This year’s IFAJ Congress is being hosted by the Belgian Association of Agricultural Journalists (BVLJ-ABJA), a founding member of IFAJ. Here’s a look at the program:

Saturday April 17th, 2010 – Arrival at the Thermae Palace Hotel (Ostend)

* Beach animation in the morning and afternoon
* Executive meeting at 2 P.M.
* Welcome dinner at 8 P.M

Sunday April 18th – The city of Ghent

* Symposium ‘Ghent, cradle of biotech’ (morning)
* Partner program: ancient city of Ghent (morning)
* Visit to the Floralies (afternoon)
* Dinner at ‘t Boerenhof and tribute to the sax” by the new Orleans Night Owls

Monday April 19th – Tours

* Tour 1 – West-Flanders : Intensive horticultural production, horticultural auction, arable crops and
beef production
* Tour 2 – East-Flanders : Pig production and processing, biogaz and agro-environmental management
* Tour 3 – Antwerp & Flemish Brabant : Intensive horticultural production & horticultural auction, horticultural research, Belgian endive and dairy
* Tour 4 – Antwerp :Janssen Animal Health, veal production and dairy
* Tour 5 – Wallonia : Agricultural machinery (Joskin), artificial insemination, cattle breeding (Belgian White Blue), beef production

Tuesday April 20th

* Partner program: city of Bruges: historical centre, Belgian chocolate and lace(morning)
* Specific technical tours (morning)
* Partner program: city of Ostend (afternoon)
* Workshop: ‘Agricultural journalism, between passion & pressure’ (afternoon)
* General assembly at 4 P.M.
* Farewell dinner – IFAJ Band

I’d like to thank in advance AgWired sponsors for coverage of this year’s IFAJ Congress, Novus International and Pioneer Hi-Bred.

“Alltech firmly believes in the power of the younger generations and in their ability to change the world,” says Alltech President Dr. Pearse Lyons. “Through their articles and broadcasts, these young people can bring the latest technological breakthroughs to the farmers and influencers in all parts of the world. It is the adoption of these technologies that will help agriculture bounce back in 2010.”

This move makes the idea pop up in my mind again of “Why don’t NAFB/AAEA/LCP/Etc. just merge? Aren’t they all in the same business? Would this make sense? Then they all could be members of IFAJ. Let’s face it. We all talk about being in a “global marketplace.” Why not collaborate with our peers internationally? What do you think of this idea? Note how IFAJ refers to the award as broadcast journalism instead of farm broadcasting.

I just agreed to be a judge for the Australian Council of Agricultural Journalists for their 2010 Australian Star Prize for Rural Broadcasting. Winners from their contest will be submitted as their country entries for the IFAJ awards.

The IFAJ has expanded its prestigious Star Prize award program for excellence in agricultural journalism and photography, with a new award for broadcast journalism. The award has categories for radio, television and online broadcasting. The deadline for the competitions is earlier this year to so winners can be selected in time for the early annual congress. Entries close February 1, 2010. For more information go to www.ifaj.org.

So, since only AAEA members can enter you’ve got very little time to get your entries in. You must first be selected by AAEA in order to be submitted to IFAJ. Contact the AAEA office for more details. The deadline for AAEA entries is January 15. Here are the categories:

The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) Star Prize for Broadcast Journalism recognizes the best radio, television and internet broadcasting among federation member countries.

Sponsored by DeLaval

SFP, formerly Specialized Fertilizer Products, wants everyone to know that wasted fertilizer is wasted money, and naturally, they have products for growers that can help them see a higher return on investment when added to their current fertilizer mix.

The first product is AVAIL, a phosphorus fertilizer enhancer that when added to the fields in the fall before they are plowed, will help plants absorb phosphorus more effectively. NutriSphere-N is a nitrogen fertilizer which is a key component to a successful nutrient management program.

“Both can be added to what you are normally putting on fields,” said Melanie Acklin with SFP. “Blend it in. Mix it in. Farmers can really see added efficiency from these fertilizers and ideally increased in yield potential and increased return on investment.”

The fertilizers can be applied in spring or fall but Acklin noted that as farmers are getting ready to plant winter wheat, adding AVAIL can help the crop in the spring, especially since a lot of things can happen over the winter like early frost.

Growers can learn more about the products by contacting their local fertilizer dealer or on SFP’s website.

You can see all our pictures from the Ag Media Summit in the IFAJ/AMS 2009 Photo Album.

You can listen to my full interview with Melanie Acklin here.

“My role is to educate students and make them more aware of agriculture and agribusiness and share some of my personal adventures and experiences,” Fox told AgWired during the Ag Media Summit.

Climbing to the top of Mt. Everest was a 12 year dream for Fox and he has some great advice for our future leaders, “If you have a dream pursue it. Pursue your passion. If you work hard everything is possible.”

