2 new categories added to agri journalism awards

Two new categories — Environment Journalist of the Year and Environment Story of the Year — have been added to the Binhi (Agricultural Journalism) awards to be conferred this year by the Philippine Agricultural Journalists, Inc. (PAJ).

The other categories for the 2004 Binhi awards are Agricultu-ral Journalist of the Year, Agribeat Reporter of the Year, Agricultural Magazine of the Year, Agricultural Newsletter of the Year, Agricul-tural Photojournalist of the Year, Agricultural Info/Media Cam-paign of the Year, and Agricultural Radio Program of the Year.

Qualified to participate in the prestigious Binhi Awards, which was launched in 1978, are print and broadcast journalists, photo journalists, newspapers, maga-zines, newsletters, and govern-ment and private institutions concerned with agriculture, environment, agrarian reform, and countryside development.

The awards are also open to members of national and local publications.

All entries should reach the PAJ president’s office at the Depart-ment of Agriculture-Agriculture and Fisheries Information Service (DA-AFIS), Elliptical Road, Diliman, Quezon City, on or before July 15.

For general guidelines and other details, those interested can call PAJ c/o DA-AFIS at (02) 920-4080, (02) 928-8741 local 134 or e-mail [email protected].

You can also contact Dr. Norma Llemit of the Los Baños-based Philippine Council for Agricul-ture, Forestry and Natural Resour-ces Research and Development (PCARRD) at (049) 536-0014 to 20 local 241 or at 0919-4923429.

Dr. Llemit, who is director of PCARRD’s Applied Communica-tion Division (ACD), is chairper-son of this year’s Binhi awards committee.

Roman Floresca, The STAR Agriculture editor and PAJ president, announced the requirements per entry.

For the Agricultural Journalist, Agribeat Reporter, and Environ-ment Journalist of the Year cate-gories, participants should submit original or photocopies of at least 10 of their best stories published during the contest period from July 1, 2003 to June 30, 2004.

The special award for Environ-ment Story of the Year requires one full-length story serialized or published as a whole during the contest period.

The Agricultural Magazine and Agricultural Newsletter of the Year categories require partici-pants to submit five sets of 11 issues (if monthly) or three issues (if quarterly) of their entry publi-cation during the contest period.

At least 10 photographs (black and white or colored) with corres-ponding captions published du-ring the contest period are re-quired for participants vying for the Agricultural Photojournalist of the Year.

The Agricultural Info/Media Campaigns of the Year category calls for at least one set each of in-formation campaign parapher-nalia (program rationale, objec-tives, implementation schedule, coverage, participants, etc.) ac-companying poster, flyer, bro-chure, radio/TV jingle, program reviews and endorsements, im-pact study and monitoring report (if available), and other related documents launched and imple-mented during the contest period.

The Agricultural Radio Prog-ram of the Year category needs at least five sets of cassette tapes containing three best episodes as aired during the contest period. — Rudy A. Fernandez