Wednesday 21 October 2009

Media and Agriculture in Africa


12 to 16 October 2009. Brussels, Belgium. The ACP/EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), together with its partners, held an international seminar on the "Role of the media in agricultural development in ACP countries” (Central, East, Southern and West Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific).

Dr Hansjörg Neun, Director of CTA, &
Ms. Tumi Makgabo, Africa Broadcasting and Media, South Africa (former CNN)

Some 280 high level ACP and EU delegates as well as representatives from international organisations and development partners attended. The CTA week offered a unique forum to discuss topical issues which contribute to improving agricultural and rural development in the ACP countries.

The Seminar focused on the following themes:

  • Contribution of the media to the development of agriculture in ACP countries;
  • What is expected of the media at the various levels of agricultural development;
  • Role of the media in creating awareness in the agricultural sectors of ACP countries (from political decision-makers to rural communities);
  • The media's needs in terms of capacity building;
  • Interlinkage of different media (local, national, regional, and international);
  • Specific role of different types of media in the agricultural sector;
  • Role of new media (mobile phones, YouTube, etc.) in collecting information.

FARA presented a poster on Innovative Farmer Advisory Services using ICT (June 2009 : 66 pages). This study concluded that systems which use a voice-platform or audio files provide an innovative and promising entry point to farmer information.

Urging the Pacific Media to Support Agriculture & Rural Development

References:
Themes of the conference Download full paper in PDF
Daily Reports from the conference (PDF): 12th October ; 13th October ; 14th October ; 15th October