KIDAPAWAN CITY – The Radyo Bida Specials, a 30-minute radio documentaries and features of the Notre Dame Broadcasting Corporation (NDBC), was chosen as this year’s Best Agriculture Radio segment of the Bright Leaf Agriculture Journalism Awards.
Its winning episode, ‘Let’s Go Organic,’ got the judges’ nods to win the radio category.
The episode, which was aired early this year over three NDBC stations in cities of Kidapawan, Cotabato, and Koronadal, tackled about organic farming as a sustainable farming system.
It featured the best practices of farmers in towns of Columbio and Esperanza in Sultan Kudarat who had been using organic farming as their way of life.
The Sultan Kudarat farmers who had been exposed to flooding and severe drought were taught to adopt an integrated diversified farming system using organic agriculture.
It was the Rural Development Institute in Sultan Kudarat (RDISK), a non-government institution based in Tacurong City, taught them the system through its project, Building Resilient and Adoptive Communities and Institutions, that has two component activities – the Climate Resiliency Field School and the Integrated Diversified Farming System.
The episode, using the farmers’ success stories as basis, said organic farming is safe, simple, and provide them with a huge return on investments.
Also, with use of organic fertilizers and pesticides while adopting organic farming, the farmers will preserve useful pests that kill harmful insects.
The episode, ‘Let’s Go Organic’, has already won as ‘Best Science and Technology Program’ on radio given by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas Golden Dove Awards, one of the country’s most prestigious award-giving bodies.
The Bida Specials is produced and hosted by multi-awarded journalist Malu Cadelina Manar, who currently heads the news and current affairs and special programs of the NDBC.
The Bright Leaf Awards for Best Agriculture Radio Segment was received by Fr. Jonathan Domingo, OMI., the NDBC’s chief executive officer, and Rikki Climaco, network’s chief operations officer, for and on behalf of Manar who is attending a two-day Asia-Pacific Regional Media Conference for Reporting Conflicts and Disasters in Hiroshima, Japan.