By Patrick Stephen Tokpah (freelancer)
Agriculture Minister, Alexander Nuetah, has expressed serious worries over the deplorable condition of the Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI) in Suakoko District 5, Bong County.
Nuetah said the current condition of CARI lacks the infrastructural and technical capacity to accommodate human resources.
The Liberia Agriculture Minister revealed that the situation has created a huge gap in the functions of the only Agricultural Research Institution in Liberia.
Minister Nuetah, at the same time, attributed the deplorable conditions of CARI to what he described as the lack of proper management of the Institution over the past years and the migration of technical employees from the Institution due to low salaries.
The Liberian Agriculture Minister further noted that the situation at CARI is also accredited to the employment of unqualified individuals to key positions over the past years, adding that the situation does not only affect CARI, but the entire Agriculture Ministry in Liberia.
“CARI doesn’t have an infrastructure; CARI doesn’t have the technical capacity for human resources to do the job, so all of these situations have created huge gaps in the day-to-day activities of the Institution,” Minister Nuetah added.
Minister Nuetah, who is the Chair of the Board of CARI, emphasized the need for human resource capacity building to enhance productivity in the Agricultural sector of Liberia.
He further vowed that the Ministry, under his watch, intends to liaise with international partners using the Government of Liberia as an institution to appropriately allot resources that will help in rebuilding the capacity needs of the Central Agricultural Research Institute.
Minister Nuetah disclosed that the Ministry is currently working on a plan to revamp the entire Agriculture sector of Liberia, taking into consideration the pivotal role CARI plays in developing the sector.
He also told newsmen that, under his leadership as Agriculture Minister in the next three to four years, CARI as an elite research institute will develop some value chain that will attract the central institution on the National level.
Nuetah said the Board of Directors of CARI will publish a vacancy for the position of Director and Deputy Director Generals of CARI, which will be followed by a vetting and subsequent recommendation to President Joseph Boakai for onward appointments to those positions by the end of this month.
He made these assertions after the board’s first acquaintance meeting recently, which was centered on the appointment of Directors and Deputy Director Generals at CARI required, by the Act that created the Central Agricultural Research Institute.
CARI is currently being run by its new Officer-ln-Charge, James Sulonkwiley Dolo.
