Exposure-4-Development Tour Plan Focuses on Thailand and Vietnam

CropLife International steps on-board as a sponsor, an exciting step toward enabling a look at vibrant southeast Asian agricultural economies.

Plans are underway to develop an Exposure-4-Development (E-4-D) tour to Thailand and Vietnam. The planning committee, which consists of Melanie Epp of Belgium, Craig Lester of Canada, Niels Damsgaard Hansen of Denmark, and IFAJ Vice President Steve Werblow, is actively seeking sponsorships to defray program costs and identify interesting farms and food processing sites to visit.

The committee has tentatively scheduled the tour for September 25 to October 3, 2024, pending full sponsor support.

“We are very excited to welcome our first sponsor, CropLife International, marking a huge first step toward raising enough funds to maintain IFAJ’s tradition of making Exposure-4-Development an affordable opportunity for journalists to take a deep dive into the agriculture of countries they might not otherwise be able to explore,” said Werblow. “The members of the committee have spent many hours developing a great agenda and talking with potential partners to meet our budget.”

In past E-4-D trips, journalists paid the cost of their transportation to and from the featured country, as well as a small fee; in-country costs were paid by sponsors. Previous E-4-D destinations include Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, China and Brazil.

Members of IFAJ guilds in good standing will be able to apply for a spot on the E-4-D tour. The group will be limited to approximately 12 journalists, who will be selected by a jury on the basis of the quality of their work and their plans for story-gathering on the trip.

Watch the ifaj.org website and the IFAJ Facebook and LinkedIn pages for details as the program and application process evolve. Click here to see results from the last E-4-D program, a 2019 tour of southern Brazil.