Brave New Word – Daring Philippine Journalists To Go Digital Starting Yesterday, 30 March 2020!


India had its 9th Digital Awards January 2019[1] (the digital image for the 10th was unimpressive, sorry) – why not my beloved Philippines giving out impressive digital awards starting next year, to be called Digital Philippines (DigPH)?

And because it’s my territory, but more so because Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie is much more modern and much more ambitious for his country than any other chief of the Department of Agriculture, DA, before him has been, I am encouraging a

DigPH Agriculture!

I want journalists to dig into digital journalism for Philippine agriculture.

I’m praying that the DA welcome it with an excellent budget, starting now, DigPH Agriculture 2020, for any and all workers with words and ideas, from teenagers to seniors, from in-school to out-of-school.

(I’d gladly be the Program Leader for DigPH so that I will be automatically out of contention and cannot be accused of inventing my own award! Truth be told, I already have an award, and I did not ask for it: Outstanding Alumnus for Creative Writing, given by the UP Los Baños Alumni Association in 2011, and I am proud to say I am the first and the only recipient so far in the entire UP System in all of UP alumni associations. My award has a William Dar connection – it was mainly based on 3 books of mine published by ICRISAT, when Manong Willie was still Director General and I was ICRISAT international consulting writer.)

To encourage hundreds more than the existing media can accommodate, many a blog is the excellent medium for supporting the new PH Agriculture under Manong Willie, considering his mantra, “New Thinking for Agriculture,” which is packaged into 8 paradigms:

(1)   Modernization
(2)   Industrialization
(3)   Promotion of exports
(4)   Consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms
(5)   Infrastructure development
(6)   Higher budget & investment
(7)   Legislative support
(8)   Roadmap development.

So today, I am urging Manong Willie to say “Yes!” to my proposal so we can set the digital wheels in motion. I love the proposal not only because it’s mine but because you can DigPH working at home, as I am doing right now.

Only bloggers are eligible. DigPH Agriculture will not consider for the awards what journalists publish in non-digital media.

I would like DigPH to start now, today! Age is not an excuse – I am already 79 years old.

Almost 4 years ago, already I was urging the agricultural journalists to go digital – “Philippine Agricultural Journalists, Time For Climate Change[2]!” in another blog.

Here I am again, this time more insistent than before, especially with the problems brought about by the Rice Tariffication Law, the Coronavirus Lockdown, and the unrelenting practice of poor Filipino farmers in being bad farm entrepreneurs!

DigPH Agriculture should not be a problem with the farmers today because many a farmer knows how to handle a cellphone. Graduating to desktop PC, notebook or laptop PC should not be a problem within the family.

So, what’s the problem? It’s the Philippine agricultural journalists!@517





[1] https://www.iamaiida.in/Winners2019.php
[2] https://creativethinkering.blogspot.com/2016/05/philippine-agricultural-journalists.html?view=flipcard

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