Shykh Seraj wins FAO AH Boerma Award

Bangladeshi TV journalist Shykh Seraj has won a UN Food and Agriculture Organisation award.

Shykh Seraj, of local private TV station Channel i, along with French journalist Laetitia Clavreul have jointly clinched the AH Boerma Award for 2008-09, declared on Friday at the UN organisation's headquarters in Rome on World Food Day, the FAO representative in Bangladesh said Sunday.

Shykh Seraj will receive the award on November 18 from the director general of FAO during the opening session of the FAO conference, Ad Spijkers told a press conference.

"This award is another milestone for Bangladesh after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was awarded the Ceres Medal, the highest recognition by FAO to a statesperson, exactly ten years ago in 1999 for her outstanding leadership in agricultural development," he said.

Since 1979, FAO has presented this award every two years to journalists, who have helped focus public attention on important aspects of the world food problems, especially agriculture and rural development, added Spijkers.

"You have been selected for this award in recognition of your pioneering contribution towards increasing public awareness of all aspects of agricultural and development in both the print and more lately the broadcast media in Bangladesh," wrote FAO director general Dr Jacques Diouf to Shykh Seraj on his winning the award, according to a statement by the FAO.

The award is named after former FAO chief Addeke Hendrik Boerma, the Dutch national who headed the organisation for two consecutive terms from 1968 to 1975 and was also the first executive director of World Food Programme.