Participatory Communication And Adoption Of Soil Fertility Management Practices: Evidence From Two Agro-Ecological Zones In Ghana

Abstract

Communication is widely recognised as essential to the development of rural communities located in African countries like Ghana. While the practice of development communication has widely been informed by either an instrumentalist/diffusion or participatory perspective, there is an argument for the study of development communication from a constructivist perspective. Such a perspective focuses less on exploring the outcomes of development communication efforts and allows for a closer examination of contextual issues affecting communication. Given that the existing theoretical recommendation of participatory communication for sharing soil fertility management messages is not complemented with enough evidence of its practical application, this study examined participatory communication as it was applied in a project implemented in two agro-ecological zones in Ghana. Using a grounded theory approach and collecting data through interviews, focus group discussions, observations and reviews of transcripts of a radio programme, the study examined the dialogic tactics used by farmers and scientists involved in the interaction, scientists’ and farmers’ perceptions of participatory communication, the contextual conditions which informed successful participatory communication and how participatory communication facilitated farmers’ adoption of soil fertility management. Findings of this study showed that participatory communication leads to scientists’ awareness of indigenous knowledge forms which improves communication competence when those knowledge forms are made to inform messaging. This is done through the appropriation of local metaphors, analogies, examples, testimonies, etc. Moreover, the outcomes of participatory communication are not inevitably positive; but dependent on the salience of a number of factors in the reckoning of scientists and farmers. Lastly, participation and transmission are not necessarily incompatible or mutually exclusive especially in the case of addressing scientific topics such as soil fertility management.