Gintong Butil turns five this month

MANILA, Philippines –  Gintong Butil, published bi-monthly by SL Agritech Corp. since 2005, is five years old this month.

Gintong Butil or GB for short, publishes the programs and projects of the government concerning food production and the respective roles being played by private institutions to hasten the development of the industry.

Edited by Sanny Galvez, GB has a circulation of 10,000 copies distributed free among rice farmers nationwide, retailers, and grains traders through the firm’s provincial and regional offices. Copies also filter into various government offices involved in agriculture.

Originally, Gintong Butil was first published in 1973 until 1986 by the National Food Authority (NFA). Coming out once a month on a trimmed-size 12-page 12” x 18” format, it has, like the present issue of the paper, two main sections – English and Tagalog.

The old GB, which was also edited by Galvez for 13 years, won various journalism awards, among them the prestigious Anvil Awards given by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP) as “Most Outstanding External News Publication” and the Philippine Agricultural Journalists (PAJ), as “The Best Agricultural Newspaper of the Year.”

According to Galvez, SL Agritech, the country’s top producer of hybrid rice seeds, has a plan to increase the paper’s present circulation to 30,000 copies “to reach a large number of its target audience.”

Among its editorial contributors are Rudy Fernandez of the Philippine STAR; Anselmo Roque of the Philippine Daily Inquirer; Jenny Ng of Business Mirror; and Conrad Carino of Manila Times. GB managing editor is Joh Dungca with Carmina Cruz as graphic artist.