NMG reporter bags top continental award, weeks after winning country edition
Nation Media Group Reporter Leopold Obi.
The Nation Media Group Reporter Leopold Obi is the overall continental winner of the 2020 Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) Africa Media Awards.
The science, agriculture and environment reporter also won the print and online category awards.
In an event held virtually from Nairobi on December 3, Mr Obi, who on November 13 also won the Kenyan edition of the same awards, was distinguished for his stories: Kenya closer to giving long-awaited GMO cotton a green light, After Bt node Kenya sets sights on biotech food crops and How Bt cotton could tighten Kenya’s grip on lucrative US market which were published in the Business Daily.
His stories, he says, are meant to create awareness to the public on the progress the country has made towards adopting Bt cotton and other crops, taking a critical look at what biotechnology is all about and its benefits to farmers and the country’s textile as well as other industries.
Mr Obi thanked God, and the editors and Nation Media Group for the opportunity to work at the media house, indicating that this has always been his dream.
“I am very humbled and grateful for this recognition. This is a top award, which attracts the continent's top journalists. Therefore, I do not take this recognition for granted. The award crowns the hard work that I have put over the years in telling African science stories and I hope it will inspire my fellow journalists to keep telling such stories,” he said.
Transforming food production
Dr Denis Kyetere, the Executive Director of African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), which hosts the OFAB programme, acknowledged the key role that the media plays in promoting better public understanding of agricultural biotechnologies for food security, sustainable development and poverty eradication.
“The media is our key partner in ensuring smallholder farmers benefit from the same innovations that are transforming food production around the globe,” said Dr Kyetere while urging African countries to adopt favourable policies that support agricultural development through the adoption of technology, particularly agricultural biotechnology.
Vitumbiko Chinoko, the OFAB Africa project manager, on his part, indicated that the programme has excelled in facilitating conversations at all levels from grassroots, national and even at pan-African levels among stakeholders such as policymakers, politicians, civil society organisations and the media.
Misconceptions
“Through these awards, we celebrate exemplary media reporting of agricultural biotechnology to help deal with misconceptions, misinformation and propaganda,” he noted in his sentiments echoed by Eva Georgia, a South African community radio trainer and consultant who acknowledged their fascination by the work the journalists did in interpreting newly passed laws and breaking down scientific research for their audiences.
“You transported us through picturesque harvest fields, making us see through your eyes. You painted pictures with words, used local music to add a bit of spice, used infographics in an innovative way to bring your message across in addition to the production of good quality video and audio. These are the qualities we look at as judges,” she explained.
The awards, now in their fourth year, saw Pretty Ngozi, a television journalist from Nigeria, declared winner under the TV category while Sarah Natoolo, a radio journalist from Uganda, was the winner in the radio category.
