ICRISAT’s New Director General
Dr William D Dar took the helm at ICRISAT on 11 January, 2000. At
46 years, he is the youngest Director General in the Institute’s history.
Dr Dar is well known in the international agricultural research community. He served as Chair of the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) and represented that region in the establishment of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR). He has been a member of the Boards of CIMMYT and ACIAR, and was previously a member of the CGIAR Oversight Committee. He served on ICRISAT’s Governing Board from 1997 to 1999.
Dr Dar was born into a smallholder farming family in Santa Maria, Iloros Sur, the Philippines, where he grew up helping cultivate rice and vegetables. He began his career in 1973 as a farm management technician in an agricultural extension center. Dr Dar received his BSc and MSc degrees in Agricultural Education and Agronomy, respectively from Benguet State University in the Philippines. He stayed on to serve the University as Instructor, rising to Professor and to Vice President for Research and Development Support Services. He achieved his PhD in Horticulture from the University of the Philippines, Los Baņos in 1980, while continuing to teach and carry out farming systems research, and serving as the Director of the Highland Agricultural Research Center at Benguet State University.
In recognition of his distiguished service as Vice President at Beguet State, in 1987 Dr Dar was appointed by then-President Corazon Aquino to manage the Bureau of Agricultural Research of the Philippine Department of Agriculture. As its first Director, he led the formulation of the National Agricultural Research and Extension Agenda, and the rationalization of the agricultural research system of the country.
In 1994 Dr Dar became Executive Director of the Los Baņos-based Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), the apex agricultural research institution of the country.
In 1998, President Estrada of the Philippines appointed Dr Dar as the Acting Secretary of the Department of Agriculture (equivalent to the Minister of Agriculture). During his tenure, the nation’s agricultural GDP reversed a declining trend to post a strong 2.7% growth rate. In August 1999, President Estrada appointed Dr Dar as Presidential Advisor on Rural Development in the Philippines, a capacity he served until joining ICRISAT.
