Our History

The Caribbean Agro‐Economic Society was created at the 9th Agricultural Economics Conference held in Jamaica. At the business meetings of the conference organising committees, concerns were expressed regarding the longevity of the series and the need to establish a mechanism to be responsible for the planning and execution of the conference in the long term. In this process, significant contributions were made by the innovative team which was responsible for spearheading the formation of the society. The pioneers were:

  • Dr. Medford. N. Alexander

  • Dr. George Beckford

  • Mr. Lloyd Best

  • Dr. Suresh Birla

  • Mr. Hadyn Blades

  • Professor David Edwards

  • Mr. Ken Leslie

  • Dr. Curtis Mc Intosh

  • Dr. John Mayers

  • Dr. Lloyd Rankine

  • Dr. Ranjit H. Singh

Discussions between participants at the end of this conference led to the formation of an interim committee chaired by Dr. Bernard Yankey, which developed a constitution for the society. At the 10th conference, elections were held and the first executive of the organisation was installed. Dr. Bernard Yankey of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) was elected as the first president with an executive that included Dr. Lloyd Rankine of the University of the West Indies and Mr. Darcy Boyce of the CDB.

CAAES Headquarters

The Headquarters of the Society is located in The Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.

From CAES to CAAES

In 2022, the logo and the acronym were updated.