What is Agriculture?

The science or practice of farming including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the
rearing of animals to provide food, wool and other products. Traces of modern Philippine agriculture
became most visible to the Outside World at the height of the Spanish regime when industries were
encouraged and developed and supplied the major needs of the colonizer Spain and other European
consumers for tobacco, sugar and abaca.

At the proclamation of Philippine Independence on June 12, 1898, which gave birth to the First
Philippine Republic under the stewardship of President Emilio Aguinaldo, several offices and agencies
were established. The then Department of Agriculture and Manufacturing was created through a
Presidential Proclamation on June 23, 1898.

By 1901, a policy of diversification was adopted under the American Sovereignty, which gave
emphasis to the development of other agricultural products, like rice and other basic commodities, and
also fishing, forestry and mining. The Insular Bureau of Agriculture was then created under the
Department of Interior through Act 271. Eventually, the Bureau of Agriculture grew rapidly until it was
abolished by the enactment of Act No. 2666 on November 18, 1916, which was implemented on January
1, 1917.

By virtue of this Act entitled "An Act to Re-organize the Executive Department of the Government
of the Philippine Islands" the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources took over the functions
and activities of the Department of Interior, namely: direct executive control, direction, and supervision
of the Bureau of Agriculture, Bureau of Forestry, Bureau of Lands, Bureau of Science, and the Weather
Bureau and all matters concerning hunting, fisheries, sponges and other sea products and such others as
may be hereafter assigned to it by law.

According to Dr. William Dollente Dar is a man fated to do great things. History does repeat itself
for this man from Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur, as he was called again to serve government as the Secretary of
Agriculture on August 5, 2019, under the administration of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. He first
served the Department of Agriculture (DA) from July 1998 to May 1999 under President Joseph Ejercito
Estrada.

Upon his assumption to office, Dar introduced the “New Thinking for Agriculture” which is
anchored on the vision: A food-secure Philippines with prosperous farmers and fisherfolk. The vision has
over-arching twin goals of increasing productivity and making farmers and fishers prosperous or his
term’s battlecry, “Masaganang Ani at Mataas na Kita”.

Never in the history of the DA that a vision statement has been elevated to focus on the farmers
and fisherfolk becoming prosperous. With President Duterte’s marching order to arrest the anemic
growth of the agriculture sector, which has barely grown in the past decade, at a rate of 1.1% annually,
Dar targets the agriculture to grow at least 2%, from August 2019 to July 2020; and increase up to 2.5-
3% in 2021; and 3-4% in 2022.
There are 5 branches of agriculture.

1. Agronomy: Agronomy is about the soil, and how the crops will grow in different kinds of soil

2. Agriculture Engineering: Agriculture Engineering is learning about how the different machines work.

3. Horticulture: Horticulture is all about the fruits and vegetables and how to grow them.

4. Agricultural Economics: Agricultural Economics is about the money and business that the farm will
bring.

5. Animal Science: Animal Science is how to take care of animals, as well as how to breed them. This is
learned for certain reasons. These reasons are for milk, food, skins, fur, etc.