Clarke: Research critical to agricultural sector
THE CARIBBEAN Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) is working towards achieving greater independence and financial stability.
So says Executive Director Barton Clarke who was delivering remarks during the just concluded Caribbean Week of Agriculture. Clarke who remarked that he had to defend the need for research even during one of the meetings of the CWA, stressed that there is a need to conduct research in order to break new ground and find new solutions to challenges facing the region.
“And if that is the case, then we have a responsibility to finance that research in a manner that will yield results,” he said. According to Clarke, “ In the transformational agenda for CARDI, we are moving towards where it is producing intellectual property such that it can perhaps at one point in time...have some measure of independence, some insurance of financial sustainability”.
“In that regard we have developed a commercial subsidiary, we are hoping to launch a foundation and we have some other instruments that we are trying to develop.”
The Executive director also noted that the matter of health and agriculture is particularly critical given the challenges of chronic non communicable diseases.
“We have to look at this matter within the context of the agenda for resilience we are trying to build in the Caribbean with Dominica taking the lead. Not only climate but in a holistic sense,” he said, explaining that there are risks facing agricultural development, including people, market, social, policy and climate risks.
“So any endeavour which we undertake in the agricultural sector must take into consideration those risks.
He said it is at this critical juncture that CARDI has the responsibility to assist member states in addressing those challenges in the agricultural sector. “And is doing so valiantly through a research and development agenda which was intended to improve the lives of the Caribbean people.”
“In so doing, we pay particular attention to the development of the agriculture value chain that are climate smart and indeed resilient. In doing so we take on board some principles... the principle of inclusiveness, that suggests that we involve the farmers, the processors or partners such as IICA and FAO, the Ministries of Agriclture and Samuel Jackman Prescod Polyclinic in assisting us to address these challenges.”
“We do so in a manner which will yield sustainable systems that minimise the impact upon the environment and we do so in a manner that addresses the challenges of food and nutrition security,” he assured. (JH)