World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the College of Development Communication (CDC) of University of the Philippines Los Baños (CDC-UPLB) have renewed their commitment for jointly promoting communication for development as a key element in agriculture and rural development. An existing MOU between AMARC and FAO since 2008 was recently renewed to further strengthen collaborations and activities at regional and global levels.

AMARC has been selected as the main partner for linking with community radios (CR) working in rural areas, especially in areas where rural agriculture and family farming is dominant. AMARC also brings into this collaboration the capacity of facilitating interactions with and participation of other local partners.

The main goal of this initiative is to enhance capacity of institutions and particularly community radios in the region to include communication for development as a key factor for sustainable development. Improving communication between family farming units and local radio stations is a key element of this initiative.

FAO and AMARC Asia-Pacific with support from CDC-UPLB have also agreed to renew the ComDev Asia Initiative (www. comdevasia.org) as a regional platform to document experiences and promote knowledge sharing and joint initiatives in communication for development as applied to agriculture and rural development.

The Asia-Pacific region comprises 60% of the world’s population. 70% of the world’s family farmers – also known as small scale farmers or subsistence farmers – come from this region. Family farmers produce 80% of the region’s food. The ComDev Asia Initiative is about bringing community radios closer to the family farmers, speaking on their behalf, becoming relevant to them, and contributing towards greater food autonomy and food security at local levels.

Rural communities need reliable and accessible information sources to be able to adapt to new challenges and improve their livelihoods. At the same time, local producers and their organizations need to articulate their demands and establish two-way communication processes with policy makers which the ComDev Asia Initiative will undertake through promotion and advocacy for effective rural communication strategies.

 AMARC-AP, UN-FAO and CDCUPLB will be organizing capacity building workshops, e-consultations and broadcast campaigns with focus on good practices, implementing inclusive and demanddriven ComDev services in the agricultural sector, and improving the participation of community media and community based organizations in support of family farmers.