A four-day international conference on the role of the media in agricultural and rural development in the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries began in Brussels, Belgium today with a call for a change of attitude towards a sector that is vital to the future of the global community, according to a report on www.cananews.net.

Director of the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) Dr Hansjorg Neun said it was unfortunate that agriculture only becomes "newsworthy only when there are floods, drought and unfortunately hunger".

He told the conference, which is organised by the CTA as part of a series of meetings on ACP-European Union (EC) development issues, that it was important for stakeholders to re-examine their attitude towards the agricultural sector that by the year 2050 would be required to provide food for a world population of at least nine billion people.

The event is a follow-up to the Caribbean Week of Agriculture, a major event in the region since 2007, and Neun said the sector would continue to be a major provider of economic growth as well having the capacity to develop alternative forms of energy including bio fuel.

He said "this has to be achieved in a friendly and strategic partnership with the media" and called on both the private sector and the governments to do "far more" in the development of agriculture.

The organisers said that emphasis would be placed on the lack of interaction between the key players in agricultural development and the media at the local, regional and international levels, as well as insufficient training for media on agricultural issues and the inadequate involvement of the media in formulating programmes for agricultural development.