Sources of Frames for Organic Farming Practices in Kenya’s Newspapers: Analysis of Seeds of Gold and Smart Harvest Articles

Abstract

Organic farming practices are being promoted as a sustainable farming system that has less effects on both humans and the environment at large. Research shows that there is a low adoption of organic farming methods in Kenya. One of the reasons could be due to lack of adequate skills and knowledge in organic farming technologies. Hence, this paper analyses the source of mass media frames on organic farming practices as covered in Kenya’s newspapers. The focus of the study was on two Kenya’s national newspapers; Daily Nation and The Standard which have weekly news articles (pullouts); ‘Seeds of Gold’ and ‘Smart Harvest’ every Saturday. This study employed content analysis to achieve the objectives. Two pull-outs from leading newspapers ‘The Seeds of Gold’ from the Daily Nation and ‘The Smart Harvest’ from the standard Newspaper were used for this study. Data was collected using a coding sheet (book). The key sources of information on organic farming frames were organic farmers (through interviews, and farm visits), institutions and advocacy groups on organic farming, scientists (including crop and agronomists), entrepreneurs on organic foods, and industries involved in organic food products. However, government institutions' sources promoting the organic farming systems were found to be low and therefore show that the government is not committed to advancing the sustainable agenda in Kenya. It is therefore recommended that newspapers amplify the voice of organic farmers through their news articles rather than relying on sponsored articles for publication purposes which are dominated by inorganic farming players.