The CTA Regional Branch Office

CTAThe Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) has been serving as the Regional Branch Office for the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) in the Caribbean since 1986.

About the CTA

CTA is an African Caribbean and Pacific-European Union (ACP-EU) institution working in the field of information for development. Since 2000, it has operated within the framework of the ACP-EC Contonou Agreement. CTA’s headquarters is located in Wageningen, the Netherlands.

CTA’s programmes are designed to:

  • Provide a wide range of information products and services and enhance awareness of relevant information sources
  • Promote the integrated use of appropriate communication channels and intensify contact and information exchange (particularly intra ACP)
  • Develop the capacity of the ACP countries to generate and manage agriculture

A Memorandum of Cooperation signed between CTA and CARDI provides the official basis and framework for this partnership arrangement, whereby both parties have agreed to cooperate with each other to develop and provide services that improve access to information for agricultural and rural development, and to strengthen the capacity of organisations involved in agricultural and rural development in the Caribbean Countries which are members of the ACP.

The Regional Branch Office for the Caribbean (RBOC) operates on the basis of an annual work programme where activities are identified from needs and requests by clients and stakeholders along with periodic evaluations of the services. Projects are executed in the following agreed areas:

  • Providing and dissemination of information
    The RBOC is responsible for disseminating CTA supported publications, on science and technology, research, policy, trade and other areas of agriculture and rural development, information and communications management (ICM) to appropriate institutions, networks and individuals in the Caribbean ACP region. Materials are supplied through the print, electronic media and face to face exchanges. The RBOC also supplies information on Caribbean agriculture, ICM and rural development to the CTA for various publications.
  • Technical Consultations
    CARDI, through the RBOC, assists the CTA to organise and/or co-sponsor technical consultations, training courses, seminars, meetings and study visits in the Caribbean Region. Through these efforts many new projects in the Caribbean have also been identified. A selected list of projects initiated through the efforts and/or assistance of the RBOC are as follows:

Regional Networks: CariPest, CaFAN, CAIS, CaRAPN, CRFM

National Partnerships: SPAT, GARDC, ECTAD

  • Support to CTA decentralised services
    This aspect of the programme aims to improve and enhance the access to information and CTA’s services among stakeholders in agriculture and rural development in the Caribbean ACP countries. CARDI works to put groups, institutions and individuals in touch with the CTA’s services which may be of benefit to them. These include the following:

CTA/CARDI Projects 2009/2010

Improving CARDI’s Outreach and Communication

Support to the Regional Branch Office in the Caribbean (RBOC)

Support to Participants – 45th Annual Meeting of the Caribbean Food Crops Society (CFCS)

Agriculture Science Technology and Innovation (ASTI) Training of Trainers Workshop

Training Course on Research Methodology for Agricultural Researchers in the Caribbean