PRESS RELEASE…
OFFICIAL LOGO OF ‘AGRICULTURE JOURNALIST ASSOCIATION OF INDIA’ LAUNCHED BY UNION CABINET MINISTER PARSHOTTAM KHODABHAI RUPALA AMIDST OTHER DIGNITARIES, IN NEW DELHI.
“What cannot be defeated is called AJAI. Moreover, India’s culture is agriculture,” started Union Cabinet Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Mr. Parshottam Khodabhai Rupala, while speaking at the Unveiling Ceremony of the Logo and Official Website of ‘Agriculture Journalist Association of India’in the heart of the capital on Thursday the 21st July 2022.
The Hon’ble Minister, the Chief Guest at the event, started by uncovering the expressive and compelling Logo of the association and praised the initiative by the Founder and the President of the association, Mr. MC Dominic, as it will help Indian agriculture gain its rightful importance in the country. The Hon’ble Minister was on Zoom and in his office from where he spoke at length and addressed close to 250 attendeesin virtual mode, from all across the globe, and many more who were physically present at the association’s office in Yusuf Sarai in New Delhi. “Association of journalism with agriculture for agriculture is a historical moment,” he adds further.
Adding more significance to the evening was the President of The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ), Lena Johansson, who joined the social platform all the way from the United States. IFAJ is a not-for-profit professional association with 60 member countries with its headquarters in Canada. Congratulating on behalf of IFAJfor coming up with such a platform, she said, “India has a long history of democracy and freedom of the press. It is also a very important agriculturalcountry,therefore it would bevery interesting if we could, in near future, strengthen our network and welcome ourIndian colleagues to IFAJ. I look forward to fruitful cooperation with AJAI.”
Extending a thankful note to all the eminent dignitaries from the industry, the President and the Founder of AJAI, MR MC Dominic said, “I am humbled to see the number of attendees who have joined us in office and on Zoom from all across the world. This was my dream for a very long time and I couldn’t thank enough all those from the trade who hand-holded us, and took us through so that AJAI could see the light of the day. We’ve already trained many farmers as journalists and we are aiming for more than 5000 farmer journalists.”
Other VIP dignitaries who were part of the launch evening were AK Singh, DDG Extension, ICAR; Hugh Maynard, Global Manager, IFAJ; Padmashree awardee Kanwal Singh Chauhan; Kalyan Goswami, DG, ACFI; BR Kamboj, VC, CCS, Haryana Agriculture University; Krishna Kumar, VC, RPCAU, Pusa, Bihar; Dr. RS Kureel, VC, MGUHF, Chhattisgarh; S Bhattacharjee, Former MD, NERAMAC Ltd;Dr. Ajay Jha,Founder and President of Institute for Global Agriculture & Technology Transfer; Soraj Singh, Ex-Director of Agriculture, UP; and journalist Devadahan Nair from Russia, to name a new.
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ABOUT AJAI
Agriculture Journalist Association of India (AJAI) is a national-level forum that came into existence two years ago with a vision to promote the highest standards amongst the communicators including journalists and photographers, who have dedicated their lives and works to farming, dairy, horticulture, fisheries, floriculture, food production or rural affairs, in essence – anything to do with agriculture.
We are proud to share that in our endeavor to create an impact on the ground, at the grass-root level, AJAI has already trained close to 200 farmer journalists under one of its ambitious programs titled ‘Rural Indian Journalist (RIJ)’ wherein we are aspiring to train more than five thousand journalists across the nation, with many villages having their own agriculture journalist who could report the actual and factual state of affairs of the village. We are sure this would go a long way in not only highlighting the real state of agriculture at the national level but will also help our hardships and success stories from farm lands become a part of trending discussions at the global level.