties of maize such as ZM 523, Matuba and Hybrid Molocue, as well as improved cassava varieties such as Orera Norte, Eyope, Nziva and Nikwaha. The number of hectares cultivated under SSTP "pest management" techniques is 50,612 ha.

Indicator 1.5: Number of farmers who have received donor supported short-term agricultural sector productivity training or food security training (optional). The ICT enabled services does not entail any sort of activity related with productivity or food security training. Therefore, project will not report on this indicator.

Indicator 2.1: Percentage of costs of ICT-enabled services covered by non-donor sources

A total of 95% of the costs of ICT-enabled services has been covered by non-donor sources, corresponding to 479% of Year 2 target (20%). The over achievement of this target is due in part to the fact that the project had assumed that Vodacom would only contribute with free 321-service (SMS, USSD, IVR). This contribution would be directly related to the number of users/interactions with the platform. In fact, Vodacom donated more than expected by promoting the service by sending SMS to all Vodacom subscribers and sponsoring the launch event of 321 service. The following tables (Table 7 and table 7.1) shows ICT performance and impact data:

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. Table.7 ICT Performance indicators (target vs actual)

FY17 Target FY17 Actual Channel (actual) (cumulative) (cumulative) 321-service Radio Video 1.1 Total number of farmers with access 825,000 688,435 525,000 163,435 - to one or more ICT channels

Male SHF 536,250 330,449 252,000 78,449 -

Female SHF 247,500 357,986 273,000 84,986 -

1.2 Total number of farmers using ICT 281,250 139,738 22,882 12,4211 - services Male SHF 182.812.6 73,440 13,958 63,347 - Female SHF 98,437.5 66,298 8,924 60,863 - 1.3 Total number of

farmers who have

applied SSTP 76,250 115,299 7,093 114,274 - technologies or

management

practices

Male SHF 49,562.5 62,044 5,888 59,422 -

1,206 Female SHF 26,687.5 53,254 54,851 -

1.4 Number of hectares under improved technologies or 19,063 116,459 6,029 116,559 - management practices as a result of USG assistance

Male SHF 29,327.7 62,334 5,004 60,611 -

Female SHF 10,264.7 54,125 1,025 55,948 -

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. 1.5 Number of individual who have received USG (i.e.

donor) supported 200,000 N/A N/A N/A N/A short-term - agricultural sector produtivity training or food security 2.1 Percentage of costs of ICT- enabled services 20% 95% 96% 59% - covered by non- donor sources Percentage of costs

of radio services 10% 59% N/A 59% - covered by non-

donor sources Percentage of costs

of mobile phone 53% 96% - - services covered by - non-donor sources Percentage of costs

of video services N/A - - - covered by non-

donor sources

Table7.1 ICT performance indicators (percentage of achievement and explanations)

FY17 FY17 Achiev Explanations Target Actual (%) 1.1 Total number of farmers with

access to one or 825,000 688,435 83% more ICT channels Project assumed that 50% would use radio progams, actually 76% used it; 1.2 Total 321: we assumed 25% of Vodacom number of users would access the system, the farmers using 281,250 139,738 50% result was 18%. However, if we use our ICT services survey figures (for 2 districts) for the # of people with access, 28% of those

