The Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI), located at Suakoko, some 180 km north‐west of Monrovia was created in 1980 from the Central Agricultural Experiment Station (CARES), to conduct both adaptive and applied research in agriculture. In the 1980‘s the Institute had seven commodity-based programmes (rice, cassava, cattle, swine, cocoa, coffee, and vegetables) and planning had been initiated for a cropping system. Currently, the seven thematic programmes have been organized into 14 subunits. 

The institute envisions making an “agriculture business” with a primary focus on enhancing food security, and sustainable income generation to alleviate poverty and create more jobs.

In addition to this, CARI is involved in solving practical problems that impact daily life, using technicians and extension officers to participate in clinical trials, to validate, modify, or calibrate a new technology on specific soil, climate, socio-economic or environmental characteristics of a given area. 

However, the institute was devastated by the civil war in human and physical terms. The physical infrastructure was severely damaged, the contents of buildings looted, and professional and technical staff scattered both in‐country and abroad and in some instances killed.

Following that, CARI restarted very limited operations in 2006, focusing on the provision of planting materials for rice (from WARDA), cassava, yams, and a limited range of cultivars of maize, beans, and soybeans (from IITA) (Ministry of Agriculture, 2008), a focus which is gradually changing the narrative. On the other hand, various initiatives have been mooted since 2007 to re‐vitalize CARI but so far progress has been extremely limited. Ideally, CARI is a semi-autonomous organ of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Alongside this, various initiatives have been proposed since 2007 to re‐vitalize CARI but so far progress has been extremely limited.
The research center is headed by the Director General (DG) as Chief Executive. Under the DG, there is one post of Deputy DG of Research Programs (currently vacant) and one post of Assistant DG responsible for Finance and Administration which is also vacant. 
The mission statement reasonably reflects the purpose for CARI‘s existence and defines the ultimate benefits to be realized by its services.

With a statutory mandate, CARI collaborates with all stakeholders in the process leading to the development of a national agricultural research system capable of generating an innovation system for agricultural development in Liberia.

Now, CARI is managed by a Director General who reports directly to the Minister of Agriculture in a centralized coordination system. With a complement of 47 professional staff mostly at junior level with four postgraduate degrees, 18 graduate degrees, 26 undergraduate degrees. The rest of the staff is low-level contractors and security staff (180). The research institute is organized into seven programs with all reporting directly to the Director General who is also the secretary to the Board of Advisors.