Background of CARI

CARI is an Autonomous Apex Public Agricultural Research Institute, the main institution for agricultural research in Liberia evolved from the Central Agricultural Experimental Station (CAES) in the 1980s into a reputable center of excellence in applied and adaptive research in West Africa before Liberia‘s civil crisis which devastated it. CARI is currently faced with various problems including a lack of human resources and financial resources to implement its research programs. The agriculture research strategic plan is meant to provide a framework for CARI which sets the direction, new organization structure, research priorities, and time frame for research, capacity development, and related activities; all of which are consistent with Liberian government policies and programs including the National Food Security and Nutrition Strategy (FSNS) (2008), The Pro-poor Agenda for prosperity and development (PADP) (2018), and the Liberia Agriculture Sector Investment Program (LASIP II) (2018-2021). In conformity with the key government policies, the Central Agriculture Research Institute‘s (CARI) research strategy covers seven thematic research programs: 1. Crops Program, Crops Program 2. Livestock and Fisheries Program 3. Natural Resource Management 4. Agricultural Biotechnology and Laboratory Services Program 5. Mechanization and irrigation 6. Socio-economics and Applied statistics 7. Post-harvest and food processing. 7 The overall objective of the Agricultural Research Strategy for CARI is to contribute to meeting the food needs of the population, ensuring economic and social development, and the eradicating of poverty in Liberia through the development and dissemination of demand-driven agriculture technologies and innovations.

CENTRAL AGRICULTURE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (CARI)

Current Status The Central Agricultural Research Institute evolved from the Central Agriculture Experiment Station (CAES) which started in 1952. The Central Agricultural Research Institute became a semiautonomous research agency of the Ministry of Agriculture in 1980. As a semi-autonomous institution, its management enjoys the relative latitude of flexibility to operate independently, outside the Ministry’s administration. However, the Ministry established the Agricultural Research Committee as a policy-making body to decide and approve policies for applied, adaptive research in agriculture in the country at the National level. The Committee decides on priorities, taking into 14 consideration the importance, urgency, and availability of resources. It allocated and approved funds for research proposals as submitted by the Technical Committee. The Research Committee solicited, approved, and received funds from the Government and all other possible sources for agricultural research. It was incumbent on the Committee to lay down procedures for the release of funds and for proper accounting and auditing. The Committee met twice a year to consider matters relating to agricultural research. The composition of the Committee included the following: The Minister of Agriculture - Chairperson; Principal Deputy Minister of Agriculture - Vice-chairperson; Deputy Minister of Agriculture for Technical Affairs - secretary; Deputy Minister of Agriculture for Planning and Development - Member; President of the University of Liberia - Member; President of Cuttington University - Member; Director of Rural Development Institute - Member; Director, Liberia Institute for Biomedical Research - Member; one private Farmer nominated by the Minister of Agriculture - Member. Now CARI has become an autonomous body and the role of this committee has been taken over by the CARI Board. The Structure and Management of CARI shows the structure when CARI became autonomous per the CARI Act 2016. In this new structure, CARI will have a nine-member governing Board of Directors. The Board should be expanded to include representatives from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce to give impetus to the market-oriented market envisioned. A highly qualified and experienced Director General with a background in Agricultural Sciences/ Management with over fifteen years of experience should be competitively selected and recommended by the board for appointment. The Director General will be answerable to the Board of Directors. Also, the Deputy Director General who will be responsible for all research programmes, should have a Ph.D. degree in agricultural sciences/Management with fifteen years of research experience and a distinguished research career accompanied by quality and peer 15 reviewed publications in recognized international journals. He/she should have a proven record of research funds mobilization and research project writing skills; and be answerable to the DG. Heads of programmes will be headed by individuals with a minimum qualification at a Ph.D. level in one of the thematic research areas and proven research and publication resumes. There shall be three Directors (Director of Finance and Administration, Director of Planning, and Director of Project Implementation) all answerable to the Director General.

The Structure and Management of CARI

CARI became autonomous per the CARI Act 2016. In this new structure, CARI will have a nine-member governing Board of Directors drawn from 9 institutions as shown in Appendix 1.0. The Board should be expanded to include representatives from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce to give impetus to the market-oriented market envisioned. A highly qualified and experienced Director General with a background in Agricultural Sciences/ Management with over fifteen years of experience should be competitively selected and recommended by the board for appointment. The Director General will be answerable to the Board of Directors. Also, the Deputy Director General who will be responsible for all research programmes, should have a Ph.D. degree in agricultural sciences/Management with fifteen years of research experience and a distinguished research career accompanied by quality and peer 15 reviewed publications in recognized international journals. He/she should have a proven record of research funds mobilization and research project writing skills and be answerable to the DG. Heads of programmes will be headed by individuals with a minimum qualification at a Ph.D. level in one of the thematic research areas and a proven research and publications resume. There shall be three Directors (Director of Finance and Administration, Director of Planning, and Director of Project Implementation) all answerable to the Director General

Human Resources Capacity Human resources is the most vital technical resource in any organization. With the right quantity and quality of manpower, complemented with other required resources, the optimum performance of the system can be guaranteed. Rehabilitating CARI and establishing a national agricultural 17 innovation system were key pillars of the GoL’s strategy for agricultural research in the country. Following the development of its agriculture policy and strategy in 2008, the government embarked on the task of developing the human resource capacity of the sector through the facilitation and provision of scholarship opportunities for its citizens to study in various agriculture and related disciplines abroad. As a result, the national number of full-time equivalent (FTE) agricultural researchers has significantly increased over the last 10 years, in 2020, At least one-half of all FTE researchers had a minimum MSc. qualification in 2020, compared to less than 36% in 2011, indicating the relative success of the human resource capacity building programs that were funded by the government and its development partners over the period under reference (Stads and Beintema, 2017). The number of female researchers at the National Agricultural Research Institute also increased steadily, by around 16 percentage points, between 2011 and 2020. 

Currently, CARI is headed by a Director General who is directly answerable to the board of directors. With a complement of about 77 professional staff with only 3 Ph.D., 32 MSc, 36 BSc, 3 BAs, and 3 MBAs. The rest of the staff are low-level field workers and security staff (180). CARI is organized in seven thematic programs with all reporting directly to the Deputy Director for Research and Programs (DDG-R). Many other national agricultural research institutes in Africa and elsewhere in the world, CARI also has a Board of Directors even though it is yet to be an effective board. In the new structure, a fully autonomous CARI with a Board of Directors composed of representatives of all key stakeholders in the agriculture sector is now fully in place.

CARI‘s New Vision and Mission: The Vision of CARI is “A commercially-oriented agricultural sector propelled by research, technology transfer, innovations, knowledge and approaches that will contribute to an improved quality of life for all Liberians” while its Mission is “ To contribute to increased productivity, commercialization and competitiveness of the agricultural sector through adaptive research and promotion of knowledge, information, and technologies that respond to clients’ demands and opportunities towards the attainment of food security, poverty alleviation, income generation, and job creation.”