Teamwork wins championships

The great Michael Jordan once said, "Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships." Now I'm a Golden State Warriors fan, but the greatest shooting guard there ever was has a point. If you aim for great accomplishment, you have to work with a team.

- 

I say this because, in the past few weeks, I have worked alongside people who would always be first-round draft picks.

Take, for example, Engr. Eddie Guillen of the National Irrigation Administration. I first met him around the time that we were setting up KALAP (Kapatid Angat Lahat sa Agri Program), where we work to integrate small farmers into the value chain of large agri corporations and give them access to the capital, knowledge and markets they need. I remember how he wowed us all as he related to us in a very detailed Powerpoint presentation how he worked with private sector to benefit the farmers of his hometown of Piddig, Ilocos Norte when he was its mayor.

He proved to be very resourceful and creative in finding solutions; being an engineer also helped him come to solutions that were technically sound.

And now we are set to sign an agreement with the NIA that will potentially help our country's food security by putting to productive use the land under its care. During my early consultations with agriculture industry experts, land-lease arrangements always came up. I was told early on that there is plenty of room for growing agricultural productivity in the country; tapping the potential of government land holds a lot of promise. This is multiplied manyfold when we mobilize private sector to help the small farmers and bring them to a level of profitability and sustainability. With him at the helm of the NIA, and now with us working together, I am sure we will achieve great things.