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 Banos. 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.

The announcement of the Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts this year came as a total surprise to myself and to the members of my family. We are certain that to many of our friends, the news was equally unexpected.

It was, of course, a most pleasant surprise. Never in our wildest dreams did we think that some day this recognition would be bestowed upon us.

We would like to believe, however, that the Award is not an individual recognition. Rather, we would like to think that it is a recognition of the positive and constructive contribution of agricultural reporting in stimulating greater productivity and, therefore, improving the quality of life among the great mass of our people for whom the late President Magsaysay showed so much concern. We mean, of course, the millions of our farmers who must coax the good earth to bloom and yield the all-important sustenance of life.

Farming is an honest and respectable means of earning a living. But it is one of the most risky undertakings. Unpredictable floods, droughts, outbreaks of pests and diseases, market fluctuations, lack of capital, scarcity and high cost of inputs, these are some of the problems that the farmer has to contend with in his year-round operations.

Also, lack of education has often been the misfortune of the ordinary farmer. How to convey to him in understandable and practical terms the latest findings of agricultural researchers, the new agricultural strategies of the government and related developments, has been the big problem, not only of the agricultural journalist, but more importantly of the farm extension worker.

Disseminating useful farm news has been exceedingly difficult. Farm stories have not been as sensational as crime reports or politics, especially in the pre-martial law days, so that it was almost impossible to read about agriculture on the front pages of our newspapers unless there was some anomaly involved.

Martial law, fortunately, has made very profound changes in the newspapers’ treatment of agricultural and developmental news. A cursory scanning of the dailies and magazines would readily reveal that farm news is, indeed, being given ample, if not special, coverage now.

No doubt the recognition that the Magsaysay Award Foundation is giving to agricultural journalism today will further bring to the forefront what farm reporting can contribute to the overall task of nation building.

If this is a good sign for us agricultural journalists, it should also open our minds to the awesome responsibility and absolute necessity of always striving for excellence in our calling. We believe that responsible agricultural journalism is not just a matter of writing about agriculture often and lengthily. Rather, we think that during this time when agricultural production is the top priority in the Philippines and elsewhere, the farm writer should be able to contribute his share more meaningfully by concentrating on the significant, the relevant, the constructive.

On behalf of Modern Agriculture & Industry, Business Day and Daily Express, we wish to thank most profoundly the Members of the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, and all those who have inspired us to pursue agricultural journalism.

Exacting purists acknowledge Srimati M. S. SUBBULAKSHMI as the leading exponent of classical and semi-classical songs in the Karnataka tradition of South India. They and ordinary people alike find in the compelling melody and sweetness of her bhajans, or folk spirituals, deep, pure and abstract emotional appeal, transporting them to a sense of unity with the supreme deity. Rooted in millenia of Indian culture and mythology, her bhajans are a means of prayer and solace in the villages where bhakti marg, or the way of devotion, supersedes more intellectual philosophies.

The gift of song that reaches the hearts of her countrymen results from a passionate pursuit of artistic excellence. As a girl of 10, in the South Indian cultural center of Madurai where she was born in 1916, SUBBULAKSHMI began accompanying her celebrated mothers singing and veena playing. An enchanting voice, hard work, exacting discipline, character, humility and willingness to learn from everyone, made her at the age of 17 a soloist in her own right. When, at the age of 24, she married T. Sadasivam now publisher of the prestigious Tamil weekly, Kalki, in Madras she gained also her friend, philosopher and guide.

As, with maturing years, SUBBULAKSHMIs versatility encompassed Hindustani classics of North India and folk songs of many regions, her following grew far beyond the South; wider audiences first heard her in the film Meera. Mahatma Gandhi asked only to hear her sing “Hari Tuma Haro, or Thou God,” on his 78th birthday, which proved tragically to be his last. Jawaharlal Nehru, after hearing her sing, said, Who am I, a mere Prime Minister, before a Queen of Song?

On tours abroad SUBBULAKSHMI sang at the Edinburgh International Music Festival and before the United Nations. Her vocal filigree, traversing three octaves, and fidelity to tone and rhythm reached through to listeners unfamiliar with melodic Indian music that neither needs nor implies harmony.