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. used the service. If we had based the assumption on the results from our own survey (in terms of the # of people with Vodacom cards) we would have over achieved on this target. The target for HNI may have been incorrect since it was based on an inflated assumption of the # of people with Vodacom SIM cards Radio programs: we assumed that 30% 1.3 Total of users would adopt, actually it was number of 40%. 321 service: we assumed 30%, we farmers who got 33%. This shows that the IMPACT of have applied EMM was greater than planned despite SSTP 76,250 115,299 151% low achievement of 1.2. This shows that technologies or the services we are offering are more management appropriate to farmers/more useful practices than we had expected Used the assumption of average farm 1.4 Number of size of 1.02ha for FRI and 0.85ha for hectares under HNI, rather 0.25ha as per the original improved assumption. This explains, in part, the technologies or over achievement. However, if we had management 19,063 116,459 611% used the original assumption of 0.25ha practices as a there would be 28,838 ha under result of USG improved practices so we would still assistance have been over target (151%). 1.5 Number of individual who have received USG (i.e. donor) supported Project does not entail training short-term N/A N/A 200,000 activities. agricultural sector productivity training or food security Project had assumed that Vodacom 2.1 Percentage would only contribute with free 321- of costs of ICT- service (SMS, USSD, IVR), that would enabled services 20% 95% 473% rely on the number of users and covered by non- number of interactions with the donor sources platform. Vodacom donated more than

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. expected by promoting the service by sending SMS to all Vodacom subscribers and sponsoring the launch event of 321 service.

5. Challenges and lessons learnt

Availability of ICT information: The Year 2 results were influenced by the fact that some farmers received ICT information too late in the agricultural calendar, when some farm activities (e.g input and seed purchasing, land preparation, planting and fertilizer applications) had already taken place. For instance, the agriculture information on 321-service went alive only in December 2016. Similarly, community radio programs with agricultural content started mid-March (Ribaue) and May (Alto Molocue). Late information did not allow farmers to proper and timely plan and apply technologies, therefore impacting on the number of farmers who applied technologies and the number of hectares under promoted management practices. For the next radio station, the project will start disseminating information earlier (e.g October) to allow time for farmers to best plan and integrate the practices.

Use of 3-2-1 Services: The use of the service was negatively influenced by many factors. One aspect is related with the fact the 321 service is a new one and most of the beneficiaries are not aware of the services. As a result, the number of farmers using the service is relatively smaller than expected. In order to increase the awareness of ICT services, the project will continue to invest in the promotion of the 3-2-1 service, including the use of local radio spots in several other districts. It will also continue to distribute printing marketing material (posters, pamphlets and instruction cards) and will leverage from other CLUSA projects and extension officers (RAMA, Promac and PAAF) to facilitate the promotion of the services. The project will also continue disseminating dynamic information as this has been proven to be an attractive factor for users to engage with the ICT system.

As described, the use of the service was also influenced by limited Vodacom mobile phone services in the rural communities. Since the 321 service is exclusively accessed thought Vodacom, limited access to Vodacom services prevents farmers from have access to the 321- platform. Little can be done by the project to improve farmers’ access to Vodacom services. However, the project, through HNI, will consider lobbying Vodacom to allow the 321 platform to be accessed also through other mobile phone services, thus increasing the opportunity for more farmers to engage with *321#.

Interaction with radio programs - Survey results indicate that at least 124,210 farmers have listened at least one radio episode. However, only few (858) farmers have engaged with radio programs via Uliza platform. Recognizing that it can take time for farmers to familiarize

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. themselves with technology, the radio stations will systematic and continuously broadcast spots with instructions on how farmers can interact with radio programs. The project will consider encouraging stations to do this not only via the ULIZA platform but also by developing other, cheaper and therefore more sustainable, forms of interaction such as a “green line” or free phone number (see below). Radio stations will also incentivize trained CLGs to be ambassadors for the promotion of the service.

Major Lessons Learned Radio program interactive platform – The Uliza platform is a very useful tool for radio programs interactions as this allows farmers to engage with the system at any time of the day and from anywhere, free of charge. However, in cases of high interactivity this can result in costs which are not sustainable for radio stations. Therefore, while the project encourages interactivity this must be balanced with the reality of budgets. In order to lower the costs, the project will advise radio stations to consider putting measures in place before they start of the radio program activities, including decreasing the number of promotional jingles and decreasing the number of days for lines to be open. Radios will be also advised to combine ULIZA with other local alternative methods of interaction (e.g. free phone numbers). This combination is likely to reduce costs and allow the radio to capture experiences from smallholder farmers who are not comfortable interacting with ULIZA.

