The Media’s role in the promotion of the Agricultural Sector

Most media outlets focus less on agriculture simply because it is considered a boring topic. However, agriculture greatly sustains the livelihood of the population in every country in Africa. Some African journalists and researchers from Anglophone countries were trained in Accra, Ghana to promote the coverage of agriculture and rural development issues in mass media. The five-day training program which started on February 13th till 17th aimed at getting common interests and approach on how communicating research and science can improve and promote agriculture.The training was facilitated by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA).With both parties (Journalists and Scientific Researchers) working together, promotion of resources and capacity of science researchers to interact with the media about their research findings will benefit the farmers especially in increasing crop productivity and its related advantages.In an interview with The New Times, Maureen Katafiire, Programme Assistant (High value non staple crops) of the Association for Strengthening Agriculture Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) said that the training guaranteed effective communication which will benefit the farmers.“The training taught me how to communicate better because now my messages are short, simple and relevant. I know how to identify the targeted audience and this will improve my working skills on the documentaries and newsletters I produce for our websites,” Katafiire expresses. According to Darlington Kahiru, Communications Officer, Ministry of Agriculture in Zambia, there is need to build a relationship between researchers and journalists so as to easily reach out to the farmers with information that will improve the agricultural sector in Africa. “Having joined forces with the researchers, this is the opportunity for me to know more about how I can approach them if I want to get the best stories out of them. Occasionally there is a big gap between researchers and journalists,” Kahiru says.Fifteen media professionals and 15 agricultural scientists from Africa were the beneficiaries of the training organized by FARA and CTA. FARA is the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, an umbrella organization bringing together and forming coalitions of major stakeholders in agricultural research and development in Africa. The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) was established in 1983 under the Lomé Convention between the ACP countries and EU member states. Radio Ada FM in Ghana is a community radio station that has greatly promoted the agriculture sector and farmers can testify to that. Emmanuel Natey, farmer of onions and maize in the village of Anyakpor which is near the coast said that they learnt new technical farming skills from the agricultural program that is aired on Thursday and Friday evenings. “We used to water our plants directly from the ocean, then during the education program on the radio, we spoke about our limited harvest and they taught us another irrigation method and the use of sprinkling machines to water our plants,” Natey narrates. He added that they interact with other farmers and discuss the information that is aired on the agricultural radio show. It gives feedback on solutions to their problems. “If by any chance we don’t understand the farming methods, the radio station connects us to an agricultural expert from the government who teaches us more about the method hence improving our farming skills,” Natey acknowledges. Isaac Djagbletey, coordinator of Ada Community Radio said that the station officially opened on February 1st, 1998. “The station represents the marginalized people of the community; it’s a radio for the voiceless. It’s also a non profit organization and the first community radio station in Ghana. We broadcast for 17hours (5:00am till 10:00pm.) We use the local language known as Dangme,” Djagbletey explains.He also said that the reason they broadcast in the local language is to protect it seeing as it was almost phased out. “In addition to that, research indicates that 60% of the people in the community don’t know how to read and write especially in English so we use the local language. Regarding women involvement in agriculture in the Anyakpor community, the- 35-year old Lydia Abanam said that the awards given annually by the government of Ghana to empower women have greatly increased their participation. “The youth never engaged in farming in our community but with the introduction of these awards, they significantly participate in agriculture now. This has improved the output of our production hence getting enough for consumption plus surplus for sale,” explains Abanam.