By Perla Lena/PNA
ILOILO CITY — The Department of Agriculture (DA) in Western Visayas is eyeing the improvement of the capability of its personnel and is investing on additional equipment as mandated in its five-year corporate plan starting this year.
DA 6 Regional Executive Director Remelyn Recoter, in a phone interview Monday, said the corporate plan that was launched December 17 last year was more on “internal”, as she cited the need to “develop the capability of our people and facilities”.
“Our facility also has to cope with the new trend such as improved laboratory, building, and other resources,” she said.
DA 6 has four existing laboratories to include the soils laboratory, seeds laboratory, animal diagnostics laboratory, and crop protection center.
Recoter said they would like to add more tests, particularly on the fertility of individual farms. Currently, the soil laboratory can only test nitrogen phosphorous potassium (NPK).
“We will add more equipment so our tests will not just be on basics but we will go into micro nutrient determination,” she said.
Moreover, since their new office building is expected to be completed by end of this year, the DA is also looking forward to seek an ISO accreditation to “improve management and procedure”.
The DA in Western Visayas will also kick off this year by cascading their corporate plan down to their subordinates.
“The corporate plan was prepared by the upper management so we need to trickle it down to our other personnel so they would know our plan for the next five years,” the regional executive director said.
In addition, there will be trainings to prepare, especially those who are next in line, in anticipation of the retirement of personnel this year.
“Our next in line has to go undergo training, more on technical discipline, so we also have something to offer to our clients,” she added.
Along with the corporate plan, DA also launched its new logo design and official hymn. The design was conceptualized by Faye Ann Gasapo of the DA-Philippine Rural Development Project Visayas, while the hymn titled “Kadalag-an sang Agrikultura” was composed by Dante Beriong from San Jose, Antique.
Both reflect the agriculture department’s vision of “Service excellence to ensure food security for all”, and mission that speaks of the commitment of DA of “providing innovative support services with its state-of–the-art facilities for sustainable, competitive and resilient agricultural industries”.
A copy of the corporate plan during the launching was delivered to Recoter using a drone to mark the technological advancement of DA in Region 6.
The regional office made use of drones for the conduct of geo-mapping and damage assessment.
