Spatial Distribution Analysis of Community Radio Stations For Promoting Climate Change Adaptation Measures in Agriculture Under COVID-19 Scenario, Southern Province, Zambia

Albert Somanje (  nsomanje@gmail.com ) Ministry of Agriculture, Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI), Mochipapa Regional Research Station, P. O. Box 630090, Choma. Lauraine Mwansa Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture, Lusumpuko House, P.O. Box 630042, Choma Kafula Chisanga Ministry of Agriculture, Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI), Mochipapa Regional Research Station, P. O. Box 630090, Choma.


Introduction
Promotion of climate change adaption measures in agriculture is vital in Southern Province of Zambia because the area is negatively affected by climate change and weather variability.The province is located in the country's driest part in the agro-ecological regions I and II, with frequent droughts and high temperatures 1 .The province has a subtropical climate.There are three distinct seasons: the hot and dry season from August to October, the wet season from November to April, and the cold and dry season from May to July.The annual minimum temperature ranges from 15 to 27 degrees Celsius while the maximum ranges from 27 to 32 degrees Celsius 1,2 .
The province falls under two agro-ecological zones.Region I, on the southern part, receives less than 800 mm of rainfall per year while Region II, on the northern part, receives 800-1000mm of rainfall per year.
Southern Province is prone to the effects of climate change and weather variability.Weather variability has been a signi cant challenge in agricultural production and productivity 1,2 .
The dissemination of information on climate change adaptation measures is signi cant for small-scale farmers to adapt as well as build resilience.The channels for disseminating agricultural information for climate change adaptation are many, and one such approach is the use of radio broadcasts, especially in rural areas [3][4][5] .For example, in an army worm radio campaign survey, radio listeners where more likely to adopt control practices than non-radio listeners 6 .However, limited studies have mapped CRS in Zambia and focused on agricultural information on climate change adaptation and sustainable agricultural production in times of COVID-19 for enhanced social distancing 7 limited government extension services and declining budgetary allocation 8,9 .COVID-19 has been found to impact the provision of agricultural extension services 10 .Davis 7 highlights the need to change how agricultural extension services are provided in times of COVID-19 to ensure the safety of both the extension o cers and the farmers.Potential solutions strategies are required to minimize the compound risks due to climate change hazards in the COVID-19 scenario 11,12 .Other studies have recognized the importance of radio services in agricultural extension and adaptation to climate change 13,14 .
In their review of adaptation processes by farmers in decision making, Robert et al. 15 propose continuous and sequential exible planning based on the available new information towards anticipated changes to the environment.Thus, the adaptation process to climate change starts with access to information, and therefore CRS play a fundamental role 16,17 .
For adaptation to occur, farmers need to have access to information such as weather information for planning their agricultural season [16][17][18] .Farmers may also have information on appropriate crop varieties depending on the weather and climatic condition at the local level [15][16][17] .Access to smart climate agricultural information such as conservation agriculture [minimum tillage/crop residue retention, crop diversity/association and crop rotation] is also critical for adaptation in Zambia 19 .In addition, crop and livestock diversi cation information is key to climate change adaptation to ensure resilience to climaterelated shocks [15][16][17] .
Information dissemination of innovative approaches from research and extension must be managed, shared in simple and clear terms for small scale farmers understanding through different platforms, including CRS 17 , and will require stakeholder engagement and collaboration.However, many processes in agricultural extension and food systems have been impacted by COVID-19.The impact of COVID-19 has been through the disruption of the food system due to the pandemic control measures, increasing numbers of con rmed cases and deaths at the global, regional and country levels.According to the World Health Organisation 20 , more than 247.5 million con rmed cases of COVID-19 and above 5 million deaths occurred globally.In Africa, more than 6.2 million con rmed cases of COVID-19 and 150, 825 deaths regionally, while in Zambia, there have been 209, 760 con rmed cases of COVID-19 with 3, 611 deaths recorded.Therefore, in a COVID-19 scenario, agricultural extension and dissemination of climate change adaptation measures should be intensi ed through approaches that have low-risk to COVID-19 but a broader impact on the public.This study's overall objective was to assess CRS' potential effectiveness in promoting climate change adaptation measures under COVID-19 conditions.The speci c objectives were: (i) to map out all the CRS in the Southern Province of Zambia; (ii) to assess how much time is allocated to climate change and sustainable agricultural information dissemination out of the regular programming time; and (iii) to assess challenges in the dissemination of climate change adaptation and sustainable agricultural information on CRS.The authors hypothesize an increase in the use of CRS for agricultural information dissemination because of mass coverage and reduced contact with farmers due to COVID-19 under traditional extension services (farmer visits and meetings).
The study focused on CRS because access by households across the radio stations is the highest at 81.3% compared with 79.8% and 55.7% for public and commercial radio stations, respectively, according to Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority [ZICTA] 21 .In addition, CRS have been critical for community engagement during the country lockdown 3 .For this study, community radio is de ned as a radio station focusing on local coverage.Therefore, all radio stations with national coverage and public radio station are not included in this study.
This study examines the number of CRS, their coverage areas (heatmap), and the local languages used by all CRS in Zambia's Southern Province.Also mentioned are key gaps in enhancing the community radio station's role in climate change adaptation and sustainable agricultural information dissemination.This research is critical for policy intervention in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); SDG 2 (Zero hunger), SDG 3 (good health and wellbeing), SGD 13 (climate action) and SGD 17 (partnerships) 22 .

