Effective 25 October 2021, Dr. Junel B. Soriano serves as the newly-appointed director of the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR) following outgoing director Dr. Vivencio R. Mamaril who now came back to his home office—the DA-Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Product Standards.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar administered the oath-taking ceremony at the Office of the Secretary at the DA’s main headquarters, Quezon City on the same date.
Prior to his appointment as DA-BAR director, he served as director of the Rainfed and Dryland Agriculture Center and Professor at the Isabela State University. With his expertise in the fields of agricultural engineering, soil and water conservation and management, irrigation & drainage engineering, project development and resource generation, and research and extension management, among others, he joined offices like the DA-Bureau of Soils and Water Management, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, and Bulacan Agricultural State College, to name a few.
During the initial briefings with the bureau’s Executive Committee and technical and administrative divisions, the DA-BAR Transformative Research for Development (R4D) framework was discussed. In return, director Dr. Soriano envisions to enhance and implement strategies focused on transforming research outcomes to policies for development or “Research to Policy for Development (R2P4D).”
An expert on agricultural engineering and a farmer, Dr. Soriano now joins the DA-BAR family—one of the staff bureau of the department with a vision to continuously strengthen the R4D system towards a technology-empowered agriculture and fishery sector contributory to inclusive growth.