Participants at the second National Conference on Agricultural Journalism (NCAJ 2024) with the theme, ‘Capacity Building and Agricultural Reporting in Nigeria’, which was held at the Caleb University, Imota, Lagos State, Nigeria, have expressed their divergent opinions on what they befitted from attending the two-day conference. Speaking to FarmingFarmersFarms, after the event, most of them described the conference as richly packaged, highly interesting, and very resourceful.
According to Mr. Olutunwase Dokunmu, from FADAMA Project, Ogun State, the conference theme, ‘Capacity Building and Agricultural Reporting in Nigeria’, was very relevant to present challenges being faced in Nigeria, disclosing that there is a huge vacuum in the areas of reporting, and the responsibility to educate the people on the need to take agriculture as a business or vocation. He recounted his experience at the conference as enriching, refreshing, and feeling being challenged as well, while advocating for adequate coverage of agricultural programmes.
“I’ve been able to know that in reporting, the target audience, even rural farmers, have to be taken into consideration as well as other stakeholders in agricultural and food production. Definitely, I need to launch out immediately. In fact, I’ve started already. And I’ve also planned to cascade the knowledge to others that are not here for whatever reasons. And more so, the aspect of leveraging on social media. To orientate people, farmers, as well as the general public on the trend, on the importance or the role they need to play towards ensuring food security. So, I’ve made up my mind on this and by the grace of God, I’m going to achieve it”, he added.
Miss. Feyishola Jaiyesimi of BusinessDay newspapers said, “I don’t think I have the right words, but it was really enlightening. So, one of the reasons I came here, or why my organisation sent me here was because they wanted me to learn how to report agriculture better. And I can say that I’m not, I was not disappointed because many of the things that the speakers said were things that resonated with what I had in my heart, and just elaborated on some of the things that I did not have so much in-depth knowledge about before. I believe that I’m going back to my organisation, as a better agriculture reporter.
“My analysis now will be more in-depth, and the way that I report now will be different because I’m not just writing from a reporter’s perspective, but then, I’m going to try to see through the eyes of farmers, who I try to report their stories. That’s some of the things that I’ve picked out, and it has infused the passion for the work or for the job. I mean, I had the passion before, but it has made it double. In fact, the reason why, again, I found out about the conference was because I was searching online for agricultural conferences that could just help journalists. And so, I’m just grateful that FarmingFarmersFarms is doing what they are doing, and they should just keep it up. FFF is doing a great job in educating journalists on agriculture and environment, praying that the organisation would continue to experience growth”, she said.
Mr. Olawale Adekoya of Caleb University said there is no gain in saying the fact that the conference had been of highly resourceful and of immense benefit to Caleb University, as an institution and to the students in particular, saying that “Caleb University is on the verge of setting up the College of Agriculture in the institution. So, hosting an event initiated by a pro-agricultural organisation is a timely intervention for something big and the university is looking forward to a collaboration between the two bodies”. He went further to expatiate on the importance of visibility, as the event had brought the town to the gown.
On the benefits of the conference to the students, he said many of them, mostly in mass communication, are not aware of the amazing opportunities available in terms of career benefits such as employability in agricultural communication, enhanced job prospects, and how the conference had actually prepared them for leadership roles and transferable skills. He described the event as “wonderful, as it has been a blessing to the university, agricultural journalism, which is the focus of the team, and the collaboration the university is looking forward to”.
Meanwhile, a veteran journalist and broadcaster, Mr. Iskeelu Jolaosho, expressed his gratitude to FarmingFarmersFarms for putting together the conference. He disclosed that he had never heard of agricultural reporting, as a form of specialised reporting, throughout his several years of work experience. He informed that attending the conference had left him better informed, open-minded, and educated on other areas of specialised reporting, like agricultural reporting while expressing his gratitude to FFF and that he looks forward to the next edition of the conference.
