Journalists want to save the Congolese agriculture
Several journalists from the D.R. Congo roll up their sleeves in favour of agriculture. And this is a first in a country where the family farmer stands alone.
© Trias
Congo and its potential; whatever book or text about this country you read, agriculture is always an item. Especially in the field of farming, the 'DRC' has a true calling. There are no less than 80 million hectares of editable farmland, four million of these are suitable for irrigation. Furthermore there is a rich variation in climate, an important water network and a gigantic fish farm potential. Despite all these agricultural possibilities, the media in Congo barely have an interest in the specific challenges of the farmers. But this might change in the future.
In the aftermath of the yearly IFAJ-congress in Ostend (October 2010) Jean Baptiste Lubamba organized – as a member of the development organization Cenadep - a workshop for agricultural journalists. The two-day event took place in December 2010. 25 journalists discovered the importance of agriculture for Congo and the need to promote this. Journalists from Bas-Congo, Bandundu, North-Kivu and Kinshasa received an understanding during the workshop about agriculture in Congo: the role of agriculture in rural development, the experiences in North-Kivu, food security in rural areas, renewable energy, the role of the media in the promotion of agriculture, etc.
After two days of intensive debate and reflection, the journalists decided to establish the 'Association of the Agricultural Journalists in Congo'. Herewith they want to give the farmers a voice in their media channels. For the moment, the family farmers have no say whatsoever in the overall policy of the country. And it shows in the press: less than 3% of the news in the media is about agriculture. According to a study of the Lokole Centre the media use agricultural news as 'padding'.
The journalists even went further: they want to help realize a national farmer movement, one of the goals of AgriCongo. The first task of the Association is to organize a general meeting of all Agricultural journalists of the country. This is planned for mid 2011.
The workshop of journalists was realized by AgriCongo, a cooperation including four Belgian ngo's, amongst which Trias. The ngo’s support the reorganization of the farmer’s movement in the D.R. Congo, in order to make the rural development a success. The support of the media in this matter is an important realization.