special report • media workshop
The seventies was known as the
Second Development Decade. The meas
THE PRACTICE
ure of development was now focused on
the human being. Considered indicators of
developm ent were the following: (a) Agriculture journalism: the craft and issues
enough food, clothing, and shelter; (b)
Zacarias Sarian, agricultural columnist and editor
meaningful employment; (c) equality; and
Bulletin Today and Agriculture monthly magazine
(d) education. In the Philippines, the De
velopment Academy of the Philippines for Before beginning a career as an agriculture long, all about carabao, for example. In this
mulated the Philippine social indicators in journalist, assess yourself as a writer in case, it would be much better to focus on
1973 to include: health and nutrition; edu terms of resourcefulness; know-how; and carabao meat - it is tasteful and nutritious,
cation ;and skills; income and consumption; ability to gather significant, accurate in especially the young. In other words, if the
employment; capital and non-human re formation. Do you know how to spot or story focused on the quality of the meat, it
sources; housing, utilities, and environ develop the correct message? would have had a chance in my column.
ment; public safety and justice; social mo Do you even like to write? Is it a Fourth, study the type of stories that a
bility; political values. passion? Is agriculture a passion, too? If specific publication prints. Remember that
The Third Development Decade re you force yourself to write and writing is each publication has its own special target
fers to the '80s. After two decades, devel hard work, then you won’t enjoy this audience. Be familiar with each publica
opment was slow. Refinements were intro career. If you believe that writing will tions’ character; the kind of people that
duced in the effort to measure development. benefit others, you’ll derive self-fulfillment read it. Note the type of stories it usually
The decade saw the concern for issues that and monetary returns as well. But writing prints, the length of stories; know the
have arisen as a result of previous devel won’t make you a millionaire. deadlines and other requirements such as
opment work: women; environment; social photos. Then tailor your story to the publi
dimensions; sustainable development. Tips for writing the agri story cation's style.
When all is said and done, we can There are techniques in writing the agri Fifth, you have to have credibility.
clearly say that development is really what culture story that will increase its chance When you write stories, you usually would
people do to themselves, rather than what of being published. like your audience to adopt the technology
is done to them. This presupposes that a First, figure out what to cover. Animal that you write. But when the readers come
development project must be participatory. husbandry covers carabao, hogs, poultry, to learn that what you write are untrue, the
Participation is an indication that people are ducks, quail, layers, among others. If you next time they read your byline they won’t
actively involved. For people to be able to focus on plants, there’s sugar, banana, pine believe you. Accuracy is one of the things
do tilings for themselves, they have to ac apple, others. If you are well-versed with you have to keep in mind when writing
tively participate in the process. Active par problems in specific areas, you can write about agriculture especially when it comes
ticipation, however, means that one has to new technologies that can solve certain to profitability, yield, or dosage of chemi
be well informed. To achieve this, we go problems. My favorite topic is the sinta pa cals. If the dosage of malathion needed is
through the following: paya. This is the first papaya hybrid pro 2 tbsp and you write 20 tbsp, it would
• To facilitate active participation in the duced by the University of the Philippines damage the farmer's crop.
development process, we need to pro at Los Baños. In Luzon then, papaya was
vide information. This information is wiped out by a certain virus, and writing How do you make writing interesting?
a necessary intervention about the sinta variety would solve the Agriculture is a dull subject, and not as
• We provide information that will serve problem. exciting as sex, crime, sports, or showbiz.
as basis for people to make their own Second, show specific figures. To be So, dramatize your writing. Example, ex
decisions. The fundamental assump effective, show believable, credible figures plain what happens during sex reversal in
tion is that the more informed people and actual results. I wrote about a certain tilapia. Or show the difference between
are, the better the decisions they make Mr. Gomez who bought P1,000 worth of using floating cages instead of raising them
• When we know exactly the direction of seedlings. After 8 months he had harvested in ponds. If the difference is big, it is news
the development we want to achieve, P35,000 worth of papaya from the initial worthy. Show production per hectare, qual
we provide the necessary information 300 papaya seedlings. He expects to har ity, and volume advantage. Avoid using
on which people will base their deci vest more in the next 1-2 years. long words like commercialization and
sions that will ultimately lead them to Third, focus only on an interesting generalization. Also, use active rather than
the development stage we had intended aspect of that particular topic. Sometimes passive voice. Avoid redundant words. Fig
to achieve in the first place. I receive manuscripts that are 10 pages ure out what words to delete.
SEAFDEC Asian Aquaculture Vol. XXI No. 3 June 1999 9
