Business View Caribbean | February 2021

49 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN FEBRUARY 2021 and nutrition security.” BVC: What do the operations entail? Clarke: “We operate mostly in the field, dealing with aspects of field agriculture. Helping to improve the productivity of crops, how to protect crops from assorted pests and disease, how to manage soils and water in a far more meaningful way, how to address the issues of climate change. In a nutshell, these are the current scope of the CARDI operations. “Our scientific staff includes entomologists and pathologists and agronomists. We also have market specialists, agricultural economists, project managers, agribusiness specialists, and molecular biologists. Most of the work is done in the field but it is also done in laboratories. We have a crop protection lab based in Jamaica for example. And we manage a breeding station in Jamaica where we’re focusing on developing a local breed of goats. We have a seed laboratory in Antigua and a seed testing CAR I BBEAN AGR I CULTURE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INST I TUTE (CARDI ) facility in Belize. Because a lot of production in Belize concentrates around grain, rice, red kidney beans, black-eyed peas, soybeans. That is one of CARDI’s principal success stories. Quite a lot of commercial activity currently taking place was predicated on research done by CARDI. Right now, we test all the red kidney beans exported from Belize, for purity. Before that test, no exports could take place. “We have pioneered farming systems research and development in the Caribbean; interacting with the farming community in a structured way by bringing farmers into the research team, so we were better able to understand the small farm situations and suit technology to fit their circumstances.” BVC: What are some of the biggest challenges in the agricultural industry? Clarke: “We have both social and technical issues which culminate in low productivity. From a technical perspective, that’s the biggest Providing opportunities to women through training and development continues to be a priority focus for the Institute.