ESAFF graduates first cohort agroecology journalists and communicators

KAMPALA: The Eastern and Southern African Small Scale Farmers’ Forum [ESAFF] early this week passed out the first cohort of 20 journalists who completed training on how to report on agroecology practices for sustainable agriculture.

The journalists selected from the various media houses across the country were passed out after undergoing a three-month training facilitated by the Agroecology School for Journalists and Communicators.

Andrew Adem, the course coordinator said ESAFF has secured funding to train 1,200 journalists in Uganda and other East African countries and will be giving reporting grants starting next month.

“Last year we enrolled 20 journalists. In the second cohort that will start in March, we will enroll 15 and another 15 in August. We are targeting to train 1,200 in phases on agroecological practices,” Adem said.

He said ESAFF spent Shs 125 million to facilitate the entire training, including preparing course modules for the training and now the grant is intended to empower journalists to do more stories of agroecology.

Edgar Kaira one of the journalists from the first cohort said he feels empowered with skills to report on agroecology, having spent three months training.

“I can now identify the right sources for my radio programme, and ask the guest the right and relevant questions,” Kaira said.

Hakim Baliraine, the national board chairperson of ESAFF emphasised that the purpose of training journalists on agroecological practices is to bridge the gap between small-scale farmers and consumers on the existing food systems.

The small-scale farmers have a lot of innovations and solutions that if we paid attention to them, we would make the world a better place in terms of food when journalists tell their stories, the national coordinator of EASFF, Nany Mungimba said.

Sunday Bob George, the country coordinator Islamic Food Security Organisation said the media is a critical stakeholder in preaching the gospel of agroecology in the country.

“Equipping journalists in agroecology is a blessing to this country. If 50 percent of the journalists in Uganda are trained in agroecology, it will be good given that the population is growing while the available is inelastic,” Bob said.

Agriculture has multiple connections to key aspects, such as food security, livelihoods, especially for the rural poor, ecosystems, climate change, and health hence making it a crucial sector for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs].

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations [FAO] Symposium on Agroecology in 2014 highlighted the importance of agroecological practices in the development of sustainable food systems, particularly for its contributions to the sustainability of family and traditional farming systems.

According to scientists, the following agroecological practices are so far poorly integrated in actual agriculture: biofertilisers; natural pesticides; crop choice and rotations; intercropping and relay intercropping; agroforestry with timber, fruit, or nut trees; allelopathic plants; direct seeding into living cover crops or mulch; and integration of semi-natural landscape elements at field and farm or their management at landscape scale.

By contrast, the following practices are already well integrated: organic fertilisation, split fertilisation, reduced tillage, drip irrigation, biological pest control, and cultivar choice.

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