2014 Parliamentary Conference – Speaker: Dar

• Program
• Registration
• Speakers’ bios and abstracts
• Sir John Crawford Memorial Address
• Schedule of fees
• Travel scholarships for young scientists
• Sponsors
• Accommodation
• Media

Dr Willie Dar

Director General, International Crop Research Institute for the Semi- Arid Tropics

William Dollente Dar, PhD, is the Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) near Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, India, since January 2000. ICRISAT is a non-profit, non-political and pro-poor institute and a member of the CGIAR Consortium.

With his outstanding leadership as Chair of the Alliance Executive (2005), the Alliance of Centers was made the third pillar of the CGIAR system. He was Chair of the Committee on Science and Technology (CST) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) from 2007 to 2009. Dr Dar was also Member of the UN Millennium Task Force on Hunger.

Prior to joining ICRISAT, he served as Presidential Adviser for Rural Development, and Secretary of Agriculture in the Philippines (equivalent to Minister of Agriculture). Before this, he was Executive Director of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) and Director of the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) of the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA).

Dr Dar served on the governing boards of the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the CGIAR’s International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) as well as of ICRISAT. Moreover, he was Chair of the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) and the Coarse Grains, Pulses Research and Training (CGPRT) Center based in Indonesia.

Dr Dar received a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Horticulture from the University of the Philippines Los Baños and an MS (Agronomy) and BS in Agricultural Education from Benguet State University (BSU) in La Trinidad, Benguet, Philippines. He taught at BSU for 11 years and rose from the ranks to become full Professor and Vice President for Research and Extension.