The College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (ACES at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the US has announced a new international education partnership targeted towards agricultural journalists.

The new venture is a partnership between the college’s Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications (ALEC) programme and the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ), of which the All-Ireland Guild of Agricultural Journalists is a member.

The agreement formalises plans to launch a certificate in Global Agricultural Communications, which has been described by IFAJ as "a milestone initiative" of the proposed James F. Evans Global Center for Food and Agricultural Communications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The partnership was unveiled recently at a ceremonial signing between ACES dean Germán Bollero and IFAJ vice-president Adalberto Rossi.

The certificate - which will be delivered online and available broadly - is being developed by the ALEC faculty and informed by research conducted with IFAJ members.

It is being designed with the aim of being globally accessible, career-relevant, and aligned with the needs of agricultural communicators working across languages, geographies, and media platforms.

This marks the first time that the IFAJ has committed to an academic collaboration of this scale.

The federation voted unanimously to support the initiative, citing the urgent need to prepare communicators to lead in a rapidly evolving, interconnected food system.

IFAJ vice-president Adalberto Rossi said: “This certificate represents an exciting step forward for the global agricultural journalism community.

The certificate will be among the first offerings of the Evans Center, a newly announced hub within ACES that aims to advance education, research, and leadership in food and agricultural communications.

Speaking at the International Seed Federation's (ISF's) World Seed Congress in Istanbul, Turkey on a panel discussion titled 'Battling misinformation and fake news about seeds' on Wednesday, May 21, the IFAJ secretary general Adrian Bell said: "There's nothing new about fake news, it's been happening for years if not centuries.

"Part of what we think is the need to equip journalists and communicators across the agri-food system with the tools they need to tackle this properly and just this month, we've seen a culmination of a long-term project within IFAJ to deliver a new certificate of education in agri-journalism," Bell announced.