CRS geospatial mapping
The results show that the minimum radius coverage for the community radio station is 70Km (Chikuni radio and Power FM) and maximum of 350Km (SKY FM) see Figure 1.The average radius of the CRS in Southern Province is 170.58KM.The Sky FM in Monze district has the highest coverage area among the CRS and has an estimated 3,000,000 listeners, and Kabulamwanda Community Radio Station has the least number of 2,000 listeners (Figure 2).In addition, the average audience for all the CRS in Southern Province (n=19) is estimated at 648,389.
The majority (78.9%) of the radio stations are privately managed, while 21.1% are managed by faithbased organizations (n=19).Four of the thirteen districts have no community radio station (Gwembe, Pemba, Sinazongwe and Zimba).Choma and Livingstone districts have four community ration stations each, the highest number per district.An analysis of the heatmap for the spatial distribution of the CRS shows that they are more on the eastern half of the province than the western side of the Southern Province (Figure 3).

Allocated time to climate adaptation measures programs on CRS
Given the COVID-19 period, the demand for broadcasting agricultural-related programs increased in the majority of the CRS (69%) as shown in Figure 4.The average weekly estimated time (%) allocated for agricultural programs out of the normal programming hours is 16.65%.In comparison, the average estimated time (%) allocated for climate adaptation programs out of the time allocated to agricultural programming is 47.32% (Table 1).In all the 19-CRS surveyed, the common languages used are English and Tonga (39.9%), while the least used languages are Illa, Goba and Bemba (1.8%) (Table 2).The most combination of languages used by CRS (n=13) is Tonga, Lozi and English, accounting for 68.4% (Table 3).Challenges and opportunities for CRS in promoting climate adaptation measures The major challenge faced by CRS (42.1%) is the limited access to agricultural experts that would continuously feature and disseminate climate-smart agricultural information and techniques.However, the signi cant opportunities that CRS (36.8%) in Southern Province have is proximity to farmers at the local level (Figure 5).
The high response (36.8%) from CRS on being closer to farmers as an opportunity is also re ected in the distribution of CRS in 9 out of the 13 districts.In addition, an analysis of the trends in the registered and operating radio stations shows that there has been a steady increase in the number of radio stations, from two (2) to nineteen (19), from 2000 to 2021, respectively (Figure 6).The increase in the number of CRS also shows the effectiveness potential through coverage and diversity in information dissemination in most districts of Southern Province.

Discussion
The community radio station mapping results suggest that the entire Southern Province is covered as evidenced by the radius transmission coverage.This corroborates well with ndings from the survey conducted in 2018 which showed that 83.1% of the households that own radio sets have access to the CRS in the country 21 .The heatmap has also revealed that CRS are more concentrated on the Eastern than the Western side of the Southern Province.The concentration of CRS on the Eastern side of the province could be attributed to population distribution, fairly developed infrastructure and terrain.
The demand for agricultural programs from agricultural organisation and companies increased for 69% of the CRS during the COVID-19 period indicates that there is prospective effective information dissemination of agricultural information, including climate change adaptation measures in agriculture (SDG 2 and 13).In Southern Province of Zambia, the con rmed COVID-19 cases are 2, 900 and 116 deaths as at November 03, 2021 23 .The vaccination rate for COVID-19 is still low in Africa (0.6%) 24 , while in Zambia only 538, 310 (2.9% of the population) have been fully vaccinated as at November 1, 2021 25 and CRS will continue to be essential in this COVID-19 scenario.The surge in demand for CRS were also observed in India for broadcasting services on COVID-19, news, health in a two-way communication approach 3 .Prahmana et al. 4 ndings also reveal that CRS plays' an essential role in ensuring blended learning models, especially in remote rural areas during the pandemic era.This approach is also essential in achieving good health and well-being (SGD 3) for extension experts and farmers in general 26 .
Although the demand for agricultural programs on CRS has increased during the COVID-19, there are still challenges.The major challenge identi ed in this study faced by the CRS is limited access to specialized experts to be available continuously throughout the year.During the interviews, it was also revealed that experts on climate adaptation measures are only available for a short period of time during the rainy season, in some cases it is too costly for CRS.Similarly, Abdulai et al. 27  This study demonstrated that geospatial analysis of CRS can methodologically contribute to the visual understanding of the potential effectiveness in disseminating climate change adaptation measures.The study also has made known the interlinkages of engagement of CRS in information dissemination and how this can contribute to achieving the SDGs at national, regional, continental and global levels.

