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AGROPRESS celebrates its fourth anniversary and announces the Year of Women in Agribusiness

Each year, at their annual anniversary celebration, the Association of Agricultural Journalists recognizes the two best journalists covering the agricultural sector and also selects one person to be an honorary member of their association. The award for the most engaged journalists went to Marina Cenić, BETA News Agency journalist, and the award for most engaged young journalist went to Aleksandar Radoviż, Radio Belgrade. They both received vouchers in the amount of 20,000 RSD and certificates of appreciation. USAID’s Deputy Mission Director Marilynn Schmidt was chosen as their honorary member.

Marilynn Schmidt, USAID Deputy Mission Director hands over the AGROPRESS award to Marina Cenić, BETA agency journalist

In the presence of numerous guests from the world of agribusiness, AGROPRESS marked its fourth anniversary. The Association of Agricultural Journalists, AGROPRESS, is a Non-governmental organization which counts more than fifty journalists and fifty companies as its members. The Association endeavors to better the work of journalists that report about agriculture and to inform the rural population about issues related to agriculture through seminars, lectures, workshops and through the media.

In cooperation with USAID, this Association will launch the project ‘Rural Women’s’ Education’ aimed at improving the socio-economic situation among members of this group. “Our most recent initiative is that of getting the adoption of laws regulating food production on the parliament’s agenda”, said Mrs. Nikitović Stojičić, the AGROPRESS director. Speaking about the situation in rural areas she noted that, ”There are 260,000 households in Serbia with an average age of 50. Many of them have not started a family, and statistics say that in 10 years one out of every four villages in Serbia will simply disappear. All of this inspired us to give our minds to women in agribusiness in the coming year”.

Addressing the gathering, Ms. Schmidt noted that increased agricultural productivity is an important goal for USAID both in Serbia and globally. “More than a billion people today live on less than a dollar a day, and about 70 percent of these people live in rural areas. No country in the world has managed to make any significant progress without having invested in agricultural development first – by developing appropriate policies aimed at helping producers, by investing in new technologies and by supporting agricultural outreach and extension services and stimulating agribusinesses”, she said. In her address, Ms. Schmidt explained that strong agricultural growth has been an important factor in all countries that have successfully reduced poverty and that Serbia is a country with tremendous potential in agriculture, much of which is, unfortunately, still untapped. In order to address this, she said that USAID is investing $24.5 million in Serbia through its Agribusiness Project to improve agricultural productivity, expand value-added agricultural processing and to help open new markets for exports.

Congratulating AGROPRESS on it’s fourth anniversary, Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Miloš Milovanović, announced that the Ministry will whenever possible support any initiative aimed at fostering agricultural production in Serbia. During this occasion he also expressed his support for AGROPRESS’s initiative for the priority adoption of laws related to agriculture.