-“This is my Vision”-Says Dr. Marcus Jones.
By P. Clarence Jackson latifahkpah172@gmail.com
The new Director General of the Central Agriculture Research (CARI) in Liberia, Dr. Marcus T. Jones says all will be done to ensure that this pemier institute is transformed into a regional center of specialization.
He said his administration will implement CARI’s mandate of contributing to the productivity, commercialization, and comparativeness of the agriculture sector through adaptive research and other activities.
Dr. Jones, a young Liberian Agriculturist, said although the challenges at the CARI are enormous, his dream is to develop Agricultural Research Training Institute to the extent that it becomes a regional center for specialization.
“To be honest with you, my Dream is to make CARI a Regional Center of Specialization so that people from other countries can be able to come to Liberia to get improve seeds and crops,” the new CARI boss said.
“I want to ensure that the Center Agriculture Research Institute under my watch will in few years’ time produce technology to boost productivity in the agriculture sector of the country,” Dr. Jones asserted.
The CARI Director General told www.newspublictrust.com that there are crops in the country that can be improved but the problem is even the infrastructure to do research is not available.
Dr. Jones said, one major focus of his administration is to ensure CARI returns to its pre- war status by constructing Laboratories and getting equipment to do sound and applied research if we must help Liberian farmers maximize production.
Agriculture Min Dr. Flomo Jr and Dr. Jones
He also disclosed plans by his administration to work with the Ministry of Agriculture and other partners to explore opportunities for some employees of the Institute to travel abroad for further education with a vision to return and contribute to research works at the Institute.
At the moment, we are receiving a lot of pressure to ensure the provision of planting materials to Liberian farmers.
This is said to be one way CARI can contribute to committed farmers in helping them maximize production.
From left to right, Agriculture Minister Dr. Mogana Flomo Jr and Dr. Marcus Jones
The CARI Director General also underscored the need for putting in place a seed policy to ensure there are improved seeds and crops for farmers across the country.
Dr. Jones said as part of efforts by his administration to provide professional knowledge and skills for Liberian farmers, the Central Agriculture Research Institute has written a project to the Ministry of Finance and Development planning for funding to train farmers and Cooperatives in Bong, Nimba, and Lofa counties to produce certify seeds.
“Once we are able to get the necessary support from the Ministry of Finance and Development planning, our Scientists will work with farmers and Cooperatives in the three counties by building their capacities to ensure the benefit from their farms through improve method of farming,” the CARI boss explained.
“We are also seriously engaging our partners through project development for the Institute to get the needed support to enhance its work.
“ We are very hopeful that we will get some support but even for donors to help you will mean that you have all the infrastructures in place, so it’s a difficult process, but we are trying,” according to Dr. Jones.
Employees of CARI have been commended for the level of support so far and the Institute’s Director General has assured that he will work with other members of the senior management team to improve the entity.
CARI boss’ experience
Dr. Marcus Jones holds a Bachelor degree in General Agriculture from the Cuttington University, a Masters in Corps Agronomy from the Njala University in Sierra Leone and PhD in Crops Science from the Cape Cost University in Ghana.
A Research Scientist, Dr. Jones has worked in various capacities as field technician, oil palm, cropping systems, and root and tuber crops agronomist.
The Central Agriculture Research Institute is the only Agriculture Research Institution in Liberia and its mandate is to contribute to the productivity, commercialization, and comparativeness of the agriculture sector through adaptive research.
CARI was created in 1980 from the Central Agricultural Experiment Station 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 systems programme (Francis et al., 1995).
However, CARI was devastated by the civil war both 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.
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 has continued with little change to date. 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 should be a semi-autonomous organ of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Institute’s mandate
Its mission is:
“To undertake applied and adaptive research for enhanced productivity of food, feed, fiber, and other agricultural products in Liberia for the attainment of food security, poverty alleviation, income generation and job creation”