Conclusion And Recommendations
This study has established that community radio stations have potential effectiveness in disseminating climate change adaptation measures in agriculture (SDG 2 and 13), as shown through the transmission coverage in Southern Province of Zambia.Sixty-nine percent (69%) of the CRS noticed an increase in demand for agricultural programs during the COVID-19 era.On average, it is also estimated that 47% of the agricultural programming is allocated to climate change adaptation.Furthermore, all radio stations broadcast programs in local languages, which is critical for local context adaptation.The increase in CRS from two (2) in 2000 to nineteen (19) in 2021, is also a clear indication of the growth and potential in information dissemination and coverage (SDG9).
The study recommends that Ministries of Agriculture (extension and research wings), Fisheries and Livestockand Green Economy and Environment should provide appropriate information on climate-smart agriculture to CRS to enhance the climate-smart agricultural radio programmes.Further, close partnerships with agricultural stakeholders and other corporate bodies to sponsor climate-smart agricultural radio programs are required, which is key to SDG 17.It is imperative to promote CRS in Gwembe, Pemba, Sinazongwe and Zimba districts for stakeholders willing to set up radio stations through the provision of radio licenses in these districts by ZICTA.
Lastly, studies that include farmers perception of CRS in the COVID-19 scenario through a mixed-methods approach and fully test the proposed theoretical framework can be done.

Conceptual framework
In order to address the objectives of this study, the authors propose a modi ed integrated framework for analyzing pluralistic agricultural extension performance through the effectiveness of information sources 29,30 and perceptions 31,32 based on the innovation diffusion theory by Rogers 33 .In addition, the development of communication theories underscores the use of mass media such as CRS 5 .Information dissemination is the core mandate of agricultural extension services, innovation diffusion, and knowledge acquisition [32][33][34] (Figure 7).Birner et al. 29 and Swanson et al. 35 de ne effectiveness as meeting the objective or target set to deliver quality agricultural services through regular interaction with farmers, such as raising awareness, in this context through CRS.For this paper, the study focuses on community radio operations and the potential effectiveness in dissemination of agricultural information under the COVI-19 scenario.

Methodological framework
This study employed a three methodological approach.Steps 1 and 2 address objective 1 using GIS mapping and spatial analysis.
Step 3 addresses objectives 2 and 3 through administering questionnaires to the CRS and validating the information with o cers from the Ministry of Agriculture (Figure 8).
Study population sample size study was done in the Southern Province, Zambia.The province has 13 districts in which all the CRS available were included in the study (Figure 9).In addition to mapping the CRS 36,37 , nineteen (19) radio station staff were interviewed, and 20 agricultural o cers validated community radio station information (Tables 4 and 5).Purposive sampling was employed for the key informants 35,38−42 while a snowball technique was applied for agricultural o cers 39,40,43−45 .Study instruments, collection and analysis achieve objective 1, the authors applied Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping of all CRS and their coverage areas to create a heatmap 36,37 .The focus was on CRS because of their unique setting compared with national broadcasting stations.Climate change adaptation measures and sustainable agricultural production are easily adopted when scaled down and contextualized to the local situation.
Most CRS understand the local context, social and cultural norms, and the local language, making them ideal for climate adaptation information dissemination 28 .The mapping was applied using the Global Positioning System (GPS) and ArcGIS 10.3 and Geospatial analysis of the available radio stations 36,37 .
This study used the World Geodetic System (WGS84) as its reference coordinate system 46 .
The study used the android GPS test application to collect GPS coordinates for all the radio stations in Southern Province.The coordinates were validated using Google Maps 47,48 to ensure the accuracy and precision of the radio station buildings.To address objectives 2 and 3, the authors used survey questionnaires on CRS in Southern Province, Zambia and key informant interviews (n=19, Tables 4) and validated by informants from the Ministry of Agriculture (n=20, Tables 5).Data from questionnaires was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).The results of this study are presented using spatial analysis gures, descriptive and frequency statistics.
The estimated community radio stations listenership (n=10).Source: Survey (2021) The heatmap based on GPS locations of CRS in Southern Province of Zambia Source: Survey (2021) Demand for agricultural programs during the COVID-19 period (n=19) Page 16/17 The challenges and opportunities for the CRS in disseminating climate adaptation measures.Source: Survey (2021) Cumulative registered radio stations (n=19).Source: Survey (2021) The conceptual framework for analyzing the potential effectiveness of CRS on the dissemination of climate change adaptation measures and sustainable agriculture.Modi ed from Birner et al. (2009).
Figure 8 Methodological framework.Source: Authors (2021) The Southern Province of Zambia

Table 1
The estimated weekly time allocated to agricultural programs on CRS

Table 2 .
The number of languages used in information dissemination by the CRS

Table 3
The available combinations of languages used and the number of the CRS