Radio station business - community radios have limited financial resources and often lack a sustainable business model which will allow them to sustainably run programs with agricultural content. They often depend on donor subsidies to run programs, with a small amount of income being generated from the sale of airtime to local small and medium enterprises or government. The project held, and will continue holding, meetings with the radio station representatives to explore opportunities to sustain the radio programs, for instance more aggressive marketing to sell airtime for private sector firms to use this platform as a marketing tool.

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. 6. Planned activities for the next 6months The major activities for season 2017/18 include:

• Preparation and upload of agricultural contents (batch 2) for the following value chains: pigeon pea, groundnut, orange fleshed sweet potato, horticulture and agriculture resilience. It will also provide information regarding aflatoxin and the fall army worm; • The project will prepare videos, to be disseminated to smallholders via agrodealers and extension staff, regarding GAPs. The project will wherever possible engage the private sector in designing/filming these videos, and project staff will be trained in technical aspects of production; • The project will provide training and support to community radio stations in Angonia and Manica districts on the Beira corridor and Namialo in Nampula, expanding the provision of ICT enabled services via participatory radio programs and compensating for reduced access to the 321 platform; • As Project has identified some areas of collaboration with other USAID funded projects such as RAMA Nacala and Beira corridor, project will consider investigating and leveraging ICT activities from them. RAMA Beira corridor, for instance has interest on disseminating agriculture information in both 321 service and radio programs. So, ICT project will see where collaboration can be made and therefore avoid duplications. For RAMA Nacala corridor, potential area of collaboration will be to study the impact 321 platform and produce recommendations for future, and analysis for sustainably incorporating market intelligence information into the service.

• The project will monitor and improve agriculture content as per feedback from agricultural stakeholders. This will be done thought survey via phone call, farmers group discussion and meeting with private sector and partners using the services;

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD.

Appendix 1. Success story

Success story: improving smallholder agricultural productivity in Soares community, northern Mozambique

Studies indicate that in general smallholders’ access to extension services in Mozambique is extremely limited, with on average each extension worker serving around 1,200 farmers. Although this ratio has improved in recent years through various initiatives to improve agricultural production, continued technological, human and financial limitations mean it has yet to reach the recommended Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s recommendation of not more than 250 farmers per extension worker. This lack of technical assistance for smallholder farmers has negatively influenced their adoption of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and, as such, contributes to low agricultural production in the country in comparison with neighboring countries. For instance, in cereal crops, Mozambique productivity is in average 0.8ton/ha, whereas Malawi is 3.0 ton/ha, South Africa is 3.8 and Zambia is 1.9 ton/ha.

The NCBA CLUSA managed Extensão Multimédia project, funded by USAID, UKaid, IFAD and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is a direct response to this situation. Extensão Multimédia is a three-year project running from February 2016 to February 2019) which aims to use Information Communication Technology (ICT) to disseminate agricultural extension messages regarding GAPs, pest/disease management, agricultural inputs, market information and other information required for smallholder farmers to better produce and market their produce. To do this the project has partnered with Human Network International (HNI, with expertise in the management of information platforms via cellphone providers) to disseminate extension messages through text messaging (SMS and USSD) and voice recorded messages (IVR) via a platform hosted the mobile phone operator Vodacom (complimented by a webpage dedicated to providing technical support and teaching materials, manuals and videos to rural extension staff). Similarly, its partnership with Farm Radio International (FRI, specializing in participatory radio programs in sub-Saharan Africa) enables the project to support local community radio stations to transmit radio programs with an agricultural content, targeted at smallholder farmers and transmitted in both Portuguese and local languages. The project also counts on the support of a range of public and private partners in the agricultural industry in Mozambique, notably the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MASA), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa’s (AGRA) funded scaling Seed technology partnership (SSTP) project and various private sector firms who utilize the platform for marketing of their products/service and for the procurement of smallholders’ offtake.

