“In our news bulletin we have specific time for business news…” Thembo Fred

Thembo Fred

Station Manager

Kasese Guide Radio

Kasese District

There has been a lot of improvement on our packaging and we have set categories for our charges and we consider our clients according to the business they are involved in.

We have established a program basically targeting all the business people and we have a business show every Saturday that is focusing on the business people. The program is called Edakacu ebusibuzi.

Tembo Fred

We invite local farmers to join the staff especially we invite the learned people to come on air and teach other who are not learned. The educated are from universities and institutions with degrees in agriculture and business. These people sit and discuss with the other farmers who are not learned to share ideas and knowledge.

In our news bulletin we have specific time for business news where we inform business people and farmers of different prices for different products and other needful information related to business.

We also let other entrepreneurs and farmers to call in and share their ideas; they ask different questions concerning the topic of the day.

We always go to the field with our recorders and record the farmers and other entrepreneurs /business people and get their voices to help others hear from the experienced individuals.

We meet so many challenges while reaching out to the rural small scale entrepreneurs because some of them expect us to solve their problems hence misinterpreting the role of the media.

July 2010 - July 2011 report from Projects, Research and Development Department

The department has achieved alot over the year, it has been the focal department in the implementation of  “The Broadcasting for Entreprenuership Development in the Rwenzori region” project which is supported by both Stem Van Afrika (SvA) and Toro Development Network (ToroDev). The projects goal is to ensure that rural small scale entreprenuers (women and youth) utilise the services of the widely accessed channel of communication (FM radio’s) in Rwenzori region to easily access markets for their produce and services, access to improved seeds and access to appropriate technology among others for better socio-economic development.

The department successfully oversaw the carrying out of survey across the Rwenzori region districts in 2010 which was assesing the needs of rural small scale entreprenuers from rural FM radio stations. The survey has helped rural FM radio journalists, managers and proprietors appreciate the involvement of radio listeners in the programming and designing of radio programmes.



Solomon Akugizibwe (right) monitoring a participants project



To help in fundraising, public relations and networking, the department achieved alot in developing and strenthening ToroDev social media in 2011. It started a facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Toro-Development-Network-ToroDev/208441649166138  where latest articles, videos, audio about ToroDev published on online media are posted to keep all stakeholders abreast with the organisations activities. In addition to the existing multimedia website http://torodev.kabissa.org/, the organisation has also set up a blog http://torodev.blogspot.com/ to keep, strengthen and build a strong loyal internet community.

Since the organisation is transforming into a research institution, a youtube page has also been created http://www.youtube.com/user/torodev  so that research work doesnt only stop at being documented in text, for lobbying and advocacy purposes especially in the fields of ICTs and Entreprenuership policies, text researches will be complemented with video documentaries which will be skillfully designed and disseminated to the loyal ToroDev online communities.

In this finacial year (2011/2012), the department is planning to have a fully functional video editing section to strengthen ToroDev advocacy and lobbying  capacity in the country.

The department staff will also receive more on-job trainings in research to ensure that the organisations activities and research work are published on on-line academic journals to influence policies even at the international levels based on empirical evidence from the region.

The year 2010/2011 has been a great year for the organisation because it has led to the establishment of a strong network of all FM radio journalists on all the nine (9) Rwenzori region based FM radio stations and triggered the creation of eight (8) rural radio listenership clubs across the Rwenzori region districts. Continued sharing between rural FM radio journalists and rural small scale entreprenuers which was extremely very limited before the implementation of rural broadcasting for entreprenuership development in Rwenzori region has helped trigger healthy information sharing for improvement of grassroot household incomes.

Solomon Akugizibwe - Head of projects, research and development department

“NGOs should also help to mobilize resources so that our staff can be fully facilitated as they go to do research in the remotest communities...” Victor Kahuma

Pastor Victor Kahuma

Radio manager - Kyenjojo Development radio (KDR) 

Kyenjojo District

Different staff of KDR attended ToroDev workshops and trainings and those who attended were able to come and train those who were unable to attend.

All that was achieved during the training were discussed about and put in practice, our radio program packaging has improved, our data capturing is collected deeper and we have two programs which run on our radio station to help farmers improve on their skills.

Now most of our staff knows what entrepreneurs need and how to broadcast their needs on radio like information on costs of advertisements on air.

KDR has also tried to do on job training for its staff for better broadcasting; we are still facing problems of limited resources for research especially in the most rural communities where access is in most cases difficult. 

We call NGOS like Toro Dev to call for more training for our staff for better Entrepreneurship development broadcasting.

NGOs should also help to mobilize resources so that our staff can be fully facilitated as they go to do research in the remotest communities where accessibility is difficult.

