The 1974 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts

BIOGRAPHY of Zacarias B. Sarian

Farming and writing about farming has been ZACARIAS BOLONG SARIAN's lifelong pursuit. He was born into a farm family on September 7, 1937 in Batac, Ilocos Norte, in northwestern Luzon—the major island in the Philippine archipelago. The third of five children of Santiago Sarian and Pantaleona Bolong, he began as a toddler going with his father to harvest mangoes, vegetables or whatever was in season. "We grew diversified crops," he recalls. "I remember our planting two fields of sugar cane; rice, of course, during the rainy season; and tobacco, garlic and other crops in the dry season." At the age of five he was regularly helping in the fields, gathering grass for the family's three water buffalo and two steer and watching over them while they grazed.

The Sarian farm, like most in Ilocos, was fragmented, so Santiago assigned to each of his children, when old enough, a particular field to plant and care for. The profits from the field were set aside for the child's future use. Thus ZACARIAS SARIAN early on learned the value of good husbandry.

In Batac Rural High School which he entered in 1950 the same method of individual farming was practiced, each student being allotted a piece of school farm to cultivate. Approximately 30 percent of the profits went to the school, the other 70 percent was kept by the student to help him pay his expenses.

On weekends during these high school years SARIAN took a course in typing and stenography at Eureka College, a vocational school in Batac. The stenography teacher wrote fiction in the vernacular. "That's how I got contaminated," SARIAN relates. "He had his bylines and I wanted to see my byline someday." SARIAN tried his hand at fiction but decided nonfiction was easier; in his last year in high school he began submitting articles to national magazines.

His first success was a piece about his cousin, Dr. Daniel Bolong, a veterinarian and a scientific farmer. Bolong had tested ipil ipil (Leucaena glauca), a leguminous shrub, as feed for his chickens and

dairy cows and had imported seed of a much larger variety (Leucaena leucocephala) from Peru. He was so successful that he helped develop the processing of ipil ipil leaf meal as a small cottage industry in his home town, and had convinced two major feed millers in Manila to substitute for expensive imported alfalfa. SARIAN was only 16 when this article was printed in Agricultural and Industrial Life— the only agricultural magazine in the country. Although he was not is writing, he nevertheless decided that he had found his —agricultural journalism.

There was not enough money for SARIAN to attend college when he graduated from high school (it had been a poor year for farmers), so he went to work for one year on Bolong's farm at one peso (50 U.S. cents) a day. Since he did not draw his wages until he left, he was able to save money as well as broaden his agricultural experience. "I was in charge of 2,000 pullets and around 50 pigs," SARIAN recalls, and "I had to feed them twice a day. I learned how to inject pigs against cholera and to castrate the males." He also continued writing and articles were printed in the Philippines Free Press. The Free Press was an English-language weekly, with the largest national and with a loyal readership among schoolteachers in the ho shared its contents with students and parents.

In 1955 SARIAN was able to enroll at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, a suburb of Manila. The university had no major in journalism so he took a foreign service course and enrolled in whatever electives he could find that related to his interests. Although he had to study hard, "because I had promised my father when he sent me to college that if I ever got a failing grade I would stop school," he read all the books in the library on the subject of journalism and spent his spare cash on newspapers and magazines—especially those he was trying to write for. He successfully wrote agricultural stories for the Free Press and pieces on Filipiniana for the Saturday Mirror Magazine, e.g., how farmers cure snake bites and substitutes for kerosene devised during the Japanese occupation of the countryside. A piece he wrote on Dr. Valeriano Calma, a professor at the College of at Los Baños, was run as a feature article in the Free Press. It was a success story, intended to inspire others. Calma had taken a cogon (grass) wasteland and turned it into a model, diversified citrus, lanzones and other tropical fruit. His technique was a simple one, easily copied. The wasteland cost him very little and he developed it slowly. Each morning before class he planted one or more trees. In this way over the years he developed a large number of hectares. The article was significant because cogon land was common in the Philippines, and the time and money involved in making it fruitful were were minimal.

SARIAN also contributed to the sections of the daily newspapers reserved for cared for campus writers, and even to the "My Most Unforgettable Experience" section of the Manila Chronicle which paid per vignette. "I didn't really earn much," SARIAN said recently, "but there is satisfaction in seeing your byline and I gained practice in writing."

SARIAN graduated in 1959 with a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service. When the cultural attaché exam—which was given infrequently—was offered in 1965 he took it, but only to test himself. Although he passed, he refused an appointment because he was not interested in the foreign s foreign service as a career.

