Agri journalism in RP comes of age

Agriculture journalism in the Philippines has come of age, becoming a big plus factor in the country’s efforts to push farther the frontiers of national development.

This is in great contrast to decades back when only a handful took to agriculture reporting, notwithstanding the oft-repeated fact that agriculture is the "lifeblood" of the nation.

In times past, when the Department of Agriculture (DA) called for a press forum to announce significant developments in the sector, such gathering could hardly be organized, recalled current Agriculture Secretary Domingo "Ding" Panganiban.

At times, the mediamen who come were assigned to other beats (area or field specifically covered by a journalist), say from the defense beat, added Panganiban, now in his second stint as DA secretary (the first was during the last month of President Estrada’s administration in 2001).

Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) administrator Jesus Emmanuel Paras also has a story to tell.

In the 1970s, he recalled, soybean lobby groups, through the foreign media, had succeeded in tarnishing the reputation of coconut oil as a bane to human health.

As a result, the local coconut industry reeled in its lows, bringing economic hardships to coconut farmers and workers in coconut downstream processing. The price of coconut oil dropped.

The PCA nevertheless remained steadfast in these years. It relied on the local media to counter the black propaganda.

"By year 2000, there came the turnaround," Paras said. "Now the consumers are aware of the health benefits of coconut oil. A new product, ‘virgin coconut oil,’ is born."

Paras concluded: "Those developments could not have happened without the help and courage of Filipino journalists who are certainly coming from the ranks of the Philippine Agricultural Journalists, Inc. (PAJ)."

Indeed, things began to turn better following the organization of the Philippine Agricultural Journalists, Inc. in 1976.

Preceding this event was the conferment of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award (regarded as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize) on a pioneering agricultural journalist — Zac B. Sarian — in 1974.

Following the RM award, an editor of a major daily newspaper jestingly said: "Kung alam ko lang na puwedeng maging Magsaysay awardee ang agricultural journalist, sana nagconcentrate na ako doon nuong bata-bata pa ako as a writer."

Today, noted Panganiban, the true-blue agriculturist to become the steward of the Department of Agriculture, the agricultural journalists are among the government’s most potent partners in effectively performing the task of attaining sustained agricultural development.

What has made agriculture reportage an exciting and challenging line of specialization in the journalism world is the BINHI (Agriculture Journalism) award which PAJ launched way back in 1978.

Dr. Salvador H. Escudero III, who like Panganiban became agriculture secretary twice (during the incumbency of Presidents Marcos and Ramos) once stated: "The institution of the BINHI Awards is a fitting move to give due recognition to our outstanding communicators who deliver the messages of innovation, success, and research in agricultural pursuits."