Tesco and Sainsbury Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Tesco and Sainsbury - Case Study Example He has been reduced to working from home most of the times. After deliberations with the family members, Howard has opted to retire from the company completely at the end of this year. He will relocate to Kenya, due to warm climate here. This will be good for his health. Having graduated recently with an undergraduate degree in business management, Howard has selected me, as his eldest child, to take over the running of the business. I plan to make radical changes to Stellion Convenient Stores. This is to make sure that it grows, instead of the current stagnation. To this end, am carrying out a research on Tesco and Sainsbury stores. The results of this research will help me in making the decisions that are necessary for this company. Tesco has a unique form of organizational structure. It is devolved and decentralized. This means that rather decisions been made by the top tier managers and passed down the hierarchy, the managers at the lower levels can make decisions (Crowther & McNiff: 2004). What the top tier managers at Tesco do is just to arm the lower cadre managers with general terms like price list and terms and conditions. But the rest of the decisions, like determining which staffs work where are determined by the lower managers (Crowther & McNiff: 2004). Each branch of this chain of supermarkets has its own manager. This is the one who decides on matters to do with the store, and then he makes a report to the regional manager. The hierarchy of Tesco supermarkets can be looked at as been flat. There are six tiers of hierarchy between the highest official, who is the C.E.O, and the lowest staff, who is the checkout cashier. Since the organisation has several branches, there exist two separate but interrelated forms of structures (Crowther & McNiff: 2004). The first is for the whole company, while the second is for each of the branches, which can also be referred to as regional or internal organisation structure. Every company has norms and values that are common amongst the employees. This is what is referred to as the organisational culture (Mullins: 2008). There are weekly meetings for the employees, where they get the opportunity to share ideas and suggestions about the running of Tesco. During these meetings, the management gets the feedback from their staff on how the business is running, since the workers are the ones who are in direct contact with the customers (Mullins: 2008). It is also the culture of Tesco to inform the employees of new developments in the company, for example change in terms and conditions, during these meetings. The chain of supermarkets has adopted a slogan "every little helps", which shows how they value their employees and customers. Every little input from these employees and customers aimed at improving the business of this company is appreciated. The culture adopted by Tesco helps both the employees and the customers. For example the weekly meetings and update from the company makes the employees feel that they are part of the company, they are not alienated (Crowther & McNiff: 2004). The employees are allowed to make suggestions as to the best way of running the company, they become a part in the decision making process. They feel that they have control over their work, which is really good for morale (Crowther & McNiff: 2004). The customers get their feelings and suggestions relayed to

Written analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Written analysis - Essay Example Giving it as a hypothetical case, if the customer is late queuing in a place, he or she misses out on a business engagement and hence losses money just because poor service provision on part of the business. If it is a personal engagement, an individual’s name carries some costs to it that cannot be quantified. A person’s dignity cannot be bought with money hence making it even a bigger loss. For the company, the losses that accrue from customer queuing are immense. The company only manages to serve very few customers out of a large number of them hence losing on the opportunity to make money. Secondly, the customer who queues in a place waiting to get some services will avoid coming to do business again and will search for such similar services providers. In the common perfect competition and monopolist market structures, the business will obviously lose on customers. There will be no customer loyalty, and hence this will define the end of the business. This can be managed by having many business agents to serve the customer and expand rooms where these services are offered. At Macro, however, the management is very aware of these queues and the costs they have on business. Arguably, they knew how to manage the situation better by avoiding falling in the pitfall. In this era of the technology revolution, the management could not gamble with it and have introduced highly specialized e-services to the clients by liaising with various service providers. As has been the case, word of mouth has been a potent business marketing tool. Word of mouth, in other words, means customer feedback on the services offered at any organization. Customer feedback is number one yardstick that evaluates and determines if the customers are getting services worth time and money. Only if the customers have satisfied with the business will they comment positively and when they are not satisfied, certainly, they would respond negatively. For any

People With Disability And The Media Media Essay