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. This year the Extensão Multimédia has enabled the Alto Molocue district radio to broadcast its first ever agricultural extension programs, through a series named “Farmers’ Hour”, to the 75,000-population living within its 75km radius. Together NCBA CLUSA and FRI have supported the radio through training for its staff and by providing the necessary resources (e.g. desktop computer, voice recorder, etc.) to produce and air agricultural programs which are in line with FRI’s high standards and successfully engage smallholders as active listeners who then go on to practice what they have heard. Farmers’ Hour discusses topics related to best production practices for cassava - from land preparation right through to post harvest practices and marketing - and is aired twice every weekday, once from 13.30 to 14.00 in Portuguese and again from 15.10 to 15.40 in the local language Lomué, and repeated on Saturdays at 15.10 (Lomué) and 20.30 (Portuguese). Between May and August 2017 Alto Molocue radio aired 13 episodes of “Farmers’ hour”, each episode of which was connected to the next as a form of serial in order to ensure listeners’ maximum interest and engagement.

The Extensão Multimédia team (Karen, Chande e Tiana) together with Alto Molocue community radio staff

To encourage and make it easier for listeners to engage in the Farmers’ Hour radio programs, the project also supports listeners to organize themselves into listening groups which meet for every transmission. One such group is Soares Listening Group, located 30 km from Alto Molocue center. Soares Listening Group is composed of 30 members (half of which are women) who meet every Thursday from 12.30 to 16.00, during which time they listen to the programs and engage in discussion over their content. They are able to relay their comments, questions and concerns back to Alto Molocue radio station by way of the Uliza platform, which enables them to call a cellphone number and leave a recorded message which is then picked up by the radio team and responded to during the next Farmers’ Hour edition. Uliza enables Alto Molocue radio to receive, save and respond to calls from all of its listening groups as well as members of the public in general, thus enabling them to answer questions, clarify issues and modify the program’s content in response to listeners’ needs. This is what makes Extensão Mulitmédia’s radio programs so participatory: farmers not only listen but are active contributors to its content and evolution.

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD.

Soares Listening Group, Nauela administrative post, Alto Molocue district

Senhora Victorina Vasco, smallholder farmer and member of Soares listening group

Alto Molocue radio’s listeners are positive about the changes that Farmers’ Hour has brought about. “I’ve lived in this community for many years and this is the first time that we’ve ever had radio programs like this” said Victorina Vasco, 42, smallholder farmers and member of Soares Listening Group. “Farmers’ Hour has really helped farmers here. Before, we just planted cassava sticks without following any real guidelines. Now, we know that there is a correct time and method to do this. For instance, we know how to preparing the cassava sticks for planting, and how to disinfect the knife used to cut the sticks, and if we don’t have access to the proper products we know how to make do with local products such as ashes and soap. Before the program we also used to take the leaves off at any time to put in our meals, but now we know that there’s a correct time to do this.” said Victorina, speaking of the how the Farmers’ Hour program has changed the way she and her neighbors produce and consume cassava. Asked how she is able to relay her needs back to the radio station, she adds that “we listen to Farmers’ Hour every Thursday. We listen as a group and afterwards share our experiences amongst ourselves. If we have any doubts or questions we call the Uliza number

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A New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition Project funded by USAID’s Feed The Future, UK Aid, and IFAD. and the radio tecnicians reason the following week. This way we know that we are listening to the radio station but they are also listening to us”.

In this way, the Farmers’ Hour program is contributing to changing the way that smallholders are producing cassava, gradually changing their practices in a way that generates better yields. Spurred on by this success, the Extensão Multimedia project intends to expand its activities to other provinces and districts in Mozambique (for instance, Angonia district in Tete province) to give other radio stations the opportunity to start producing interactive programs with an agricultural content, enabling listeners to inform themselves on best practices, improve their yields and take more active, positive decisions regarding their agricultural production.

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