14 November 2019

How PH Thrives Amidst The Chaos, With Agriculture Secretary William Dar/Manong Willie


If you read thoroughly Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie's column today, Thursday at the Manila Times, "Q3 Agri Growth Should Embolden Us To Move Forward[1]," you will be bewildered by the complex of factors that have to be considered in the Department of Agriculture, DA, with the public & private sectors contributing to the cultivation of PH Agriculture at these troubled times: 

(1)   Containing the African swine fever, ASF
(2)   Compensating swine raisers for their pigs culled because of the ASF
(3)   Using the billions Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund , RCEF
(4)   LGUs buying palay from thousands upon thousands of farmers
(5)   Requesting legislative support of P10 billion additional funds to purchase palay to support farmers
(6)   Helping farmers market their milled rice
(7)   Expanding the Survival and Recovery Assistance, SURE, Aid Program
(8)   Negotiating for inclusion of farmers in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, 4Ps.
(9)   Flooding of farms and villages.

Manong Willie says PH agriculture has grown from 0.87% to 2.87% from 2018 to 2019 – amidst the chaos of the Rice Tariffication Law!

How do I think PH Agriculture today survives – even thrives? I have 2 explanations for the same phenomenon:

(a)   Leadership experience
(b)   Management style.

Those 2 both refer to Manong Willie, who has been, in the Philippines, Director of the Bureau of Agricultural Research, the BAR; Executive Director of the Philippine Council for Agriculture & Natural Resources Research & Development, PCARRD; and based in India, Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT. With the BAR and PCARRD, Manong Willie showed creative leadership – in the words of Jovita Corpuz, who worked with him at the BAR and who later became the ACPC Executive Director: "Si Willie, marunong gumamit ng tao." (Willie is smart in choosing/using people.) With ICRISAT, he proved it – from dead last, he guided ICRISAT to the top of the ladder of the CGIAR Group of 15 international research centers.

From chaos to symmetry – he has known chaos; he knows how to pursue symmetry.

So, don't be surprised that with Manong Willie at the top of PH Agriculture, we are not simply surviving but thriving!

He did prepare to become the new Secretary of Agriculture, I know. When President Rodrigo Duterte swore him into office on Monday, 05 August 2019, he was ready not only physically but intellectually:

He had prepared what he calls the "New Thinking for Agriculture" that is visibly comprised of what he refers to as The Eight Paradigms To Level Up Agriculture:

(1)   Modernization of agriculture
(2)   Industrialization of agriculture
(3)   Promotion of exports
(4)   Farm consolidation
(5)   Infrastructure development
(6)   Higher budget and investments for agriculture
(7)   Legislative support
(8)   Roadmap development.

(Image above from him; symmetry image from Reddit Bocker[2])

The 8 are guidelines, goals, thrusts whatever you call them – always at the back of his mind before, during and after he reports for duty as Secretary of Agriculture.

So, how can you lose the war when you have a battles plan?!@



[1]https://www.manilatimes.net/2019/11/14/opinion/columnists/topanalysis/q3-agri-growth-should-embolden-us-to-move-forward/655823/
[2]https://vafifpbuzz.ga/database/reddit-böcker-nedladdning-the-symmetry-perspective-from-equilibrium-to-chaos-in-phase-space-and-physical-space-progress-in-mathematics-in-swedish-pdf-epub-by-martin-golubitskyian-stewart.html

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