People With Disability And The Media Media Essay The mass media serves many purposes. It is informative, descriptive, and persuasive but it also helps create stereotypes and reinforce cultural values. Although there is no clear correlation of the effects media has on the attitudes of society towards people with disabilities it is seen to have an influence. People with disabilities and their concerns are either invisible, marginalised, or depicted by negative stereotypes in the media The media seem to distinguish people with disabilities in a number of limited categories. They are portrayed as either heroes for doing something inspirational or achieving something great, as people who should be pitied for their impairment or as people who are sinister or evil and evoke fear. Rarely do they appear and remain in the media in habitual roles. In our society people with disabilities are excluded, oppressed, treated unequally, seen as helpless and are victims of prejudice. Many news articles concerning disability contain stories regarding cures, or overcoming the disability. The Irish Examiner recently featured a story entitled Device lets blind soldier see again (Creedon 2010 p5). The focus in this story is a soldier, a hero, who lost his sight in the Iraqi war trying to regain a normal life and the device he uses enables him to get around without the use of a guide dog. This seems to portraying the need to hide the disability and to somehow fix it, or find a cure for it. Some famous people are also known for trying to overcome their disability and never accepting it. Christopher Reeve, famously known for his role as superman, became a wheelchair user and required breathing equipment following an accident where he thrown from his horse. He never fully accepted his disability and became an advocate for stem cell research to find a cure. President F.D Roosevelt was a wheelchair user but there are claims that only two photos of 35,000 showed him in his w heelchair (Hevey 1992, Delamothe 1992). In another recent story, Autistic boy seeks return of facilities (Kilfeather 2010 p2) a boy is portrayed as being denied his constitutional rights because he is not provided with equipment he requires. On the same page as this article is a story about a young autistic girl who is a hero and is overcoming her obstacles. This story, Grace iPhone app makes a difference (Ó Cionnaith 2010 p2) does hold positive information for people with autism however in the development of a new device to assist communication but they are treating her as astonishingly impressive. Oliver (1990) noted that people with disabilities were described as extraordinary or sub-ordinate humans. People with disabilities were used as a source of melodramatic entertainment in circuses across Europe and America throughout the 20th century as depicted in Mel Brooks The Elephant man in 1980 and Tod Browning Freaks film in 1932. Disability was not understood at the time and was seen as evil, works of the devil and something to be feared. Cultural views has changed drastically since institutionalization and become more accepting of people with disabilities, although it still needs huge improvements. Soap operas are very popular nowadays. They are entertaining but directly relate to ordinary life experiences and are an excellent way of portraying social issues. They do not include people with disabilities very often, and when they do the person with the disability finds a cure or leaves again. EastEnders, a UK based soap, has included a character with bi polar disorder and a character with paralysis recently. These characters are depicted excellently and will hopefully set a precedent for other soaps. Robert Zemeckis 1994 film Forrest Gump is a widely known film starring a character with autism. This film involves positive and negative imagery. Firstly, he is a hero for his achievements in war but then he is also portrayed as having normal intimate feelings for a member of the opposite sex. He is not just shown as a supernatural human but as a sufferer of unrequited love which is a usual feature of many characters in fiction. This film is an exception to most for its representation of disability. The images the media render can be seen as very conflicting. The current television advertisements to promote safe driving evoke a sense of pity and horror in the viewer to the results of a car accident, such as facial disfigurement, paralysis, undesirability and total dependence on others of the victim. Parents and family are then seen as burdened with the victim of the car accident who now has a disability. There is an emphasis on who is going to provide for victim when the care givers die. There is also a stress on rehabilitation following an accident. If one is a victim of an accident and becomes a wheelchair user one must try to correct that by participating in rehabilitation. Even plastic surgery can be seen as a pressure by society to conform to what is seen to be conventional. This ideology is a product of cultural values and norms, reinforced by the media portrayal of flawlessness. On the other hand, The National Disability Authoritys campaign called Challenging Attitudes, first launch in December 2007, was designed to change peoples views on mental health issues by using television, radio advertisements and posters (see appendix 1). They use a number of words to describe a person and include a mental health phrase such as depression, schizophrenic, bi-polar etc. They are trying to persuade people to look at the person as a whole, not in terms of the disability. This is contradictory to the message given by the car accident advertisements where a person with a disability is seen in terms of their disability and it is something to be feared. The Public Attitudes to Disability in Ireland (2008) report found that many people