Ministry of Agriculture celebrates Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute Day

By Rubén Morales Iglesias: “We join all our brothers and colleagues across the Caribbean in celebrating CARDI day 2021,” said the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security, and Enterprise (MAFSE) on Tuesday.

“In 1975, Belize joined 11 other CARICOM countries in establishing CARDI.”

MAFSE said the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute was established 46 years ago in 1975 when the governments in the English-speaking Caribbean recognized the need for a regional research system that would meet the increasingly complex challenges of agriculture.

CARDI had been preceded by the Regional Research Centre (RRC) which was established in 1955 but its outreach activities were not widespread enough.

“Governments saw the need for an organization that would be more responsive to the research priorities that had shifted to food crops for local consumption and non-traditional commodities for export,” says the CARDI website.

CARDI is committed to providing the science-based solutions to lead this transformation and repositioning of the agricultural sector.

CARDI “was charged with providing for the research and development needs of the agriculture of the region as identified in national plans and policies, as well as providing an appropriate research and development service to the agricultural sector of member countries”.

Responsible for the CARICOM Standing Committee of Ministers of Agriculture, the 12 CARICOM member countries at the time (1975) signed the agreement establishing CARDI in 1975. These countries were Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts–Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. Bahamas and Cayman Islands joined since then.

At this point, CARDI has 14 country offices spread out through the Caribbean.

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