Lum ase - Ministry of Agriculture

editor’s noteVISIONFOUNDATIONPILLARSProverbs 14;23“In all labour there is profit,but idle chatter leads only to poverty.”MISSIONVALUES1. BOTHOWe treat our customers ina respectable and caring manner.2. TEAM WORK.3. CUSTOMER FOCUSEDOur customers are the focusof everything we do by beingcourteous, caring, compassionate,tolerant and empathetic.4. INNOVATIVEWe commit to employ new ideasand being proactive in order tomatch the requirements of thefuture.5. INTEGRITYWe foster a culture of transparency,accountability and dependability.The above verse is complimented by an assortment of proverbs such as ‘an earlybird catches the biggest worm.’ For fear of being caught in politics of religions,the verse is better read as it is. Its intepretation carefully left to the angels of theAlmighty.Is the verse revelant to the agricultural sector? Yes!!! The agriculture sector is litteredwith a lot of opportunities that needs to be harnessed and turned into a gold mine.It is a task that can be achieved through hard work. The agricultural sector hasproduced a lot of rich people. Many make millions through this sector.For example, if one planted 100 000 sweet reeds, and sells each one at one pulathat translates into P100 000.This picture shows how easily money can be made in the agricultural sector. Butit does not mean such money comes easy. It requires a lot of hard work. Workinghard includes manning the fields through out the ploughing season until harvest time.It also entails ensuring that pests are eliminated as they can affect the quality ofa farmer’s produce. It starts at the time of ploughing until the product reaches aconsumer. It is a 24 hour work. The product has to be delivered to the market ontime and at the right time. E.g. Failure to deliver green mealies at the right time cannegatively affect a farmer’s balance sheet.Therefore quality assurance through out the production chain is very important.Quality assurance can come in the form of taking care of one’s fields by amongstothers waking up very early in the morning.In today’s world where consumers are spoiled for choice, they would not buy anythingthey consider to be of less quality.Just like in the shares industry, where the value of shares can be affected by theturbulance in the world market. It happened during the recent economic recession.Similarly, taking care of the field can be negatively affected by other external factorssuch as adverse weather conditions. But such events cannot be used as an excuseby farmers to neglect their fields.As human beings we do not have any control over the weather. Equally so there arethose things that we have control over such as taking care of a field.Just like a person who works in an office and has made going to the office on timehis/her tradition, we also should at our farms/fields make that a tradition.If we start work in our fields at the right times and manage our livestock accordingly,then we can restore the esteem of the agricultural sector.The undesputed fact is that the sector is at the centre stage of life. Whether thereis recession or not people would always want to have something to eat. This is theonly sector through which one can easily break even. Agriculture has a lot of profitprovided we labour and Proverbs 14; 23 says those’ who ‘idle will perish in povertyand hunger.1