In April 1944, after five successful benefit performances given for the Memorial Fund honoring Gandhis wife, Kasturba, SUBBULAKSHMI voice became an instrument for public causes. Receipts of concert halls filled to overflowing and open amphitheaters ”often packed with tens of thousands paying only four annas each (three U.S. cents) so as to deny no one the joy of her songs” have been given to constructive works. Equivalent to over one million U.S. dollars, her contributions have benefited foundations for the poor, hospitals, orphanages, schools, and music and journalism institutes. While becoming the idol of millions, this lady has remained deeply religious, unpretentious and almost childlike in her simplicity.

In electing Srimati M. S. SUBBULAKSHMI to receive the 1974 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes her exalting rendition of devotional song and magnanimous support of numerous public causes in India over four decades.

I feel deeply honored to be receiving this Award and I accept the honor in all humility.

I am extremely happy to have come to this beautiful country. I find the landscape enchanting with its beach, green lawns and avenues, and the people cheerful, friendly and hospitable. I feel not only quite at home but that we are of one family.

Your great President Ramon Magsaysay was a shining personality and leader who had arisen in our midst in this part of Asia. We knew of the ideals of personal integrity, the sense of truth and justice, that he strove to establish in the short time he was your president. I offer my salutations to him. I also offer my salutations to your national hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal.

Naturally my reverential memory now hovers around Mahatma Gandhi who was the apostle of Peace on Earth, beloved Sri Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of the Indian Republic, and Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, affectionately called Rajaji. It was my singular good fortune to have come under the loving spell of all three. I offer my deepest homage to this trinity.

My all I owe to my husband, Sri T. Sadasivam. By his loving care he is my parent; by his unerring guidance he is my preceptor.

Indian music is orientated solely to the end of divine communion. If I have done something in this respect, it is entirely due to the Grace of the Almighty who has chosen my humble self as a tool. But He is beyond my gratitude. Yet, in a way, I take Him to have come within my reach in the benign personality of the Sage of Kanchi, His Holiness Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Sankaracharya, who is divinity in flesh and blood, now in his 81st year. I offer my obeisance to the Sage from the core of my being, and pray that he bless me to deserve the honor done to me.

Once again, I wish to express to you all my deep sense of gratitude for honoring me with this Award.

Among all the changes wrought in postwar Japan none have been more fundamental socially than the emancipation of women. In her career, spanning more than six decades, FUSAYE ICHIKAWA mirrors this transformation.

In the traditional rural villages in Aichi Prefecture where she was born in 1893, her parents were simple farmers, cultivating and tending silkworms on the less than one hectare of land on which they strove to raise six offspring. Although determined his children must have the education he lacked, her father was harsh; watching her mother beaten left an indelible imprint on the girl, as did the repeated lament, What a misery it is to have been born a woman. 

From a village schoolteacher, Miss ICHIKAWA became in turn a news reporter, stockbrokers clerk and labor union worker. She moved in 1918 to the national arena as a founder of the pioneering New Womens Association that sought, as a first step in raising womens status, an amendment to the law prohibiting women from listening to, making or sponsoring political speeches. Helped again by her elder brother who had sent money from the United States for her secondary and normal school education, she studied two and a half years in America before returning to join the newly opened Tokyo branch of the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Daytimes at the ILO she directed the Womens Committee in winning prohibition against female labor on factory night shifts and in underground mines. After hours, working often until midnight, she was the mainstay of the League of Winning Womens Suffrage and the Womens Problems Research Council.

As reaction and militarism settled heavily upon Japan, beginning with the army invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Miss ICHIKAWA and her co-workers protested the fascist trends and addressed themselves to solutions of problems created for women by the war. Following Japans surrender, she was elected leader of the New Japan Womens League that became the League of Women Voters after womens suffrage was granted under directive of the Allied Occupation. Ironically purged from leadership in March 1947 on a false accusation of militarism, her clearance was won in October 1950 through repeated protests by womens organizations in Japan and abroad.

Quickly reinstated as head of the League, she led the successful campaign against licensed prostitution and helped found a Fair and Clean Elections Association to safeguard the franchise. In 1952 she won election as an independent to the House of Councilors, the upper house in the Diet, in a campaign modeled strictly on the ideal election code she had advocated.

Serving 18 years in the Diet, she consistently opposed pay raises for members and lived frugally, donating all increases plus a portion of her salary each month, to womens causes. She made public reports yearly on Diet sessions and on her own activities, attendance record, income, expenses and donations. Out of office for three years, she yielded in July 1974 to the insistence of supporters ”particularly the young” and was returned to the Diet ”with minimal campaign expenditure and by a large majority” in recognition of her service to Japans women, conscience and political morality.

