LONDON, England – His Excellency Ellison Greenslade, QPM, Bahamas High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, attended the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) 399th Executive Committee Meeting on Wednesday, February 20, 2019.
In a tweet, High Commissioner Greenslade noted, “Excellent meeting of the 399th Executive Council of CABI this morning at the Hallam Conference Centre, in London, UK. CABI improves people’s lives worldwide by providing info & applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture & the environment.”
CABI is a not-for-profit inter-governmental development and information organisation focusing primarily on agricultural and environmental issues in the developing world.
“The use of digital technology and data driven innovation to help fight agricultural pests and diseases and increase global food security was highlighted at CABI’s 399th Executive Council meeting in London yesterday (20th February 2019),” according a news release on CABI’s website.
The Executive Council, consisting of representatives of all CABI member countries, is “an important part of CABI’s governance, approving annual accounts and budgets, the admission of new members and key policy decisions,” the release noted, adding that in his opening remarks Dr Lutz Peter Berg, Chair of Executive Council, “welcomed the representative of CABI’s newest Member Country, Afghanistan, attending Executive Council for the first time.”
“Speaking to the delegates, representing 35 CABI Member Countries in total, CABI CEO Dr Trevor Nicholls, highlighted CABI’s overall performance against the Medium Term Strategy and provided updates on the progress of several key programmes and projects during 2018,” the release said. “Dr Nicholls told the meeting that the development of digital advisory services, geospatial tools and predictive modelling, will continue to be significant facets to supporting more than 500 million smallholder farmers around the world.”
Dr Nicholls also announced the start of an innovative project for 2019, noting that CABI has been awarded a $1.49 million grant from the Gates Foundation to work with them to help increase food security in India and Ethiopia through better access to data on soil health, agronomy and fertilizers.
“The grant will see CABI encouraging and enabling governments, universities and research organizations in the two countries to see the benefits and apply best practices regarding the sharing of data which, ultimately, will help farmers grow healthier and profitable crops and lose less to pests and diseases,” the release said.
