It is encouraging to learn through the Press that the Dhaka University (DU) is going to introduce a specialised course on agriculture journalism under the assistance of the agriculture development project, Catalyst. William H Allen, a professor of agriculture journalism at University of Missouri, has reportedly developed a course curriculum for the new agriculture journalism subject and a handbook in consultation with academics, agriculturists, media professionals and students under the guidance of the Department of Television & Film Studies of DU.The move is timely and appropriate in the context of Bangladesh. Agriculture Journalism can greatly help farmers adopt improved agricultural practices to boost agricultural production. Some agricultural universities in Bangladesh including the Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka are already offering agricultural journalism courses at post-graduate level. I strongly feel that the students of the new Agricultural Journalism course at DU would require learning some basics of agricultural sciences.
Another thing, language proficiency is one of the important characteristics of a good journalist. So, a compulsory course on Bengali and English plus optional courses on international languages should be included in the agri journalism curriculum.
I sincerely wish a success of the new agriculture journalism course at DU.
Yours truly,
Professor M Zahidul Haque
Department of Agricultural Extension & Information System
Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University
Dhaka.
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