In electing FUSAYE ICHIKAWA to receive the 1974 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the Board of Trustees recognizes her lifetime labors advancing with exemplary political integrity her country womens public and personal freedom.

Called upon so unexpectedly to this occasion commemorating the late President Ramon Magsaysay, I am filled with shame and deep regret as a Japanese, thinking how my people caused you and your country indescribable loss and pain in the past. To those of you who, over the last three decades, have had to live with incurable wounds of war, I offer my sincere apologies and beg to be forgiven.

Taking this opportunity, I also would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to you for your generosity in sending home without censure a Japanese army officer who persisted in fighting his war for 30 long years on the Island of Lubang against the peace-loving people. And I thank the many Philippine individuals and families who took in Japanese children ”who had been orphaned during the war” as their own, and brought them up with love and care through all these years.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award, I believe, manifests the late President Magsaysays devotion to his people and to his ideal of the Politics of the Tao” or ordinary man. It is an undue honor conferred on me. Being a Japanese, I particularly would like to extend my deep respect and admiration to the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for its spirit of generosity and fairness exemplified in the fact that Japanese have been honored repeatedly by this Foundation.

As of last May, I reached the age of 81. Ever since my childhood the harsh discrimination against women was one thing I could not tolerate, and for 60 years, with friends and colleagues, I carried on my fight to abolish that discrimination. If you had been born in a society like ours, I am sure that you would have done just as I did.

After the prolonged war years during which we also suffered misery and disasters, we, at long last, attained almost complete legal equality of men and women.

Today, many Japanese think that this equality was the gift of the Allied Occupation Forces ”an outcome of Japans defeat in the war. But I would like you to know that we in Japan, too, have a history of struggle for the equality which was withheld so unreasonably from women, that many people fought against the discrimination since the turn of the century. It was extremely difficult to continue such a radical movement in face of the rising militarism. However, I must add for the credit of Japanese men, that we had a few friends among them who confidentially extended their benign support to our movement over the years.

Through our movement for equality between men and women, my conviction deepened that unless women won political rights on an equal footing with men, we could not hope for true equality. My creed, Womens suffrage is the key, is now inscribed on the wall of the Womens Suffrage Hall which we built after the war, reminding those who pass there of the long, hard struggle for womens equality which we had to carry.

We envy the status of women in your country with the long established tradition of equality of men and women that preceded contact with the West. In our history, too, we had a period of matriarchy, and, contrary to the commonly accepted notion, the subordination of women to men was established only a few centuries ago.

In Japan today women outnumber men as voters and their voting rate is higher than mens at every election. Numerically, we can say, women dominate.

However, throughout the long years of my movement, I have come to realize how difficult and time-consuming a process it is to change firmly established and time-honored concepts and practices in a society. Winning the right to vote is one thing. To use it effectively is another. The right itself did not change Japanese women overnight. Even today, three decades after the realization of suffrage, no marked change is recognizable. Not that I have given up; I am hopeful. In the latest election to the House of Councilors many people, particularly youths, voluntarily and actively worked to achieve my successful return by practicing my formula of ideal election. At long last, though gradually, a pattern of individual awakening, followed by positive action, is spreading among the grassroots. Watching such a development, I would very much like to solicit your help and cooperation for the younger generations of Japanese so that they may develop to be your reliable co-workers for the betterment of the Asian community.

How to benefit from science and industry without paying in pollution and destruction of nature is increasingly the conundrum of modern civilization. While much of Japan experiences this dilemma acutely, in Miyazaki Prefecture solutions are being found to enhance, rather than endanger, the quality of life with modernization.

HIROSHI KUROKIs intimate knowledge of Miyazaki began with his birth there in 1907. Trained in agriculture and law he served 24 years in the Miyazaki Prefectural Government and two years as secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in Tokyo. He returned to Miyazaki to head a farmers cooperative federation. After a four-year term as Vice-Governor, this ex-civil servant, in 1959, was elected Governor as a political independent and next year will complete his fourth consecutive term.

