The Department of Agriculture’s (DA) top guns met on Wednesday, January 9, 2019 for the assessment of the 2018 agri performance and synchronization of action plans for the upcoming months.

Led by Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol, undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, regional executive directors, bureau and service directors, heads of attached agencies and corporations and other support staff of the Department forged their commitment to better serve not only the farmers, fishers and other agri stakeholders, but the whole nation as well.

“It has been a bad year for the agriculture sector, but we were able to share a significant contribution to the reduction of the inflation rate,” Piñol said.

In his message, the agri chief stressed that the DA family must continue with its advocacies with consideration for the future.

“We will continue to implement sustainable agri-fishery programs, hitting targets to satisfy the needs of today, but keeping in mind the future generation,” he said.

As such, Piñol directed all DA officials to implement food production programs and other agricultural livelihood initiatives that are environmentally sound and safe.

“Emphasize location-specific farming and discourage the use of weed killers and other chemical-based concoctions,” he said.

In spite of the growth decline and the missed targets, the Secretary is optimistic that Philippine agriculture and fishery will rise this year.

“We will use last year’s lessons to determine the interventions that we will undertake to enable us to hit our targets even with bad weather. We can do better,” he said.

Before ending his speech, Piñol congratulated everyone for keeping the Department corruption-free.

“There has been no serious issues of corruption for two and a half years now, and I thank everyone for this. The Department has now regained the trust of the people,” he said. ### (oda rodriguez/DA-AFID)