The Timed of Malta
by Salvino Busuttil
Fifty years ago, high-ranking officials from seven Mediterranean countries gathered in Paris to follow up an initiative launched by the OECD and the Council of Europe to set up an inter-governmental organisation devoted to training, research and development in agricultural and related fields in the Mediterranean basin.
Perhaps Ciheam’s lasting contribution to Malta is the number of Maltese students who received scholarships
– Salvino Busuttil
Named the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (now known through its French acronym, Ciheam), the new entity grew over the years to embrace six other Mediterranean states, its present membership extending to Albania, Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey. The former republic of Yugoslavia was also a founder member.
Pursuing its main vocation in postgraduate training, networking in research and facilitating regional development, Ciheam has established itself as a leading instrument for all areas of Mediterranean agriculture, food security and sustainable rural growth. In recent years, it has also devoted its endeavours to aquaculture and to the training of executives and high-level personnel hailing from a wide array of non-Mediterranean countries, such as Iran and Iraq, while assisting, at the behest of its Government, the rural rebuilding of post civil war Lebanon.
Ciheam was also instrumental in having the Mediterranean Diet (understood in its wider context as a way of life) inscribed in Unesco’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Four University-level institutes, in Greece, Spain, France and Italy, impart specialised tuition to several hundred students from Mediterranean countries and beyond, including Africa, Asia and Latin America. Each institute awards a diploma or Master’s degree as well as giving ad hoc Ph.D. preparation.
While all the four institutes offer a normal curriculum in agricultural studies, yet, each one characterises its work in a given area so that the Greek one (in Chania,on the island of Crete) is a leader in the use of medicinal and alimentary herbs, the French one (in Montpellier) excels in agricultural economics, the Spanish athenaeum (in Saragossa) pursues dairying, husbandry and aquacultural research, and the Italian academy (near Bari) is the recognised reference authority for water and irrigation innovation.
Of all the institutes, the Bari one has succeeded intransforming itself as the conduit for official state assistance, in agricultural affairs, to Mediterranean countries, even to those not forming part of Ciheam. Until the current crisis, Syria benefitted from the institute’s expertise.
Acting as Malta’s main adviser in our country’s entry negotiations with the European Union concerning the agricultural chapter, the Bari academy assisted Malta in a number of concrete projects, notably Magħtab, Chadwick Lakes, the viticulture laboratory, the plant centre in Balzan and also through a major report on water conservation, production and distribution throughout Malta and Gozo. Two years ago, specialists from Bari conducted a seminar in Malta on practical ways to control the red weevil disease plaguing our palms.
Perhaps Ciheam’s lasting contribution to Malta is the number of Maltese students who received scholarships from the organisation to follow postgraduate training in the different institutes, some becoming high-level government officials, others gaining senior post in the EU with others joining the private sector.
Apart from accepting Maltese citizens for long-term graduate training, the institutes have opened their doors to Maltese students and officials for short-term seminars in a wide spectrum of subjects, from rabbit-rearing to manure exploitation.
Over the years, Ciheam cooperated with the University of Malta, bolstering its Institute for Agriculture whose then director, George Attard, served on Ciheam’s scientific advisory council. Plans are in the pipeline to strengthen this promising partnership with the University’s Institute of Earth Systems.
During my first year as president of Ciheam, it became possible to have a first meeting of Ministers of Agriculture from the member states, Rome welcoming us warmly for the first such conference in1999. Since then, the biannual gatherings have been held in most states. At the last one, which convened in Istanbul two years ago, the Maltese Minister for Resources and Rural Affairs, George Pullicino, invited his counterparts to come to Malta this year for the ninth conference and to celebrate Ciheam’s Golden Jubilee, which will be celebrated through a festive event in St George’s Square, Valletta, on the opening night of the conference tomorrow
Themed on food security and food pricing in their Mediterranean setting, the conference will be preceded by a seminar, open to interested persons which, like the conference, will be held at the Corinthia St George’s Bay.
That seminar will examine closely the issues raised by price volatility and a rising demand for cereals, a problem highlighted by the roots of the Arab Spring.
During Ciheam’s 40th anniversary, in June 2002, Romano Prodi, then president of the European Commission, welcomed me and my colleagues in Brussels for our ‘ruby’ celebration.
Ten years later, Malta now integrated in the EU, Ciheam rejoices in its own golden epiphany here, trusting in developing further, possibly through a really active Union for the Mediterranean, a veritable Euro-Mediterranean partnership in a spirit of equal cooperation and hoping that, in its own small way, it can continue to contribute to the emerging socio-political and socio-economic scenarios, thus strengthening authentic solidarity between the peoples of the Mediterranean.
The author is Malta delegate to the Ciheam governing board and was president of Ciheam 1999-2003.
