From the land of many waters, hopping to the island of calypso and jamming, through to the island of Reggae, and finally to have peace in Britain’s trillion dollar overseas territory – my journey to the Cayman Islands.
The Caribbean Week of Agriculture has commenced, in the this very place. Via social reporting activity, not only are persons able to learn about CTA, the sponsoring partners of the event and their projects, but also it encourages youth to get involved in the discussions, providing information to those unable to join.
This helps to build traction around the different topics that will be discuss throughout the week. To me the benefits of social media use at CWA 2016 are also very apparent
With the advancement of technologies and youth interest in different social media platforms, reporting using these tools is clearly an attractive and direct way to stimulate their involvement.
The reporters will be releasing blogs, photos, videos, as well as producing live tweets. All content is curated around the hashtag #CWA 2016 Cayman.
The impact is so apparent that even volunteers have also made themselves available from an early stage, offering to translate posts into french with the intention of bringing other online audiences into the discussions.
The power of social media is therefore exemplified.
The technology assists in linking private or individual stakeholders of the regional agri-sector such as agri-preneurs, youth, students, community groups, professionals outside of the agri industry as well as investors.
Such connections can only elevate the sector pushing it in a healthy direction.
“I also believe that social media reporting will aid with building a loyalty to the followers of CWA by engaging and interacting on social media it takes way a bit of the cooperation aspects and more like what the reporters truly are- a unified group of people who share a vision for agriculture.” – Dionne, social reporter for the CWA.
In my humble opinion, I believe agriculture is not being utilize to it’s fullest potential to aid with sustainable development because of the lack of human capacity and knowledge of how to link agriculture to their livelihoods. I hope that at the end of the event, more youth are motivated to get involved in agriculture through the social media platforms.
Written by: Dionne Cush
Edited by: Keron Bascombe
Photo credit: Avneel Abhishay
