International journalists visit Fresno State Farm Friday, Sept. 24

International journalists will visit the California State University, Fresno Agricultural Laboratory on Friday, Sept. 24, with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-sponsored Africa’s Writers Project and hosted by Fresno-based Today’s Children, Africa’s Future. .

The project is a year-long initiative to educate reporters about global food issues, agriculture and agricultural history in Africa so they’re better equipped to understand and explain those issues as they travel to sub-Saharan Africa.

Richard Shermer of Today’s Children, Africa’s Future, said his group is dedicated to finding sponsors to change the everyday life of children, especially in wartorn northern Uganda.

Earlier this year, Uganda journalist Gerald Businge and his wife visited Shermer under Africa’s Writers Project sponsorship. They toured the Fresno State farm (formally the Agricultural Laboratory) and other central San Joaquin Valley agricultural venues.

Businge wrote about the experience and encouraged his fellow journalists to take advantage of the same opportunity.

This group, comprised of 11 students and four instructors, is sponsored by the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Visitors, who come from Brazil, Cameroon, France, India, Ghana, Zambia and the United States, will tour the farm led by Dr. Ganesan Srinivasan, director of the university agricultural operations.

The Fresno State tour provides a glimpse of the university’s dedication to improving the environment and quality of life through education, research and public service in the areas of agriculture, food science and technology.

The farm provides hands-on training in producing and marketing a wide variety of crops and food products as part of the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology. The farm also is home to advanced research in food production and water resource management that has worldwide application.

While in the Valley, the group will also tour the Clovis East High School farm, University of California’s Kearney Research and Extension Center near Parlier, Sun-Maid Growers of California in Kingsburg and Summerfield Farms in Hanford.

(Copy prepared by University Communications agricultural news intern Sadie Thomas.)