"We Need To Bring In More Active Leadership In PH Agriculture" – William Dar

Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol should have been there, but was not. I took this photograph on 24 January 2019 at the opening ceremony of the 8th National Rice Technology Forum at the boundary of Asingan, Pangasinan (host town) and Urdaneta City at exactly 7:44:52 AM. International aggie manager William Dar was there (in pink polo shirt), and so was founding PhilRice Executive Director Santiago R Obien (rightmost). My digital Lumix FZ100 superzoom camera is precise and I have set it up to work automatically, that is, on intelligent auto, iA; leadership must activate itself into iA mode. 

In his latest Manila Times column ("The 'New Thinking' For Agriculture," 2nd of 3 parts, 20 June 2019, Manila Times, manilatimes.net), Mr Dar says new thinking for agriculture begins with leadership:

There is… a need to bring in more active leadership into the agencies involved with the country's agriculture sector and engage the private sector in a big way in setting up more agri-based industries and developing markets for agricultural products.

That Asingan Forum was on hybrid rice as an intelligent choice for farmers from Batanes to Jolo, initially to guarantee high harvests. The private hybrid rice groups participating were: Advanta, Aljay, Bayer, BioRice, Bioseed, Corteva Agriscience, LongPing, PhilSCAT, SeedWorks, SL Agritech Corporation, SRI Pilipinas, and Syngenta.

New thinking for agriculture requires that the Department of Agriculture, DA, engage with the private sector in a big way in setting up more agri-based industries and developing markets for agricultural products. It's not too late, but the leaders in PH agriculture must wake up and join those already in the fields!

And that is only a beginning. Mr Dar says:

And while productivity increase is a major objective, it is equally important to produce more income by value adding, processing, manufacturing and developing markets for both raw and processed agricultural products.

Higher harvest in rice is important; equally important is higher income of farmers. For that, national aggie leaders must see to it that PH agriculture becomes an industry up to and including value-added farm produce and products, and that these are sold locally and internationally. Go out and sell!

Industrializing the country's agriculture sector, however, cannot be done haphazardly and must (produce) a framework or roadmap from the government, with the Department of Agriculture taking the lead in planning and implementation, and converging with other government departments and local government units (LGUs) with private sector playing a more active role.

Where is that Aggie Roadmap? Not heard of any. The leadership must come from the DA, Mr Dar says, working with other government agencies as well as the private sector. Now then, I say, the aggie leaders must show their faces in national events!

It is the government that should generate the "big ideas" with the private sector also pitching in their ideas on how to industrialize the country's agriculture sector.

The PH government must lead in industrializing agriculture and actively encourage the energetic participation of private companies. No excuses for waking up late for a 160-km ride!517