Arrangements are in top gear to host a national conference on agricultural journalism, beginning from Thursday, August 31 to Saturday, September 2, 2023 at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Nigeria. The conference is jointly being organised by FarmingFarmersFarms; Prime Progress newspapers; and Journalism Communication and Media Centre (JCM Centre); with technical support from the Nigeria Media Innovation Programme (NAMIP), which is implemented by the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF); affiliated to the MacArthur Foundation, United States of America.
According to the planning committee, the maiden edition of the conference themed, “Agricultural Journalism in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects”, is aimed at discussing the major challenges facing agriculture with a view to proffering sustainable solutions to them using journalism and communication media, to promote food security and a safe environment. Specifically, the national conference seeks to improve the knowledge and skills of media practitioners and journalists in modern agriculture reporting; deepen participants’ understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the Nigerian agriculture sector; connect participants for collaborations in using news coverage to promote food security; identify key issues for media advocacy in the sector, and develop an action plan to respond to them; and broaden participants’ knowledge and coverage of agricultural ecology (agro-ecology) for a safe and healthy environment.
The conference is designed for journalists such as editors, correspondents and reporters from print, electronic and online media, covering agriculture and environment in Nigeria; while resource persons will comprise government officials, global media experts, academia, farmers’ network, development partners, lawmakers, and captains of industry, amongst others. The planning committee enjoins major stakeholders, whose mandate aligns with the focus of the organisers in the areas of agriculture, environment and solutions journalism to sponsors and participate in the programme by considering various categories of sponsorships and benefits such as platinum sponsorship that would be given one-year full coverage of activities through various publications in FarmingFarmersFarms and Prime Progress newspapers at the sum of Three Million Naira (N3,000,000.00) only.
The above is inclusive of the cost of transportation and other related expenses; and gold sponsorship that would be given one-year full coverage of activities through various publications in both newspapers at the sum of Two Million Naira (N2,000,000.00) only, exclusive of the cost of transportation and other related expenses. Others are silver sponsorship that would be given six (6) months full coverage of activities through various publications in both publications at the sum of One Million Naira (N1,000,000.00) only, exclusive of the cost of transportation and other related expenses; while bronze sponsorship would cover four (4) months full coverage of events through various publications both newspapers at the sum of Five Hundred Thousand Naira (N500,000.00) only, exclusive of the cost of transportation and other related expenses. In addition to the above, two (2) officials of sponsoring organisations would be registered freely to attend the conference. Further enquiries can be made by contacting: farmingfarmersfarms@gmail.com,
