People at the centre of technology

In the mid-1960s, land reform in my country gave the land back to the farmers. This marked the end of feudalism, and although you might expect the farmers to have broken all ties with their former landlords, they did not. On the contrary, the farmers maintained a cordial relationship with the former landowners and continued to seek their views. At the time, most of the farmers were illiterate and had little or no access to education, credit or healthcare. But one thing they did have was a small radio.

By Roxanna Samii, r.samii@ifad.org, Manager of web, knowledge and distribution services at the International Fund for Agricultural Development