Sec. William Dollente Dar
BS Agricultural Education, 1973 MS Agronomy, 1977
Lifetime Achievement Award
The Lifetime Achievement Award is given to Dr. Dar for his exemplary achievements and contributions, and selfless dedication to his profession in agriculture, governance, research, and development administration that has brought pride to Benguet State University for almost four decades in various national and international institutions.
Dr. Dar is the 45th Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, and the first BSU alumnus to hold a cabinet position in the country. He was also the first BSU alumnus to become Director of the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR); and Executive Director of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD). Foremost, he is the only Filipino who led a global agricultural research institute as Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India in 1999 and the only Director who served two terms. He was then conferred with the prestigious MS Swaminathan Award for Leadership in Agriculture in 2013. In 2016, he was one of the two presidential awardees of The Outstanding Filipino (TOFIL) Award.
As DA Secretary, the confidence of investors in agriculture in the country has grown tremendously. The new programs he introduced resulted in the positive annual growth of the agriculture sector despite Covid19 pandemic. Some of his advocacies were “Plant, Plant, Plant” which enabled households to have food in their backyards, “Masaganang Ani, Mataas na Kita” for farmers to establish their own facilities to
increase yield and income. He lured millennials as agri-frontliners with the Kapital Access for Young Agri-preneurs (KAYA), and opened new loan schemes with low interest such as Agri-Negosyo Loan (ANYO) for small scale business, and Sikat Saka Program (SSP) for rice and corn growers, and many more. His foremost vision is for the modernization and industrialization of Philippine agriculture as written in his book
“The Way Forward.”
After graduating from MSAC (now BSU), he was employed as an Instructor until he attained Prof. VI. He served as Vice President for Research and Extension, at the same time pursuing his Ph.D. in Horticulture at UP Los Baños as PCARRD scholar. He also became the first Coordinator of HARC now Cordillera Agriculture Resources Research Center (COARRDC). As young as he was in 1990, he was one of the Ten Outstanding
Young Men (TOYM) of the Philippines and Outstanding Administrator by DOST. It was at BSU where he met his wife, Forester Beatrice Meriam, a faculty of the College of Forestry. They raised four lovely children, now all independent with a family of their own.
As an alumnus, he gave in return to BSU a WDD (William D. Dar) Scholarship Grant for undergraduate students in agriculture, apart from the other grants given to research and extension programs. And always, the family visits BSU when they have opportunities.
Dr. Dar inspires many youths, being a “Champion of the Poor”. He showed that poverty is not a hindrance to education, and that humble beginnings should motivate one to serve humanity as we gain knowledge and wisdom.