The Executive Director, Caribbean Agriculture Research and Development Institute (CARDI), Mr. Arlington D. Chesney, has said that the role of technology in closing the knowledge gap on agricultural development is very important. Speaking to the Africa New Media Group at the just concluded, weeklong in South Africa, Mr. Chesney said that technology, though very crucial in closing the knowledge gap in agriculture development, noted that it’s not an end in itself.

He also said that having participated in this, Chesney commended the Centre for Technical Agriculture for gathering some key people in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to enhance the activities across the ACP regions.

This, he said, would definitely affect agriculture in the ACP countries, which in turn is intended to help participants from various organisations including government and non-governmental organisations in developing new strategies to move their countries’ policy on onward lane.

“I think it is very important to gather some key people to discuss on the issues affecting agriculture in the ACP countries,” he said.

On the role of CARDI in the Caribbean, Chesney, said that over the years, his institute’s agenda has continued to be driven by the sequence of initiatives, mostly as outcome of the declaration of the Treaty of Chaguaramas of July, 1973.

These, he said, include the Regional Transformation Programme for Agriculture (RTP) and ‘The Jagdeo Initiative’, which was conceptualised to hasten its implementation, highlighting the fact that the regional agricultural strategy were captured in the prioritization for regional actions.

On CARDI and Technology and Innovation System (TIS), Mr. Chesney, pointed out that the application of science and technology within the production transformation process must be innovative and appropriate to be effective.

This, he said, facilitates the processing of must be initiated with an appreciation and understanding of the characteristics and demands of the environment within which it must be applied.

The technology generation and transfer process, CARDI boss, said comprised of four distinct including Technology Generation or Adaptation (TGA), Testing, Validation and Adoption.

TGA, he said, is a basic stage at which a technology system, variety, and breed to name a few that have been identified for application within the environment.

On Testing, Chesney said that it enables CARDI to replicate the technology, which is usually tested on station for desired characteristics and recording of performance observations.

While validation, he said, represents the first attempt to take the technology to the wider environment where it is exposed to alternative ecozones, production scales and overall practical applications.

He explained that this is an ‘on-farm’ activity, which exercise may be followed by the need to return to the field station or promote cum expand the application of the technology.

Finally, he said, adoption stage defines the end of the phases of processing.

“It essentially involves the utilisation of the technology by end users; the farmers,” he said.