thought that children with disabilities should not attend mainstream schooling. This shows huge discrimination and problems changing cultural attitudes towards people with disabilities when it cannot be accepted in schools. In this study it was found that 60% of the respondents thought that disability was created by barriers in society which is an idea founded in the social model of disability (Oliver, 1983). This is a big increase since the 2002 report which found that only 25% of people saw society as creating barriers for people with disabilities. Public attitudes are shifting in a positive direction. From practice placement it is evident in a local town in North Kerry that some businesses in the town do not allow young children with a range of physical and mental disabilities into their premises. If they do allow them in it is only at a certain times of the day for a given period. Many of the staff working with these young children are harassed by local people saying that those people should be locked away as they were frightening their children and they should not be behaving like that in public. Environments and attitudes like this exclude people with disabilities and prevent positive socialisation. Huge investment needs to be placed into re-educating the people in our society. People with disabilities are not usually seen in primary roles in television programmes. A study by Cumberbatch and Negrine (1992) in the United Kingdom reveal that the most prevailing stories regarding disability in the media included people with a disability achieving something major or finding a cure. They examined an eight week period of television programming over a number of channels. They also found that people with disabilities only appeared .5% of fictional programmes. Contrasting to the UK study, The Representation and Portrayal of People with Disabilities in Irish Broadcasting (2009) showed that people with disabilities featured more in fictional programmes then nonfiction. Perhaps this means a shift in images over the period of time. In the report, they concluded that: People with disabilities are more likely to be obviously present in drama, comedy and lifestyle programming and are less evident in news, sports and music programming (The Representation and Portrayal of People with Disabilities in Irish Broadcasting, 2009) People with disabilities have only begun to appear in advertisements since the 1980s, most frequently they are seen on charity advertisements appealing for financial support. These advertisements and depictions are mostly controlled by able-bodied people. Mason (1982) argues in her poem that people with disabilities are silenced when it comes to their portrayal in the media so as not to disrupt the image of dependency and need. The Special Olympics advertisement appeals for financial support utilises children in evoking pity in the audience. Many people with disabilities feel that they have no say in these decisions about how they are publicized in the media. They are represented by others who may not understand their needs. More people with disabilities need to be included in the decision making processes. The Irish population seem to be enraptured by the current story of the conjoined twins, Hassan and Hussein Benhaffaf, they have almost become celebrities because of their disabili ty. They have been featured in national and local newspapers, on radio shows and on the television. The media have played a very important role in portraying their image and appealing for financial assistance. A recently conducted workshop in Dublin by Dr. Philip Nitschke, commonly known as Dr. Death in the media, could potentially be very dangerous. His workshops consist of information as to how a person can commit suicide safety and efficiently. Dr. Nitschke is the first doctor in the world to conduct a physician assisted suicide, first done in Australia in 1996. He claims his workshops are aimed at elderly people and those who are terminally ill, but he cannot guarantee that the information he has given will not be used by others such as people affected with mental health issues or people with disabilities. He gives clear information about methods of suicide and he also tells people where to get items to assist their suicide. Although suicide is not illegal in Ireland, euthanasia is and having access to this information could encourage more suicide especially in the more vulnerable in society and in a culture where disability is looked upon as requiring a cure. There have been some positive changes in Irish legislation and policies in recent years. A Strategy for Equality (1996) has influenced some of these changes. This report was made in conjunction with people with disabilities and it made many recommendations. One of the recurring recommendations in the report is to provide training to professionals and individuals such as presenters, journalists, teachers, students, people with disabilities etc. regarding the use of terminology and imagery. It seems that the principle problem lies in the lack of education regarding people with disabilities. Disability is ignored more often than it is acknowledged. This report also recommends that news regarding people with disabilities should feature in mainstream news and not in special correspondence. As they are underrepresented in the media the topic of disability should be made more visible. There is a clear lack of participation in game shows and talent shows by people with disabilities. The report also found that people in the deaf community felt that more programmes need to be subtitled to create equal access; however this issue has been addressed greatly since this report which is a positive