MAKATI CITY—Fifty eight office heads and chiefs from the Department of Agriculture (DA) and selected provincial government units completed the Short Course on Leadership and Management last April 21 and 28, 2023.
The Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), in collaboration with the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), conducted the said training in support to the professionalization of the convenors and managers of the Province-led Agriculture and Fisheries Extension System.
Two batches of middle-level extension managers and leaders participated in the activity. The first batch was composed of representatives from Luzon, and the second batch was for the Visayas and Mindanao Clusters.
Specifically, there were 26 participants from the ATI central office and training centers, 14 from selected DA-Regional Field Offices, four from DA attached agencies and service units, and 14 from selected provincial government units.
The provinces represented were Benguet, Ilocos Norte, Bataan, Quezon, Palawan, Oriental Mindoro, Antique, Bohol, Negros Oriental, Northern Samar, Zamboanga del Sur, Bukidnon, Davao Oriental, and Dinagat Island.
The first part of the course was held virtually for one week, which focused on leadership, public finance and the public value chain, and systems thinking. The second week was held face-to-face at the AIM where topics such as program and project management, social innovation, conflict management, strategic negotiation, and data analytics were discussed.
In her message for the participants, ATI Director Remelyn Recoter stressed the importance of developing the human resources of the agriculture sector.
“Now that greater leadership and stakeholder participation in planning and implementing extension services is being demanded by our ever-evolving sector, multi-level approaches and innovative strategies are expected among each pillar of the extension service,” she said.
She added the continuous support of the Institute for all stakeholders of the agriculture and fisheries extension system and looked forward to the increased productivity and capabilities of the participants after the course.
“We are with high hopes that after this short course, renewed learning and transformative leadership skills towards the right approaches to various challenges would be realized and adopted,” she sated.
The first batch of participants was trained from April 10 to 21, while the second batch was from April 17 to 28. The participants are expected to implement their capstone proposals which serve as their final output from the course. (with reports from Czarina Mamino)
