BSU hosts scientific forum

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Former Agriculture Acting Secretary William D. Dar will be the main speaker at a scientific forum to be sponsored by the Benguet State University (BSU) during the observance of its 90th foundation anniversary on June 26-30.

Dar, now director general of the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), will talk on institutional partnership and linkages at the forum, which is one of the activities lined up for the five-day affair.

An alumnus (bachelor of science and master’s degrees) and a staff member of BSU who rose from the ranks to become university vice president, Dr. Dar will also be one of the outstanding alumni and alumnae to be honored by the school.

Before becoming the first Filipino to head an international research center, Dar had also served as the first director of the Department of Agriculture Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR) and executive director of the Los Baños-based Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

Theme of the BSU 90th foundation anniversary celebration is "BSU: Enhancing Self-reliance and Capability for Sustainable Development."

Guest of honor and speaker at the June 26 opening program is Benguet Gov. Borromeo Melchor.

Among the highlights of the anniversary celebration is the launch of BSU’s technology commercialization program.

There will also be forums on the implication of free trade to the Cordillera farming sector (now a major concern in the Northern Luzon highlands), entrepreneurship, organic agriculture, and partnerships and linkages.

BSU, currently headed by Dr. Rogelio Colting, president, has over the past 90 years evolved into the regional university in the Cordillera.

It trades its beginnings to the establishment of the Trinidad Farm School (TFS) in 1916. TFS was elected as Trinidad Agricultural School (TAS) in 1920. – Rudy A. Fernandez