action towards inclusivity. The Representation and Portrayal of People with Disabilities in Irish Broadcasting (2009) illustrate that people are more willing to accept and listen to people with disabilities in the media where people with disabilities take part. Overall, however people with disabilities only accounted for 1% of the proportion of people on television even though they account for 10% of the population (Public Attitudes to Disability in Ireland, 2008). They are highly under represented. The programmes involving people with disabilities featured unemployment problems, unusual medical syndromes, being victims of violence and abuse, unequal opportunities, unable to commit to and sustain sexual relationships, etc. This seems to reinforce stereotyping of people with disabilities and portrays a very negative image to the population. There is legislation in Ireland to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities. The Employment Equality Acts 1998 2004 and the Equal Status Acts 2000 -2004 provides that it is illegal to discriminate in workplaces and in service provision on a number of grounds. This is recent legislation that could potentially have a positive effect on peoples values and norms. Also the Disability Act 2005 provides that 3% of positions in public sector organisations must held for people with disabilities. Although this is discrimination against able bodied people, it is for a positive reason and should hopefully encourage more acceptances of people with disabilities. If communities are more exposed to people with disabilities, attitudes and cultural norms would change. In conclusion, it is a slow process but the media is beginning to change its images and the culture is becoming more accepting of people with disabilities. Perhaps it would be worth considering initiatives regarding how prejudice against black people or homosexual people were addressed and how effective they were in planning action and reducing prejudice for the disabled community. References Creedon, L., (2010) Device lets blind soldier see again. The Irish Examiner, March 16th, 5 Cumberbatch, G Negrine, R., (1992) Images of disability on television, Routledge Darke, London Delamothe, T., (1992) Thank You. Medicine and the Media, May 2nd, 1186 EastEnder, 2010 (Soap) Directed by Julia Smith. UK: Elstree Studios Forrest Gump, 1994 (Film) Directed by Robert Zemeckis. USA: Paramount Pictures Freaks, 1932 (Film) Directed by Tod Browning. USA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Hevey, D., (1992) The Creatures Time Forgot: Photography and Disability Imagery. Routledge, London. Kilfeather, V., (2010) Autistic boy seeks return of facilities. Irish Examiner, March 16th, 2 Leavy, S. (2010) Does the freedom to die enhance lives? Irish Medical Times, March 28th Mason, M., (1982) From the inside, In from the cold. Summer 12-13 National Disability Authority Broadcasting commission of Ireland., (2009) The Representation and Portrayal of People with Disabilities in Irish Broadcasting, Executive Summary. Dublin. National Disability Authority., (1996) Report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities, A Strategy for Equality 1996. Statistical Consulting, Dublin. National Disability Authority., (2008) Public Attitudes to Disability in Ireland. Insight Statistical Consulting, Dublin. Ó Cionnaith, F., (2010) Grace iPhone app makes a difference. Irish Examiner, March 16th, 2 Oliver, M., (1983) Social work with disabled people. Macmillan, UK. Oliver, M., (1990) The politics of disablement. Macmillan, UK. The Elephant man, 1980 (Film) Directed by Mel Brooks. USA: Paramount Pictures Bibliography Barnes, C. Mercer, G. (2003) Disability. Polity Press, Cambridge. Barnes, C., Mercer, G. Shakespeare, T. (1999) Exploring Disability, A Sociological Introduction. Polity Press, Cambridge. Whalley Hammell, K., (2006) Perspectives on Disability Rehabilitation; contesting assumptions; challenging practice. Elsevier Limited, UK.

Brutus vs Antony Essay examples -- essays papers

Brutus vs Antony The most predominate and important aspect In the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare are the speeches given to the Roman citizens by Brutus and Antony, the two main charaters, following the death of Caesar. Brutus and Antony both spoke to the crowd,using the same rhetorical devices to express their thoughts. Both speakers used the three classical appeals employed in the speeches: ethos, which is an appeal to credibility; pathos, which is an appeal to the emotion of the audience; and logos, which is an appeal to the content and arrangement of the argument itself. Even though both speeches have the same structure Antony’s speech is significantly more effective than Brutus’s. Both speakers used an ethical appeal to the crowd and established their credibility first. Brutus starts off by saying he was Caesar’s friend, and he loved him, but because Ceasar was â€Å"ambitious† he had to â€Å"slew† him. Brutus knew that everyone in town thought he was an honorable man and he used that to establish his credibility, unlike Antony, who was thought to be a play boy, not serious about anything. He had to work harder to gain the crowd’s attention. The first sentence out of his mouth was that he was here to â€Å"bury Caesar, not to praise him† which is a great way to start since most of the people didn’t like Caesar at the time and didn’t want to listen to some silly friend of Caesar’s say wonderful things about him. Antony also mentioned many times that their hero Brutus is an â€Å"honorableâ€Å" man. This also helped get the crowd to listen to him, because they had just heard Brutus and were all fire d up about the wonderful things he had said. So both