In its second year, the Reach Teach Learn program is designed to provide youth with the information they need to ensure that honest, educated decisions are made. The program consists of two main initiatives including a college student video contest and a high school student essay contest. College students will be able to use imagery to depict current ethanol agricultural practices while for the first time, younger students will provide their perspective writing of an essay on agriculture based on the book, “The Man Who Fed The World.” As far as you know, I’m not a high school student but I will be providing my insights about the book as well.

I was also able to chat with Jeff Mellinger, Global Leader – Sales & Marketing for Alpharma. “What we’re really trying to do is reach out to young people in the U.S. is to get them to understand the agriculture industry because they will be the spokespersons in the future. We want them to be more informed in making positive choices and viewpoints because they’ll be the future leaders in developing views about agriculture.”

Mellinger also noted that the ag industry is seeing a lot more public opinion that is not accurate and that they are trying to bring accuracy to the conversation. Agriculture, he says, is a positive industry and still important to the United States.

More than 12 states have signed up to participate in the essay contest and others are welcome to join. You can learn more about Reach Teach Learn on their website. BTW – in addition to my essay on the book, I’ll be submitting a video as well, right here on AgWired.com. Now this you won’t want to miss.

You can see all our pictures from the Ag Media Summit in the IFAJ/AMS 2009 Photo Album.

You can listen to my back-to-back interviews with Jeff Mellinger and Lance Fox here.

I sat down with Keith Dunn with the United Soybean Board (USB) during the Ag Media Summit to see what their main initiatives currently are. Dunn explained to me the importance of animal agriculture and how supportive the USB was of this industry.

“Currently in the United States 98 percent of the soybean meal goes for animal feed for poultry, beef cattle and dairy cattle,” explained Dunn. “So we feel that animal agriculture is very important to the industry.”

Other important elements of the USB program include its work with biofuels as well as a responding to a recent request for referendum. Less than 1/10th of 1 percent of the growers requested a referendum on the soybean checkoff and Dunn mentioned that it shows that soybean farmers are very confident in their soybean checkoff and the work that is being done.

Biofuels is a hot topic and one that is very important to USB. “We’re concerned with the new renewable fuels standard and we want to make sure these are based on sound science, factual and will work for the American people.”

You can see all our pictures from the Ag Media Summit in the IFAJ/AMS 2009 Photo Album.

You can listen to my full interview with Keith Dunn here.

A little over a year ago Monsanto made a commitment to people around the world to sustainable agriculture. The company is working on products that will produce more than double current yields while reducing the resources needed to grow the crops by nearly one-third. They are so committed that they launched a website to discuss this topic: www.producemoreconservemore.com.

I was curious to learn more about Monsanto’s initiatives in the sustainability department so I caught up with Kevin Eblen, Vice President Public Policy & Sustainable Yield for Monsanto.

“What we’re trying to to get the world and the public to see and know is that we have the capability to produce more food and conserve resources at the same time,” explained Eblen. “So we went on record saying in the core crops that we focus on as a company which is corn, soybeans and cotton, that we can double the yields of these crops by 2030 with the starting year of 2000. And at the same time, through the use of technology we have and others’ have, that we could conserve resources by one-third to produce each unit of corn, beans and cotton.”

Eblen mentioned that the UN has determined that the world will need to produce as much food in the next 50 years that has been produced in the last 10,000 years. That is why Monsanto is working with farmers around the world to help them grow crops that are both sustainable and profitable.

You can see all our pictures from the Ag Media Summit in the IFAJ/AMS 2009 Photo Album.

You can listen to my full interview with Kevin Eblen here.

As farmers are getting ready to harvest soon, it’s never too late to begin to think about products for the upcoming year. Nufarm is one of the largest crop protection companies in the world and is primarily at post patent company. After another company’s patent expires, Nufarm brings a similar product to market typically at a better value for the end user.

I was able to learn more about Nufarm’s products during the Ag Media Summit when I sat down with Director, Branding & Marketing Services, Brian Rund.

“This year we introduced 13 new seed treatment products for all the major crops,” said Rund. “We have greatly expanded our product line for range and pasture weed control. We’re also in the process of introducing a very broad range of herbicides for small grasses.”

Nufarm would like everyone to know that they are a very committed player in ag business. “We’re post patent but we’re not generic,” said Rund.

You can see all our pictures from the Ag Media Summit in the IFAJ/AMS 2009 Photo Album.

You can listen to my full interview with Brian Rund here.

Thanks to Denny McClintic I have a photo of the group that went on the South Texas tour. He also sent a few more which have been added to the IFAJ Congress/Ag Media Summit Photo Album. I think I have more coming from the other tours which will be added to the album when I receive them.

Looks like this group had a good time.