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

CITATION for Zacarias B. Sarian

Ramon Magsaysay Award Presentation Ceremonies
Manila, Philippines

Were farmers utilizing all relevant knowledge accumulated by agriculture research scientists, world food shortages and malnutrition would not be the chronically urgent problems they are. An essential factor in stirring the farmers' inner will to innovate is the effective communication of ideas in agriculture that may emanate from the scientists or the farmers themselves. Interpreting between them is the task of the agricultural journalist, who, through discovering and describing achievements, fosters action.

ZACARIAS SARIAN is one of very few practitioners of the profession of competent agriculture reporting in developing Asia, where agriculture has been the principal livelihood and holds promise of being an increasingly lucrative mainstay.

SARIAN came by his feel for farming naturally. Born in 1937 on a small farm in the Philippine province of Ilocos Norte, from the age of five he helped with rice harvesting and tended two steers and three water buffalo. Money for attending Batac Rural High School was earned from the rice and garlic he raised in the field his father allotted to him. In high school he began writing about agriculture and at the age of 16 when a national magazine carried his article, though without remuneration, he decided upon his profession. After graduation from the University of the Philippines at Diliman, his first full-time employment in his chosen field was as staff writer at the College of Agriculture. While augmenting his small salary by contributing to national magazines and the Philippine News Service, he found opportunity to introduce a quarterly, Agriculture at Los Baños. Although limited to 1,000 circulation, it confirmed his conviction that there is a readership for precise agricultural news on which farmers can risk their livelihood, providing it is written in a lively, human fashion.

In 1964 SARIAN persuaded the Manila Chronicle to let him start Philippine Farms and Gardens. Its popularity at home and abroad further confirmed his premise that agriculture news can make good reading. During the last year, when it was published twice monthly, the magazine was profitable while the newspaper was not.

Since proclamation of martial law in September 1972 SARIAN and his associates have organized and been publishing for 18 months Modern Agriculture and Industry. Risking their meager savings and investing their time and talent under SARIAN's alert guidance as editor, vice-president and general manager, they have made this the leading farm magazine in Southeast Asia. Though SARIAN still must augment the small salary he takes by editing an agriculture section and writing a gardening column for other publications, the magazine under his editorship has reached a circulation of 12,000 to 14,000 and is a growing source of ideas and encouragement to investors in agricultural development and those who live and work on the land.

In electing ZACARIAS BOLONG SARIAN to receive the 1974 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts, the Board of Trustees recognizes his standards of editing and publishing interesting, accurate and constructive farm news.