TOWARDS A MULTI-TASKING AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT

A corporate culture starts with a mindset or a worldview that would guide the corporate officers and staff about how it should run the organization and what its visions and missions should be. But even with a clear set of visions and missions, a corporate organization would be lost in its overall purpose if it does not adjust to the changes in world views and market demands. It appears that many of the people who are running the DA now are mostly focused on growing food items and on farm operations and hardly anything else, without realizing perhaps that they should also pay attention to the marketing of farm produce, the development of sales strategies, the strengthening of logistics and the completion of value chains and supply chains. Perhaps the root of the problems could be traced to the schools of agriculture wherein the curriculum is focused mainly on the growing of crops and not the selling of these crops, along with the other functions in between growing and selling, such as harvesting, drying, processing, packing, storing and delivering. Not unless the curriculum is changed, we will always end up with graduates whose mindsets are compartmentalized. The officers of our agriculture department should set long term targets not only for self-sufficiency or food security, but for food dominance in several food export categories. Not just import reduction, but export leadership. IKE SENERES/1-7-24