In southernmost Kyushu Island, tucked between mountains and facing the powerful sweep of the Pacific Black Current, Miyazaki was isolated and its over one million inhabitants had the lowest per capita income of any prefecture in Japan. As governor, KUROKI creatively mobilized indigenous skills and resources and the talents of his prefectural administration, to dispel both this isolation and poverty.

For farmers ekeing a marginal living ”mainly on sweet potatoes and upland rice” systematic research found crops that could be grown profitably and safely on poor, typhoon-swept soil. Today the large-scale production of greenhouse vegetables and of citrus fruits is carried in fast, new ferries to Tokyo and other major markets. Beef and dairy cattle, introduced for special pasture zones, bring new income. Some 53,000 hectares of land are being irrigated, while 10,000 hectares annually are reforested. Fishing revenue is increasing 14 percent annually with modernized fishing ports and culture of marine products. Capitalizing upon a warm climate, scenic beauty and historic sites linked to a legendary past, better roads, airports and rail service now attract some 7.5 million tourists each year. The first prefecture to proclaim an environmental beautification and nature conservation act, Miyazakis new industrial park, reclaimed from the seashore, has built-in precautions against pollution.

While per capita income increased three-fold in 10 years, the problem persisted of young people migrating to distant big cities. Adapting to Miyazaki the system of agricultural education he had seen in Denmark, KUROKIs solution is the Study for Agricultural Prosperity Movement, giving rural youth economic hope, prestige as instruments of change and a sense of cultural attachment to the land. Centers for advanced farm management, and farm machinery and technical schools, were developed.

Moreover, so that all generations would find in Miyazaki attractive opportunity for living, the prefecture pioneered in medical insurance for the aged and infirm for whom centers were also built.

In electing Governor HIROSHI KUROKI to receive the 1974 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes his administrative originality in modernizing a backward prefecture in a manner congenial to the traditional minded yet attracting the young.

It is indeed the highest honor for me to be able to visit your great nation as a recipient of the 1974 Ramon Magsaysay Award and to have the occasion to meet everyone who has been involved with this Award.

This Presentation Ceremony marks my first visit to the Philippines, and I find it a source of great joy and satisfaction to be able to experience directly the fresh blend of Eastern and Western culture as well as the abundant native culture that exists here.

I do wish to express to your President and to all your countrymen my sincere sympathy and regret for the damage done by the heavy rains which fell shortly before my departure for the Philippines.

You have my earnest prayers for the quick recovery of all those injured or distressed by that most unfortunate natural disaster.

The late President Magsaysay was an outstanding leader for whom I have long felt great admiration. Attracted by his simple and humble personality, I have a deep respect for the late Presidents magnificent spirit and unselfish devotion. Man has the right to live in peace and happiness, this was his belief, and strongly in sympathy with the opinion that such should be the cornerstone of modern government, I have lent all my powers and abilities for service to the people and for the promotion of their welfare.

I was born in Miyazaki Prefecture and, except for several years during my school days, most of my life has been spent there in the region of my birth. I have always been concerned about the people of this area and its every tree and every blade of grass, protecting and nurturing the importance both of the outstanding natural characteristics of Miyazaki Prefecture and of the humanistic quality that develops in such natural surroundings. While promoting harmony between man and nature, I have involved myself in creative regional development.

To have received here today the Ramon Magsaysay Award because of my humble efforts is, for me, deeply stirring, and I can imagine no greater honor. The very fact that the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation should have turned its attention to our prefecture is both very surprising and highly gratifying to everyone in Miyazaki, and to myself most of all. I believe that this Award is being made, not merely to me as an individual, but to all residents of the prefecture in recognition of their wisdom and efforts. Therefore, I humbly accept this Award and the honor it represents on their behalf as well. Please accept in return my sincerest thanks.

Having received the honor and deep emotional stimulus from this Award, I shall continue my activities in regional development and promotion of welfare, working for the creation of a more livable, affluent, and worthwhile society.

In conclusion, let me express my deep gratitude to all those whose preparations and kindness have contributed to my presence here today at these Presentation Ceremonies.

Rapid urbanization, occurring on every hand today in Asia, drains from the countryside many of the energetic, able and ambitious young. Even most graduates from agricultural colleges do not go back to live on the land and apply their talents to its problems and potential. Rather they seek employment in government bureaus and private business. Rural villages, meanwhile, seem to stagnate.

