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The new Agricultural Development Centre (ADC) in Azaz in northwest Syria was announced this week by Dr Shaher Abdullateef, Director of the NGO Syrian Agricultural Expertise (SAE), and Kate Robertson, Middle East Adviser at the Council for At-Risk Academics (Cara).

Since 2021, these two organisations have collaborated with researchers at the ÑÇÖÞÇéÉ«, including the Business School’s Dr Mirela Barbu and the Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities’ Prof Martin Spinelli. Together they have pioneered the use of podcasting and social media to deliver extension services to farmers in northwest Syria. These services support farmers with specific needs, such as cultivation methods, and integrated crop disease management, in a region of acute food insecurity following years of conflict and environmental degradation.

The ADC, funded with a grant from the International Development Challenges Fund (IDCF) will immediately host a course in Media and Sustainable Development, training a new generation of Syrian agronomists and agricultural engineers in podcast and video recording alongside modern agricultural applications and techniques. The Business School’s Dr Barbu hailed the Centre as a ‘major step forward in the innovative use of digital platforms to foster more sustainable and advanced farming practices in northwest Syria’.

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