We’re delighted to announce the winners of our Africa-wide journalism competition on the politics and processes that influence agricultural investment in Africa.

The winners are:

• Print category: Oluyinka Alawode (Nigeria)
  
• Audio category: George Kalungwe (Malawi)

We had over 40 submissions to the competition. You can download and listen to their entries below.

The panel was all agreed in the winning entries according to the following criteria:

1. Creative angle; 2 Conciseness; 3. Style; 4. Diverse voices/quotes used.

The full list of winners and runners-up is below, followed by links to download the print entries and listen to the audio. The winners are invited to take part in FAC’s conference on the political economy of agricultural policy in Africa in March 2013.

Winners

Oluyinka Alawode (print)

Investing in agriculture (download as pdf)

Judges’ comment: a crisp, clear style that made for an engaging read. The piece also managed to make complex socio-economic interactions very accessible.

George Kalungwe (audio)

FAC 2013 journalism competition winner (audio): George Kalungwe by Fac on Mixcloud

Judges’ comment: Good overview of issues, with contrasting points of view. Nice use of actuality.

Runners-up

Audio (stream from Mixcloud)

• Nde Fombuh Lesley: Rice Production in Cameroon – Why most of the Government-owned Rice Projects have been abandoned
• Julian Wanjiru Kamau: Investment in Agriculture in Kenya
• Geoffrey Onditi: The Farmers’ Forum
• Njenga Hakeenah: Do NOT Outsource Africa’s Food Security

Print (view as PDF)

• Marie Louise Du Bois – BRICS investment in African agriculture – Friend or Foe
• Johanna Absalom – Investing in Agriculture
• Emmanuel Kwablah – Agriculture development that doesn’t hurt
• George Okore – Agriculture key plank in Kenyan general elections

Background to the competition

In the run up to our Conference on the political economy of agricultural policy in Africa in March 2013, this competition aimed to find the best media reporting on the processes that inform agricultural policy in Africa. It was organised by the Future Agricultures Consortium and the Institute of Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS).

The competition was open to all media and communication professionals (either print, broadcast or electronic) who are nationals of African states and are from established media houses, private and public sector organisations (e.g. government ministries), and non-governmental organisations including farmer organisations. Either printed or audio entries were invited.

For the terms and conditions, and more general information, download the full details below:

• Future Agricultures 2013 African media competition (pdf, 502kb)