Why Is There No Development Journalism Covering PH Agriculture? Very Sad Reason – There Is No Development Program!

Ever since PH Pres Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr without much ado replaced in 2022 Secretary of Agriculture William Dar with himself, and now with current Secretary Francis Tiu Jr , there has emerged not a Vision for development, not a Mission for that Vision, no Strategy/ies for that Mission, and no Programs to fulfil that Mission.

Don’t tell me BBM and Tiu Jr  do not have enough wisdom about management and enough knowledge on the problems of agriculture – especially, if you ask me, the 3 million Filipino farmers who are poor!
(lower image from youtube.com)

If you are astute, you will have noted by now that I am using my journalism to point out 2 things:

(1)   Lack of Development Leadership in PH Agriculture.

(2)   Lack of development programs in agriculture

(3)   Lack of media encouraging such leadership and programs.

Sorry! But as an Agriculturist – BSA major in Ag Educ 1965, UP Los Baños – my heart goes to the poor farmers.

Ayesha Ashfaq, a Lecturer of Pakistan Studies and Current Affairs (Google Scholar, scholar.google.com, source of upper image). writes Sept 2023, “Building Peace Through Development Journalism: Uniting For A Common Goal,” gamma.app) [sorry, can’t find website anymore]:

(1) “Explore the power of development journalism in promoting peace and fostering positive change around the world.”

We can use Development Journalism (DJ) to promote peace and positive change in our Common World of Agricultue.

(2) ”Discover how journalism plays a crucial role in advancing peace and development globally.”

If you use DJ to also promote peace, you will promote both development and peace!

(3) ”Learn about the concept and purpose of development journalism and its impact on society.”

Yes, we all have to learn more about DJ especially its power to impact society.

(4) ”Understand how development journalism can contribute to conflict resolution and peacebuilding efforts.”

An unexpected power of DJ is to help resolve conflicts and promote peace in the country as a whole and in communities in particular.

(5) “Explore how journalists and organizations can work together to achieve sustainable development goals.“

Sorry, but pursuing “sustainable goals” means preserving such as Chemical Agriculture (CA) – CA sustains the status quo of Farmer Poverty!

So, I myself prefer the “regenerative goals” brought about by Regenerative Agriculture (RA) as RA helps Mother Nature revive the fertility of the soil exhausted by crops, revive the power of crops to produce high yields, restore the nature-based health of foods produced, and regenerate the farmer from poverty to prosperity!

Yet we cannot avoid the challenges in Development Journalism, as according to Ms Ayesha:

(1) Limited access to information

You cannot fight City Hall, so what you can do is scour the Internet!

(2) Political interference

“Political interference” becomes a problem if the politicians know that the journalist is only looking for “bad news” to report! My alternative? “THiNK! Journalism” and it goes like this:

True? If True, is it
Helpful? If Helpful, is it
Inspiring? If Inspiring, is it
Necessary? If Necessary, is it
Kind? THiNK!@517