Bioscience for Farming in Africa Media project Adelaide Arthur Joy News TV, Accra, Ghana

Bioscience for Farming in Africa Media project About 160 Journalists from four African nations; Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda participated in the B4FA media project. The media fellows were taken through biotechnology training and its application to farming. The project was to increase the knowledge of the journalists about the technology to help them better report on the issues relating to GM and other biotech tools.

Since its inception in September, 2012, journalists have visited several research facilities and farms. It also provided a great opportunity to interact with scientists in the four African countries as well as in the USA and UK. We visited research facilities such as Du Pont Pioneer, Iowa, USA, Rothamstead Research, UK, John Innes Centre, UK, NIAB Innovation Farm, UK, Crops Research Institute, Ghana, Food Research Institute, Ghana etc.

Some media fellows also had the opportunity to attend the 2013 World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogues and 2014 conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Over the 2-year period, journalists have produced over one thousand news stories and features for Television, radio, newspaper, magazine and online. The training was finally wrapped up in April, 2014 in Cambridge, UK. For sustainability, media fellows have formed the Africa Network of Agriculture Journalists to ensure consistent reporting of agric issues.