AGFAX Network newsletter

Greetings from Susie and Mike, from a windswept UK, that is making sluggish efforts to move from winter to spring – better late than never! What a contrast to the warmth of Ghana, where we were for ten days earlier this month for the latest Better Science Reporting workshop. Happy to say the welcome and friendship of our seven West African participants was as warm as the weather.

And now, straight on with this latest collection of news, tips and tip-offs for you, our AGFAX correspondents.

Congratulations to Kofi Adu Domfeh, who has been selected to go to the football World Cup in South Africa, as part of the Twenty Ten Dream Team. This team of 18 journalists (radio, print and photo) have been selected to visit South Africa for 2-4 weeks, to report on African stories (not just football) during the World Cup in July. (See http://www.roadto2010.com/about-twenty-ten/ )

This is a great achievement – we’re very envious and impressed. Domfeh also told us how his training in science reporting has helped him get this chance.

“The training series heightened my interest in feature writing - which is the strength/focus of the 2010 project. Some basic skills acquired in script writing and presentation were applied in writing my assignments. Overall, I'll say one core guiding principle that helped me in putting the pieces together was the 'Story Idea' generation whilst hooking the idea to be relevant to the audience.

I must say that even though the training sessions organised by WRENmedia had focused on Science reporting, the general journalistic ideals have remained relevant to other fields of the profession. This is the reason why a Business journalist, now reporting Science, can make inroads in Sports reporting.”

Congratulations to Busani Bafana who has received the CGIAR Award for Excellence in Agricultural Science Journalism. This is another fantastic achievement.

In a story entitled “A Better Banana for Africa,” which Busani wrote during a WRENmedia Better Science reporting workshop in Mombasa, he reports on efforts in Kenya to improve banana yields and health, which are keys to “Africa’s potential banana boom.”

A press release states: “Bafana offers a close-up view of the research, allowing readers to look over scientists’ shoulders, as it were, while they work with skill and commitment to provide farmers with more productive, disease-free plants.

In a letter endorsing Bafana’s nomination, Terna Gyuse, regional editor for IPS Africa (which published the story), lauded the reporter for his sustained effort to “portray the realities of the agricultural sector, with a particular emphasis on the voices and experiences of the small farmers who are the backbone of the continent’s food security.”

Congratulations to Lazarus Laiser, whose script on Transforming bicycles into a vehicle of innovation has won him a digital recorder, in a Farm Radio International scriptwriting competition.

New AGFAX Network members

Welcome to three radio journalists from our Better Science Reporting workshop in Ghana – Aaron Kaah from Bamenda, Cameroon, Yvette Cole Smith from Sierra Leone and Aveseh Asough from Abuja, Nigeria. If you want to hear some of Aveseh’s work, you’ll find her interview on Butterfly tourism in the April AGFAX pack. And you’ll be able to hear all three in the forthcoming AGFAX Resource on Farming with trees.

Susie and Mike

WRENmedia
Producers of Agfax - www.agfax.netand the New Agriculturist - www.new-ag.info