Helping Azibo improve his interviewing skills

Helping Azibo improve his interviewing skills
What do you need to do?

''You need to identify what you believe does not work in Azibo’s interview and discuss why. You then need to agree on a list of interview questions which you think would be much better. The deliverable or output for this task is the list of improved questions.''

Azibo has just joined your team at a radio station in Uganda. You and your team are experienced radio broadcasters so you all agreed to help Azibo learn how to produce good radio. You decided to start by improving his interviewing skills. You are asked to read this transcript of one of Azibo’s interviews and give feedback so he can improve on these skills.

Host (Azibo): Welcome to the programme. Please tell us about green manures.

Representative of farmer group: A green manure is a type of cover crop which is meant to add specific nutrients and organic matter to the soil.

Host (Azibo): Where would these green manures be used?

Representative of farmer group: Well, one example is eastern Uganda, where researchers worked with some farmers to plant crotalaria, mucuna, lablab, and canavalia as green manures in short-term fallows in maize-bean farming systems. Also, in the western, semi-arid farming areas of Uganda, these four green manure crops plus tephrosia were grown successfully before maize.

Host (Azibo): Why do you say that these four green manure crops were successful? Are there other examples of successful green manure use in Uganda?

Representative of farmer group: Yes, in some maize-growing areas of Eastern Uganda, both lowland and highland farmers found that using mucuna as a green manure increased maize yields as much or more than the use of urea fertilizers.

Host (Azibo): What is government policy right now with regard to green manures?

Representative of farmer group: (Pause) Well … I think that the government agriculture research institutions are interested in promoting green manures for smallholder farmers that cannot afford chemical fertilizers, but I’m not sure what the government’s official position is on this.

Host (Azibo): The smallholders can’t afford fertilizers because of the changing climate, right?

Representative of farmer group: Well, I think that climate change is one of the factors that is making life more difficult for farmers in some areas of the country, but there are many other factors as well.

Host (Azibo): But climate change is said by many experts to be the most critical issue affecting developing countries such as Uganda today. Most people hold this opinion. Don’t you agree?

Representative of farmer group: (Pause) Like I said, climate change is one of the factors affecting smallholder farmers. But there are many other issues – the difficulty in finding a market for their crops, the poor condition of roads to get crops to market, the rising prices of all farm inputs, the impact of HIV and AIDS – all these issues and many more contribute to the difficulties of small-scale farmers to purchase fertilizer and to feed their families.

Host (Azibo): Thank you very much for speaking with us today. We have surely learned much about green manures such as crotaria and tephosia, as well as the situation of smallholder farmers in Uganda today.