After graduation SARIAN held brief jobs with two advertising agencies, as a junior account executive and a copywriter, and with the Investment Planning Corporation as an advertising assistant. In 1960 he went he went to Los Baños to interview the dean of the University of the Philippines College of Forestry (which was celebrating its 50th anniversary) for an article that was later published in the Mirror Weekend. While there he learned of a vacancy in the Information Division of the College of Agriculture. Liking the university atmosphere and having a deep interest in agriculture, he "right then and there" typed out his biodata and submitted his application for the position.

His employment at the College of Agriculture, the most prestigious agricultural institution in the Philippines, and perhaps in Southeast Asia, began in November 1960. Starting on a per diem basis, in four months he was appointed Information Editor. As such he wrote press releases about research findings and he edited the Alumni Newsletter. The Newsletter, a monthly, was designed to inform the educated layman of new ways of farming, new crops and ways of growing them, and better marketing techniques. It was aimed at graduates of Los Baños who were farming or were in an agricultural business or government division. The Newsletter supplemented the Philippine Agriculturist which was a highly technical journal published at Los Baños and keyed to researchers.

About the time SARIAN became associated with the college it was beginning a broad-based agricultural extension program, with the help of Cornell University, a leading U.S. agricultural school. The college had started the Farm and Home Development Program which consisted of sending young technicians—graduates of Los Baños—to rural areas to work with the farmers in upgrading their crops and techniques. SARIAN often accompanied these extension workers to the villages and wrote about successful farmers and farm programs he observed. These articles were run, not only in the Newsletter, but in national and local journals. The extension workers were delighted to have SARIAN accompany them and write about their projects because the more widely known their work became the more provincial officers would send workers for training.

Agriculture at Los Baños, a quarterly, was also started about this time to give technical support to the extension people. It described in extremely simple terms techniques on such things as how to castrate a bull and information on new seeds and vegetables. The subscription list was limited to 1,000 because that was all the budget allowed. Printing costs were low but circulation costs were relatively high. Agriculture went mostly to extension workers for use in their practical teaching programs.

While at Los Baños SARIAN also wrote for Bannawag, an Ilocano language weekly of general interest, which had about 40,000 subscribers. Attesting to its popularity, Bannawag was subscribed to even by Ilocanos who had migrated to Hawaii. SARIAN’s weekly columns on agricultural research and successful farming methods ran almost two pages and were the first on such matters to be carried by a popular vernacular magazine; such publications were normally devoted exclusively to fiction, comics and personality features. SARIAN’s articles set the trend and agricultural features by other writers were soon carried in the sister publications of Bannawag, Liwayway (in Tagalog), Bisaya (in Cebuano) and Hiligaynon (in Ilongo). He illustrated his articles whenever possible with photographs in order to show graphically the advantages of one technique or one species over another. For example he would take a picture of a large imported chicken and a small native one, side by side, so the reader could see for himself the advantages of upgrading his stock. He continued to write about practical things such as new ways of growing mushrooms and new varieties of beans like the bush sitao which matures early and does not need a pole to grow on. He also reported on the results of the scientific research conducted at the college's dairy and rice institutes. He wrote for Bannawag until 1966.

In 1961 SARIAN filled in for the Philippine News Service correspondent at Los Baños who went to the United States on a scholarship. He also began a farming column in the weekly magazine Graphic, for which he was paid per contribution, and wrote a question-and-answer column on the agricultural page of the Manila Chronicle, one of the five major national newspapers, "for free."

His journalistic experience at Los Baños, and the growing popularity of agricultural features in commercial publications, convinced SARIAN of the viability of a popular journal on farming, and prompted him in March 1964 to propose a monthly magazine on farming and gardening to Oscar Lopez, publisher of the Manila Chronicle. "I had a project study for the magazine and a dummy of how I would like it to look, the contents, possible advertisers and so on," he recalls. Lopez, he found, was "a real plant lover and a farmer at heart, so it was not difficult to convince him. SARIAN reported for duty on April 1 and the first issue of the new monthly, Philippine Farms and Gardens, was dated May 1964.

The magazine was a quick success. It reached a peak national circulation of 28,000 and was profitable even when the daily was not. One of the biggest advertisers, E. R. Squibb, a pharmaceutical company which also distributed veterinary drugs, sponsored 5,000 gift subscriptions for all poultry raisers in the Philippines; there was no other magazine in which it could advertise in order to reach farmers. The price, only P5 a year, was low because overhead costs were low and SARIAN had more contributors than he could use. The minimal price made it possible for even small farmers to afford it.