the characters start off their speeches the same, gaining credibilit... ...d how fickle the crowd was, he made sure that they were really listening to him and really going to be his followers. Two times Antony called the people back from running away in anger and said another thing to deepen the seed he had planted in them. Although both gentlemen used the same three persuasive appeals in their speeches, one was obviously more effective. Antony did a more sufficient job of getting his point across. He understood what he would have to od to win the crowd. He used the three appeals, ethos, pathos, and logos, to his advantage and evn though Brutus also used the same three appeals, his speech did not impact the Roman countrymen nearly as much as Antony. Both speeches had the same structure and used the same rhetorcial devices but Antony’s speech was much more influencial and because of that, he help build the great history that is Rome. Brutus vs Antony Essay examples -- essays papers Brutus vs Antony The most predominate and important aspect In the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare are the speeches given to the Roman citizens by Brutus and Antony, the two main charaters, following the death of Caesar. Brutus and Antony both spoke to the crowd,using the same rhetorical devices to express their thoughts. Both speakers used the three classical appeals employed in the speeches: ethos, which is an appeal to credibility; pathos, which is an appeal to the emotion of the audience; and logos, which is an appeal to the content and arrangement of the argument itself. Even though both speeches have the same structure Antony’s speech is significantly more effective than Brutus’s. Both speakers used an ethical appeal to the crowd and established their credibility first. Brutus starts off by saying he was Caesar’s friend, and he loved him, but because Ceasar was â€Å"ambitious† he had to â€Å"slew† him. Brutus knew that everyone in town thought he was an honorable man and he used that to establish his credibility, unlike Antony, who was thought to be a play boy, not serious about anything. He had to work harder to gain the crowd’s attention. The first sentence out of his mouth was that he was here to â€Å"bury Caesar, not to praise him† which is a great way to start since most of the people didn’t like Caesar at the time and didn’t want to listen to some silly friend of Caesar’s say wonderful things about him. Antony also mentioned many times that their hero Brutus is an â€Å"honorableâ€Å" man. This also helped get the crowd to listen to him, because they had just heard Brutus and were all fire d up about the wonderful things he had said. So both the characters start off their speeches the same, gaining credibilit... ...d how fickle the crowd was, he made sure that they were really listening to him and really going to be his followers. Two times Antony called the people back from running away in anger and said another thing to deepen the seed he had planted in them. Although both gentlemen used the same three persuasive appeals in their speeches, one was obviously more effective. Antony did a more sufficient job of getting his point across. He understood what he would have to od to win the crowd. He used the three appeals, ethos, pathos, and logos, to his advantage and evn though Brutus also used the same three appeals, his speech did not impact the Roman countrymen nearly as much as Antony. Both speeches had the same structure and used the same rhetorcial devices but Antony’s speech was much more influencial and because of that, he help build the great history that is Rome.

My Super Hero

My Superhero If I were a superhero, I would want to be like super woman. She can do almost anything she wants. I could fly, shoot laser beams through my eyes, have super strength, invisibility, and have super speed. My name would be The Bullet. [ (Your Super Hero Name) ] If I were a superhero, my powers would be flying, strength, laser eyes, invisibility, super strength, and super speed because then I could get places faster, be stronger, melt things with my eyes, and secretly be places without anyone else knowing. [ (Superpowers) ] If I were a superhero, I would be able to do almost anything I wanted without anybody having a say in it.I could cook my own meals with my laser beam eyes. I could save loads of money on gas by flying or running everywhere. I would also be super fit due to running or flying everywhere. Along with having super strength I would be able to also be a hero to anyone that needed help lifting things, or getting their kittens out of the tree, or any need anyone n eeded I could help them. If I was a superhero and my name was The Bullet, my outfit would be jeans and a t-shirt, because they are super comfortable and are casual. [ (Glamour Magazine) ] My t-shirt would be pink because my favorite color is pink.And my shoes would be running tennis shoes because they are my favorite to wear and most comfortable. If I was a superhero and my name was The Bullet, I would look casual to not stand out so badly in a crowd. My superpowers would include flying, strength, laser eye beams, invisibility, super speed, and super strength. Works Cited â€Å"Glamour Magazine. † August 2012. Superpowers. 22 August 2012 . Your Super Hero Name. 22 August 2012

Agricultural Policy of Bangladesh Essay

