Addressing the Challenge of Agricultural Development (Part 3) Under the leadership of former Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, working closely with a private Advisory Group (resembling what President Marcos Jr. has assembled early on in his presidential term), a new thinking was introduced into the Department of Agriculture to address directly the obstacles identified to agricultural development and food security enumerated above. A major feature of this “new thinking” is the wholistic approach that made sure that the target for increased productivity and effectiveness was not limited to the farming sector but embraced the whole agribusiness value chain, from farming to the downstream activities such as post-harvest (e.g. harvesting, drying, milling, etc.) as well as processing, warehousing, cold storage, logistics, wholesale, retailing and down to the ultimate consumers.