FAO PRESENTS AWARDS TO JOURNALISTS, FIELD OFFICERS AND INSTITUTIONS
19951020 ROME, 19 October (FAO) -- Two radio and print journalists, Fawzia El- Moualled from Egypt and Michael Pickstock from the United Kingdom, were the joint winners of the A.H. Boerma Award for outstanding reporting on development issues, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organizations (FAO) announced today.
FAO also honoured two field experts, Seiichi Etoh from Japan and Roberto Samanez-Mercado from Peru, with the B.R. Sen Award for outstanding work in field activities.
In the first year for a new award, the Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, Chile, the All-India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, India, and the Horticulture Crops Division, Ministry of Agriculture and the National Horticultural Research Station, Kenya, shared the Edoward Saouma Award for excellence in the implementation of Technical Cooperation Projects.
The winners were to receive their prizes from FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf on Friday, 20 October, at a special ceremony at FAO Headquarters in Rome.
All three awards were named for former FAO Director-General -- Addeke Hendrik Boerma from the Netherlands, Binay Ranjan Sen from India, and Edouard Saouma from the Lebanon.
The Boerma Award was established in 1975 to honour biannually journalists who focus public attention to world food problems, mainly on issues related to agriculture and rural development in developing countries. The award consists of a $10,000 cash prize and a scroll.
Ms. El-Moualled was chosen for the Boerma Award because of her significant contribution over the past 40 years, both on radio and in print, to increasing public support and understanding for development issues, particularly in rural population.
Mr. Pickstock, shared the Boerma Award for dedication to covering agriculture in developing countries.
Created in 1967, the Sen Award is conferred annually to any field officer with an outstanding contribution to the country where he or she is assigned. It consists of a cash award of $5,000, a scroll and a medal. Mr. Etoh has worked for almost 30 years as a fisheries expert in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Since 1993, he has been FAO's Chief Technical Advisor/Senior Fisheries Development Advisor in Massawa, Eritrea working on a fisheries rehabilitation and marine fish marketing development projects.
Roberto Samanez-Mercado, in 1989, was appointed Chief Technical Advisor for a FAO/Netherlands Government Cooperation Programme on the Amazonion Cooperation Treaty for the preservation of the Amazonian environment.
The Edouard Saouma Award, created in 1993, is given to institutions which have excelled in the implementation of technical co-operation projects. It consists of a cash prize of $25,000, a medal and a scroll.
The Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecurias in Chille, introduced biological control technology against an immediate threat of a new infestation by the pest, the Russian Wheat Aphid. The campaign saved the country's economy from wheat losses worth $100 million a year, apart from the cost of pesticides and potentially disastrous damage to individual farmers' holdings.
The All-India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health encouraged and trained local municipal and police authorities to cooperate with street food vendors in adopting hygienic standards in food processing and sale, reducing the risk of food-borne diseases that were frequent in the area.
The Horticulture Crops Division, Ministry of Agriculture and the National Research Station in Kenya, trained extension agents and small-scale indigenous producers in the production of Asian vegetables. Those vegetables have become an important and dynamic export item for the Kenyan economy.
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