Chamber of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania – Your key to success !
Lithuania is an agricultural land... The idea to establish an organisation that would represent Lithuanian farmers and protect their interests was born during the inter-bellum period. The Law of the Chamber of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania was passed in 1926. The Chamber was active for 14 years, up until the Soviet occupation of 1940.
The idea of representing the farmers is still alive – the Chamber of Agriculture was re-established in 1991. During these two decades The Chamber of Agriculture has become the most important and influential agricultural organisation, a kind of “Farmers’ Parliament”. Today it unites 41 organisation.
I am very happy to see that the Chamber of Agriculture has played its part in making the Lithuanian agriculture modern and able to compete in the markets. Today our agriculture meets all the demands a consumer could raise us. These past thirty years we applied rural development programs, protected and renewed the living environment of the county people. The most active organisations all live under the umbrella of the Chamber of Agriculture. This two-way bond is the real key to success.
President of the Chamber of Agriculture Sc.D. Arūnas Svitojus
History of the Chamber of Agriculture
The idea to establish an organization, which would represent farmers and defend their interests, saw the light in 1921. It was thought that agricultural councils could become such representatives of farmers. A legal basis was necessary for that; therefore there were many readings of drafts of appropriate legislation in the Seimas (Lithuanian Parliament) in 1921-1926.
After long debates the Seimas adopted the first law of Chamber of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania (CARL)19 December 1925,and it was published in “The Government News ” much later, 12 April 1926.
Following to the law, the ministers appointed an exact date for the first congress of CARL,27 May 1926.33 representatives had to come to this congress. Unfortunately, number of assembling people was too small, and some co-operative organizations did not send their representatives at all. CARL were reorganized and empowered representatives gathered together again 23 September 1926 and elected the board of CARL. Jonas Pranas Aleksa became a chairman of the board. Namely he is the first chairperson of CARL.
In the end of 1926 government of Lithuania saw many changes, consequently activity of CARL has stopped for a short time. Temporary commission with a chairman Jonas Pranas Aleksa was working to keep the activity of CARL.
Regular activity of CARL has started only with congress 1 March 1928 when 36 members of CARL have met - representatives from 22 regions, 2 delegates from Chamber of Agriculture of Klaipeda region and representatives from 12 public organizations. Since then annual congresses of the Chamber were called till occupation of Lithuania started.
In 1940 when Soviet army invaded Lithuania activity of CARL was interrupted. Although CARL was re-established in 1941 when Germans invaded Lithuania, it was eliminated soon.
History of re-establishment of the Chamber of Agriculture starts in the independent Lithuania. The regenerative conference was held 25 May 1991 and Antanas Stancevičius became a unanimously elected chairman of CARL.CARL activity courses and management was discussed during the CARL Council meeting 13 June 1991.Statute of CARL was approved by the Government Decision 16 December 1991 and CARL was consigned to a building in Kaunas, K. Donelaičio st.2 (it was owned by the pre-war Chamber).The law of CARL was adopted in 1997, and new Statute was voted in the 11th Congress of the Chamber in 2013.