Journalists, Wake Up! Philippine Agricultural Journalists (PAJ), You Have Been Slipping On The Job. Frank A Hilario, Father Of “Binhi Awards” Proposes New “Ani Awards” For You To Further Serve Science To Serve Farm Families To Bring Themselves To Prosperity!

I being the Father of “Binhi Awards,” having observed published outputs of members of the Philippine Agricultural Journalists (PAJ) since PRRD appointed William Dar as Secretary of Agriculture in 06 August 2019, it saddens me that PAJ largely failed to act on Mr Dar’s “The New Thinking For Agriculture” (TNT for A) in the last 3 years!

(Image source: “Binhi Awards” from DA, da.gov.ph)

For instance, I know that no member or group within the PAJ has come out clearly for farmers to cut costs by following one of the recommendations of TNT for A: “Consolidate operations.” I can explain such failure in 2 ways: (a) PAJ leadership has failed to imbibe the tenets of the “8 Paradigms” and (b) Department of Agriculture (DA) leadership itself has failed to educate PAJ members on TNT for A.
(Image source: “Time to” from CFI, corporatefinanceinstitute.com)

To correct the double failure, I thought of a new encourager for the PAJ to learn more about old and new technologies and systems that members can disseminate via media outputs – instead of the Binhi Awards, let us cultivate the “Ani Awards” – the first promises the labors of planting, the other promises the rewards of planting!

Conceived by me, the Binhi Awards had as Godfather Teodoro “Ka Doroy” Valencia, Dean of Philippine Journalism. The Binhi Awards was born 10 Oct 1976; thus, for the last 46 years, every year, PAJ member journalists have been feasting on their recognitions & prizes, as deserved. But millions of farmers have remained poor, as undeserved.

“Binhi” is “multiplier seeds” in your Tagalog, “bin-i” in my Ilocano. Sad to say, PAJ members had not been planting seeds to power TNT for A with which Mr Dar came in when he was appointed by PRRD on 06 August 2019. PAJ members have simply continued their old journalistic ways.

For almost 50 years, individual Binhi Awards have been given out to PAJ members writing their best in local and national media – in the meaning and manner of the Old Journalism.

What we need today is a new kind of journalism, what I shall call “Ani Journalism” (“Harvest Journalism”) – each written news or shared views always related to harvests literally and/or figuratively.

Examples of what I mean by journalistic harvests: farmers’ use of environment-healthy cultivation methods, crop care with natural means of controlling pests & diseases, harvests of healthy crops, easy access to credit, marketing with advantage, cutting costs – resulting in, most of all, poor farmers desirably rising from poverty!

Of TNT for A, PAJ as a whole has failed to be supportive! No new seeds planted, no new growth! It is as if “PAJ” is the answer to the question, “Did somebody say, ‘Just eat?’”
(Image of “Did somebody say” from Campaign Media, campaignmediaawards.com)

With the new Ani Awards, we Filipino journalists – and farmers – can harvest more with the new DA!@517