WILLIAM F. MASTERSON was broadly prepared to apply himself to this challenge. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1910, he was schooled by the Jesuits. He joined the faculty of their leading educational institution in the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila, in 1933, devoting summers to leading boy scouts to Mindanao. Returning to the United States for theological studies and ordination, he became the wartime business editor of Jesuit Missions and raised more than US$4 million for postwar rehabilitation in the Philippines.

As Rector of Ateneo de Manila from 1947 to 1950, he reopened the College of Law and initiated a Graduate School and the Institute of Social Action. Yet amidst these constructive efforts, he saw the cities profiting at the expense of talents drawn from the countryside.

With his transfer to the now Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro, Fr. MASTERSON seized the opportunity, in 1953, to found a College of Agriculture designed to have the most immediate imprint on higher production and income of rural people. With this focus, extension work came to mean loving to live and work with farmers and organizing their economic strength through creation of viable cooperatives. Students today work in land titling, soil testing, feed and market analysis, on a seed production farm and an agricultural supply cooperative and they produce practical books, pamphlets and a radio series in Cebuano. Assistance to the College now comes from 14 countries. A telling result is that two-thirds of the graduates return to farming.

In 1964, supported by the German Catholic Bishops Fund and the German government, MASTERSON developed the Southeast Asia Rural Social Leadership Institute (SEARSOLIN) to give annually to 50 rural leaders from Asian countries eight months of intensive training in applied agriculture and organization of farmers. Some 450 have experienced this impelling rural indoctrination. They have come from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Khmer Republic, Korea, Laos, Macao, Malaysia, Micronesia, Oceania, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Most attend on scholarships, conditional on a pledge to return for at least three years to their rural communities.

In electing Rev. Fr. WILLIAM FRANCIS MASTERSON to receive the 1974 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, the Board of Trustees recognizes his multinational education and inspiration of rural leaders prompting their return to and love of the land.

One year ago, in this same traditional setting, tribute was paid to the spirit and work of a man, truly and richly deserving of such valued recognition. Deeply I rejoiced at that honor, not only because he had been a student of mine 41 years ago, but also because he had long grown to be an inspiring friend and challenge. I refer to the recently deceased Benjamin Gaston, Ramon Magsaysay Awardee of 1973, and dedicated associate of the revered President Ramon Magsaysay. So many of the achievements of the Xavier University College of Agriculture Complex heralded today trace back to his vision of 25 years ago, one he so tirelessly and infectiously preached, a vision of the pressing need for a new type and a new breed of agriculturist, one both production-and-people oriented, one alike technically competent and socially dedicated, and also to his supremely confident belief that the fostering and nurturing of such a new breed was meant to be a major, historic, pioneering role of Xavier University.

Visions beget dreams which often, no matter how ridiculed, no matter how seemingly impossible from so many angles ”human and financial”have ways of coming true. Today the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation witnesses in a most singular way to the fact that the beliefs and programs of 13 students and a few staff in 1953 were not wholly quixotic. The effects are now felt in 14 nations of East and South Asia and in the Central and Southwest Pacific, and there are now some 800 alumni to champion the belief in the people their explosive potential in achieving for themselves and by themselves a life commensurate with every mans glorious nature.

But dreams, for transformation into raw reality, need more than out-hearted men. They need muscle, the building of which is not an overnight process, and often one calling for not a little blind faith. We of the Xavier University College of Agriculture Complex see in todays accolade a remarkable public recognition of the extra-ordinary blessings of which we have been the fortunate recipients from understanding, magnanimous people of 14 donor nations, not the least our own Philippines, and apart from which we simply would not be here today. Benefactions have totaled, believe me with no exaggeration, some 15 million pesos, including three and two-thirds million for 600 scholarships, one and two-thirds million in facilities.

Mr. Chairman, what merit your Foundation may have found in honoring the Xavier University College of Agriculture Complex really reflects glory on Ramon Magsaysay. For squarely in front of Xavier stands a vigorous, forceful Magsaysay, everyday daring us by the recollection of his vibrant example to a more meaningful concern for his special love, as he styled it, those who have less in life.

I assure you that the Award of today prompts vows of still greater consecration on the part of our Xavier University College of Agriculture and SEARSOLIN family, alumni, students, staff, and benefactors in the thousands, to our mission of bringing light, hope and a little more happiness to the groping millions of Asia who have honored us in welcoming our coming among them. We know of no other, better way to voice our grateful appreciation for the unique honor of today.