Agriculture is the dominant economic activity in Bangladesh and regarded as the lifeline of the Bangladesh economy. Its role is vital in enhancing productivity, profitability and employment in the rural areas for improving the wellbeing of the poor. As the largest private enterprise, agriculture (crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry) contributes about 21% of the GDP, sustains the livelihood of about 52% of the labour force, and remains a major supplier of raw materials for agro-based industries. Agriculture plays an important role in the overall economic development of Bangladesh. Agriculture is also a social sector concerned with issues like food and nutritional security, income generation and poverty reduction. Besides, it is the biggest source of market for a variety of consumer goods, including consumer durables particularly in the rural area. Hence, improvement in agricultural sector performance and acceleration in its growth are critical to reducing rural poverty. 1. 2 Agricuture sector encompasses crops, fisheries, livestock, and forestry sub-sectors. Separate policies on livestock, fisheries and forestry have been formulated by the respective ministries. In this perspective, Ministry of Agriculture has drafted this policy document in order to undertake and guide development activities in the crops sub-sector. As expected, policies aimed at crop production in the areas of reaserch, extension, seeds, fertilisers, minor irrigation, marketing, gender and HRD have prominence in this document. Since crop sector plays a major role in Bangladesh agriculture and gets the utmost importance in various agriculture related programmes of the government, this policy document for the development of crop sector is, therefore, entitled as the National Agriculture Policy. It is estimated that the agricultural land is declining by 1% per year and the land quality is deteriorating owing to degradation of soil fertility (e. g. nutrient imbalance), soil erosion and soil salinity. In addition, water resources are also shrinking. In order to produce more food for an increasing population, and raw materials for agro-industries, there is a need for increasing agricultural growth through higher productivity, including increased yield, agricultural intensification and diversification, and value addition. The overarching goal of the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) matches with Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of achieving 50% reduction in the proportion of population living below the poverty by 2015. In addition to maintaining a sound macro-economic framework, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), entitled Unlocking the Potential National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction (GoB, 2005), highlights the need for higher growth in rural areas, development of agriculture and rural non-farm economic activities as one of the four priority areas to accelerating pro-poor economic growth. In order to achieve the GDP growth rate of 7% per year, agriculture must grow by at least 4-4. 5% per year (PRSP, 2005). This is presumably possible through an increase in agricultural productivity (for crops, horticulture, livestock, fisheries and forestry) based on modern agricultural technology and a supply chain linking farmers with consumers in the domestic as well as overseas markets. Small farms dominate the agrarian structure of Bangladesh. Therefore, performance of the sector greatly affects economic progress and people s livelihood. To reduce rural poverty 2 and improve rural livelihoods, it is necessary to recognize and to develop existing agricultural production system into a more dynamic and viable commercial sector. Agriculture has the potential to reduce food deficit as well as shortage of industrial raw materials, and also to generate employment opportunities with reasonable income, which will in turn help improve the standard of living of the rural people. The growth potential of most of the crops and other agricultural commodities are substantially higher than present level of production. 1. 7 Sustainable intensification and diversification of agriculture through technological change requires an efficient and productive agricultural technology system comprising agricultural research and extension. This needs to be supported by appropriate value addition and market linkages. Enhancing productivity, resource use efficiency, using cutting age science, experimental facilities and above all productivity and maintaining a reservoir of first-rate human resources to sustain knowledge-intensive agriculture has become critically important. The Bangladesh agriculture demands considerable scientific and technological input. Today s complex national and economic environment requires increase in the effectiveness of the public expenditure in research and extension system. Major challenges for the Bangladesh agriculture are to raising productivity and profitability, reducing instability, increasing resource-use efficiency, ensuring equity, improving quality; and meeting demands for diversification & commercialization of agriculture. 1. 9 The existing National Agricultural Policy was adopted in April, 1999. With the passage of time some issues and concerns have emerged in agriculture, in some cases with new dimension. For instance, dwindling agricultural resources, declining biodiversity, climate change, increasing frequency & intensity of natural disasters, increasing input prices, soaring food prices etc. require transformation of agriculture in such a way that would address challenges to meet demands. This necessitates the revision and updating the earlier document to make it relevant to the present agro-economic context. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) of Agriculture Sector For developing of a pragmatic and effective and efficient national agricultural policy, it is a pre-requisite to gauge the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats that are associated with the issues of policy interventions.