In Farms and Gardens SARIAN always emphasized the importance of useful and practical farming ideas. From every article, whether a long feature story or a photo caption item, the reader, he said, should derive something beneficial—new ideas he could use on his own farm. Although the magazine had articles on gardens, both flower and vegetable, SARIAN’s main emphasis was agriculture—livestock, crops and all aspects of farming, including marketing, pricing and the welfare of the consumer. For example, in response to complaints about the price of pork, he traced the price rise back along the food chain. He discovered that the fish from Peru that were made into fishmeal— an important protein ingredient in poultry and livestock feed in the Philippines—were not netted a year or so earlier. He followed this study with a visit to the biggest piggery in Mindanao which raised some 10,000 head—when most farmers raised 10-20 or less. His discussion of the opportunities for growth in this field was followed by a spurt of investment in pig raising, both in Mindanao and in the Manila area.

In like manner, a month after publication of his article in Business Day on pelletizing sugarcane tops for export to Japan, a new company was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to do just that.

During his eight years with the Lopez publishing interests SARIAN also wrote garden material for Woman and the Home, the Thursday magazine supplement of the Chronicle, and in 1966 he became Agriculture Editor of the Manila Chronicle. Even before he became editor, he wrote for the business section on agricultural business. SARIAN has commented that he had little competition for the job of Agriculture Editor because "no reporters liked to be assigned to the agricultural beat. It was not considered important. There was no glamor at all writing about pigs." He also wrote a gardening column for the Women's Page of the Chronicle under the pseudonym of Sarina de Batac.

Whether writing for Farms and Gardens or for the Chronicle, SARIAN was never afraid to tackle unpopular issues. In collaboration with Pedronio Ramos, an agriculturist, he wrote a series of five or six articles, which were headlined in the Chronicle, on the rapid destruction of the country's forests. The authors quantified how many hectares were being lost per minute to denudation by logging, slash and burn farming, etc., and of the consequent cost to the nation. The articles were written in 1968, but the facts and figures are still being quoted. SARIAN also dissected the dying citrus industry in Batangas in an article for the Chronicle and expanded on it in Farms and Gardens.

In August 1968 SARIAN joined the agriculture editors of other major Philippine newspapers on a 10 day visit to Taiwan sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The purpose of the tour was to expose Philippine journalists to the agricultural development of Taiwan—the most advanced in Asia with the exception of Japan. On his return SARIAN wrote about Taiwanese success with multiple cropping and their system of marketing in the hope that farmers in the Philippines might utilize some of these ideas.

From January through mid-May 1971, under a Thomas Jefferson Fellowship from the United States, he participated with 10 other mid-career journalists in various fields of journalism and from various Asian countries, in a developmental communications seminar at the Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West (East-West Center) in Hawaii. Nominations for this fellowship were invited from Asian editors and the editor of the Chronicle chose SARIAN as one of his two nominees. As part of the grant the journalists spent their last month touring 16 major cities on the U.S. mainland. For SARIAN the highlight was his visit to the 11,000-acre center of the Agricultural Research Service at Beltsville, Maryland, where he observed crop experiments, interviewed scientists and wrote articles for his paper and magazine, about work being done there.

In September 1972 the Philippine government imposed martial law on the country and closed the Manila Chronicle and its various publications, including Philippine Farms and Gardens. As a result of these actions, SARIAN and his friend Alfredo Zulueta, who had a growing advertising agency, undertook to publish a journal on their own. SARIAN became vice-president, editor and general manager. The first issue of the new publication, Modern Agriculture and Industry, came out in January 1973. Two of the articles—on vegetable growing and salt making—were reprinted by the Times Journal—one of the government-approved newspapers which had replaced the six that were closed—and calls began to come in for information on how to carry out the suggestions made therein. The first issue was so well received that the Bureau of Agricultural Extension took a bulk subscription of 600—later increased to 1,000—for its extension workers in all provinces of the country. The Ministry of Agriculture subscribed to 160 copies for radio broadcasters countrywide, and the U.S. Peace Corps took 120 copies for its volunteers.

The information in the journal thus reaches the small farmer through field workers and by radio. SARIAN knows the material is being used because he gets frequent letters asking for more specific information. He never endorses a product in his articles but will give the names of pesticides endorsed by the Ministry of Agriculture or will tell what seeds or fertilizer a successful farmer has actually used.

Originally produced at a cost of 70 centavos (centavo is one hundredth of a peso) and sold for P1.20 per issue, as production costs increased the sale price was gradually raised to P5 per copy. Printing was a problem; the job was too small for big printers and several small printers were tried before the right one was found.

The journal grew from its initial printing of 8,000 copies to its current average of 12,000 to 14,000. The issue featuring the Masagana 99 rice-planting method which the government was urging farmers to adopt, reached a peak of 22,500 copies when three companies whose products were recommended by the government in the text ordered an additional 8,000 copies for distribution. The magazine is the only agricultural journal in Southeast Asia written in English—the others are in the vernaculars—and therefore the only one that can speak to this vast region where most people are dependent upon agriculture for a livelihood.

