The Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism has concluded a three-day intensive training on agriculture reporting for Nigerian journalists.

The boot camp, which ended last Thursday, was supported by Notore Chemicals Industries Limited. It had in attendance over 40 journalists selected across the country. Nine facilitators trained participants on understanding the agriculture sector and how to achieve better agriculture reporting.

The journalists were trained on diverse issues relating to agriculture reporting such as solution journalism, accountability media, investigative interviewing, generating story ideas, data gathering and crunching, statistic for journalists, writing and editing skills; communication ethics; and media and agribusiness trends.

Joshua Olufemi, the programme director of PTCIJ, said the training was planned to build the capacity of journalists on agriculture reporting so that more newsrooms across the country will have the requisite skills and capacity to effectively report the agriculture sector.

Mr. Olufemi expressed gratitude to the funders of the boot camp, Notore Chemical Industries Plc., for supporting the rejuvenation of the agriculture sector through effective capacity building. He asked other key stakeholders in the industry to follow the example of Notore Chemical Industries Plc.

Speaking on the training, Dapo Olorunyomi, the Executive Director of PTCIJ said “participants at the training have tapped and drank from the ocean of knowledge from seasoned and experienced professionals which has afforded them the skills to use data to tell stories and communicate effectively.”

The participants said the training afforded them an opportunity to learn new skills in agriculture reporting.

Blaize Itodo of 3PLE EYE IMAGES described his experience as “really enlightening”.

“Journalism for me before this training was more of see something, say something. This agricultural solution boot camp has changed my notion and perspective and I have learnt to search for the truth using data and not just hearsay.”

Gbenga Ogundare of Report Abuse, Africa said, “The PTCIJ has just scored another first in offering solutions to an apparent crisis in journalism which is the low reportage of the agriculture sector. I believe the training will deepen journalists understanding of the beat, improve how we report to the sector and cover under-reported aspects of the sector.”

Oge Udegbunam, another participant from UNIZIK FM, said “the training has given an insight on journalism not just agricultural journalism but journalism in general. Many thanks to PTCIJ for putting this together, I have indeed been transformed from a novice.”