(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) A format to facilitate dialogue between media professionals and the agriculture sector, which was pioneered by the Caribbean, is now being used by countries of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states to assist in bridging the divide between the two sectors.
The adoption of the Caribbean formula by the ACP has come in for praise by the Executive Director of the Caribbean Agriculture Research and Development Institute (CARDI), Dr. Arlington Chesney.
“The Caribbean has a major role to play in the development and implementation of programmes and actions for the African Caribbean and Pacific group of countries. Due to the active involvement of the Caribbean in the ACP, it benefits from financing provided to strengthen the interaction between media of all kinds and the agriculture sector,” said Dr. Chesney.
For the first time, the Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development (CTA), an arm of the ACP, has planned a media seminar to coincide with its annual meeting. The media forum, titled “The Role of the Media in Agriculture and Rural Development” is being held from 12-15 October in Belgium.
Dr. Chesney said the seminar builds on a Caribbean initiative of some three years ago, namely the Caribbean Agriculture Round Table, which was funded by the Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). He added that the Caribbean could expect to benefit further from the wider forum involving ACP countries.
“We expect it to ensure a better relationship between the media and the agriculture sector with an understanding on both sides of the strengths and weaknesses of their mutual and independent needs as both sides seek to sensitise people on the issue of agriculture and its relation to sustainable economic development in the Region” said Dr. Chesney.
The Director-General of the CTA, Dr. Hansjorg Neun, acknowledged that for the most part media reporting on agriculture was limited to issues of drought, flooding and food crisis. He implored the journalists to change the dialogue on agriculture. To this end, he told the journalists that they could promote the contribution of the sector to national development and also work with policy makers on how to better integrate media in development strategies.
“Media need to report on agriculture success. We want to see media covering agriculture. The sector is just as important as any other and it needs to succeed in order to ensure food security,” said Dr. Neun.
He added that there was every indication that the media had a key role to play in sensitising people on agriculture. To this end he said the CTA saw the need for a strategic partnership with media, government and policy makers.