SARIAN draws only a modest salary of P500 in spite of his multiple and impressive titles, and augments his income by holding concurrent positions of Agriculture Editor of the daily Business Day and Garden Columnist of the Philippines Daily Express. He also writes an "Economic Gardening" column for the weekly Woman's Home Companion.

In addition to his executive roles in Modern Agriculture and Industry SARIAN writes a monthly column for the journal entitled "From the Editor" in which he discusses a wide variety of topics of interest to the agriculturist. His subjects range from new insecticides being developed by Philippine companies to control specific pests, and new processing techniques to eliminate salt in fishmeal processed for chicken feed, to the government policy of encouraging cooperatives and multicropping and its plan for direct seeding of rice, mungo beans, sorghum and corn on 100,000 hectares in the rainfed areas of seven provinces. He discusses the interrelationship of world economies, pointing out that an increasing population has not allowed agriculture to develop a surplus and warning that production goals for the rest of the decade must be increased in order to do more than merely meet demands created by population growth. In other issues he has suggested growing marigolds to add to chicken feed to improve the color of both the meat and the egg, and he has recorded successful experiments in decreasing fermentation time of patis and bagoong (popular fermented fish sauces) from six months to a week or less by adding papaya latex to the ingredients. No subject is too large or too small.

Never hesitant to speak frankly, he published a report by the International Rice Research Institute at Los Baños which documented that farmers in the Philippines were using too much pesticide and thus wasting money. He first published the article in Business Day where it had widespread circulation, and then reprinted it in Modern Agriculture. By so doing he aroused the ire of the agricultural manager of Shell, Philippines, a major producer and distributor of pesticides. The Shell representative wanted him to retract his statements but he simply responded by quoting his source. As a result Shell blacklisted his journal for a time.

On another occasion he published an article written by a technical expert to the effect that some farmers were using pesticides on their cabbages and cauliflowers that were highly dangerous for human consumption. This created a serious health problem because the pesticides were not washed off the vegetable heads by the rain.

In January 1974, after only one year in existence, Modern Agriculture and Industry had outgrown its small office space. SARIAN found larger quarters in the same Manila office building. That month the Bureau of Plant Industry presented the journal with a "certificate of appreciation for the magazine's invaluable contribution to Philippine agriculture." At the same time his senior editor was awarded a Thomson Fellowship for three months' training in educational and developmental communications in Wales. In June SARIAN accepted an invitation—extended to him as editor of an agricultural magazine— from the Nihon Shimbun Kyokai (Japanese Association of Publishers and Editors) to observe agriculture in Japan and to participate in a seminar on agricultural reporting.

SARIAN is one of the most prolific of agricultural journalists. He has written and published hundreds of agricultural feature articles in both Ilocano and English. Some of the latter have been printed in Britain and the United States.

SARIAN lives modestly in Taytay, Rizal—a somewhat rural suburb of Manila—with his wife, Arminda de Veyra and their four-year old daughter Arvee. Arminda and ZACARIAS were college classmates but they did not meet until after their graduation when she was working as a secretary at the Korean Embassy. They were married on Christmas Day 1966.

As a hobby SARIAN tends a small garden 240 meters square and "grows red palms and calamansi," the latter a small green citrus fruit propagated widely in the Philippines. He finds the physical side of farming a good antidote to the stresses of the reportorial side; it serves as therapy.

Philosophically SARIAN believes that farmers should run their farms as business enterprises, "not just as a way of life." A farm, he is convinced, can be a moneymaker if the farmer knows how to manage it properly and where to market his produce. As a necessary corollary, he adds: "I believe that for a farmer to progress in his chosen profession, he should always be provided with fresh farm techniques. I also hold on to the idea that there should be a continuing dialogue between policymakers and the farmer."

SARIAN seeks to be the medium for acquainting the farmer with the latest agricultural techniques and ideas, and to offer a vehicle for the continuing dialogue between the government and its rural citizenry.

August 1974
Manila

REFERENCES:

de los Reyes, Rose. "Treat Your Farm Like a Business Enterprise," An Interview with Zacarias B. Sarian. Philippine Farmers’ Journal. Manila. September 1974.

Sarian, Zacarias B. "From the Editor," Modern Agriculture and Industry. Manila January 1973 through June 1974.

______. ed. Philippine Farms and Gardens. Manila. May 1964 through August 1972.

Interviews with Zacarias B. Sarian and letters from and interviews with colleagues and those knowledgeable concerning his works and writings.