For better community development broadcasting in the Rwenzori Region, there is need for a radio staff forum to ensure better information and knowledge sharing and access.

Radio stations have not done much to help rural farmers

Mr. Katwire Mukama

Fish Keeper and Herbal medicine farmer

Kamwenge District

Radio stations are so useful but they haven’t done much to help rural farmers improve their skills and Businesses. I attended the workshops that were organized by ToroDev on Rural FM radio broadcasting for entrepreneurship development and a lot of issues and useful ideas were discussed that were so vital to both the farmers and the radio staff.



Mr. Katwire Mukama (right)



Reasons as to why most farmers do not fully participate on programming and design is because most of them were started to achieve certain political or religious goals since most of them are either owned by politicians or religious institutions.

They focus on political and religious issues other than programs which will help the rural business people market their products and hence improve on their incomes.

ToroDev should talk to the proprietors of radio stations so that more issues concerning the farmers and entrepreneurs can be discussed deeper to enable radio stations change their broadcasting for the benefit of small scale rural farmers.

Why this blog? And how can you participate!

ToroDev’s blog (www.torodev.blogspot.com) was created in 2011 to keep, strengthen and build a strong loyal internet community for entreprenuership development, advocacy, participation in budgetary processes and democracy especially in the rural areas of Uganda.



Entreprenuership Training in Kamwenge

 The organisation has since July 2010 been implementing a project on Rural FM Radio Broadcasting for Entreprenuership Development in the seven districts of the Rwenzori Region in partnership with Stem Van Afrika.

The project involved training small scale rural entreprenuers (youth and women) especially in issues of market and credit access, advocacy, participation in budgetary processes and information sharing.

Most of the project participants are involved in agri-business since Rwenzori Region is pre-dorminantly an agricultural area.

The project also involved training and interactions with FM radio managers, proprietors and journalists in market information access, information dissemination, participation of rural communities in decision making and advocacy throughout the Rwenzori Region.

As a result of all the above activities, the project therefore, created a demand for ToroDev’s project participants to have an on-line tool to help them share and exchange information for entreprenuership development and participation in decision making in the Rwenzori region.

This is not ToroDev’s blog, it is everyone’s on-line tool to share information on entreprenuership development and democracy especially in the rural areas of Uganda.

We highly encaurage anyone with information related to market access, credit facilities, agricultural scientific information, enterprenuership success stories, ICTs and rural development or any thing in relation to entreprenuership development, democracy and ICTs to write us an article and send it to admin@torodev.kabissa.org

“One farmer was given free air time on the radio station” Basemere Yvonne

Miss Basemere Yvonne
Kyenjojo FM Staff
Kyenjojo District



After the training a lot of changes have been seen, when I attended the training of ToroDev I was able to meet some farmers who were introduced to our program manager.

One farmer was given free air time on the radio station, he has been on air for more than three times free of charge to share knowledge and information especially on fruit farming.

Kyenjo FM has also started going deep in the hard to reach villages to get farmers voices, record them and air them live on the radio station for better information sharing.

One of the challenges still facing rural FM radio journalists for better rural broadcasting for entrepreneurship development is the uncooperative rural entrepreneurs especially farmers who still fear to approach radio staff for information sharing.

For better broadcasting for entrepreneurship development, the civil society needs to help more in the areas of trainings to both rural radio staff and rural entrepreneurs on issues of broadcasting for entrepreneurship development.

The civil society also needs to sponsor some educative programs for the farmers on different radio stations and finally, radio staff need more facilitation to conduct research and cover stories in the hard to reach areas.

“I have formed an association called Katebwa Sub Country farmers association which we use to market our coffee as a group.” Mr. Muhindo Ezra

Mr. Muhindo Ezra

Coffee farmer

Bunyagabu County

Kabarole District

As a result of ToroDev trainings on Rural FM radio broadcasting for Entrepreneurship Development, I have achieved a lot especially in regard to networking and use of ICT tools for coffee business development.

I have formed an association called Katebwa Sub Country farmers association which we use to market our coffee as a group. We also use it to lobby for radio programs as a group.

Muhindo Ezra in his Coffee Plantation

Radio stations have helped us to market our coffee through our associations we can know where to sale our coffee.

We participate on Voice of Toro Radio by calling in to ask for help when ever the program for farmers is being broadcasted.

As Katebwa Sub county farmers, most of us were not aware of the existence of farmer’s radio programs and how to utilize them to market our produce until we received trainings from ToroDev.

However, the trainings were not enough. I request the civil society for more trainings, on better farming practices, access and use of improved seeds, credit access and market access.