The Chamber of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania is one of the oldest agricultural organizations in Europe, established in 1926. Re-established in 1991, the Chamber of Agriculture has become the most influential and significant self-governance organization of farmers, having a significant input to development of modern, competitive Lithuanian agriculture. Continual work of the Chamber resulted in trust and respect among the farming society.
Today, the Chamber of Agriculture unites 49 professional, territorial and branch non-profit organizations.
Our mission is to promote the development of agriculture, rural sector and Lithuanian rural society, seeking for active dialogue with governmental institutions and resulting solutions, favourable to agriculture and rural development.
Chamber of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania assists the rural society in application of modern scientific knowledge, implementation of innovations, organization of projects with Lithuanian and foreign partners. Dialogue, partnership, international representation of interests and cooperation, dissemination of information and sharing gained experiences and knowledge are the cornerstones of international activities of the Chamber.
The Chamber seeks to assist governmental institutions in selecting the most appropriate instruments for successful implementation of agricultural and rural development plan, thus ensuring higher quality of decisions, taken nationally and coordinated with self-governance organization of farmers.
History of the Chamber of Agriculture
The idea to establish an organization that would represent farmers and defend their interests first saw the light in 1921. 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 the Chamber of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania on 19 December 1925, although it was published in “The Government News ” much later, on 12 April 1926.
Following the law, the ministers appointed 27 May 1926 as a date for the first congress of the Chamber. Unfortunately, the number of those assembled was too small, as some co-operative organizations did not send their representatives at all. The Chamber was reorganized and representatives gathered together again on 23 September 1926 and elected the board of the Chamber. Jonas Pranas Aleksa became the first chairman of the board and is considered the first chairperson of the Chamber of Agriculture .
In the end of 1926 the government of Lithuania saw many changes and consequently the activity of the Chamber stopped for a short time. A temporary commission chaired by Jonas Pranas Aleksa was working to keep the activity of the Chamber alive.
Regular activity of the Chamber was re-started on 1 March 1928, when 36 members of the Chamber 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 organised.
In 1940, when Soviet army invaded Lithuania, activity of the Chamber was interrupted. Although the Chamber was re-established in 1941, when Germans invaded Lithuania, it was soon eliminated.
History of re-establishment of the Chamber of Agriculture started in the independent Lithuania. A regenerative conference was held on 25 May 1991 and Antanas Stancevičius was unanimously elected chairman of CARL. CARL activity and management was discussed during the Council meeting on 13 June 1991. Statute of the Chamber was approved by the Government Decision on 16 December 1991, and the Chamber was consigned to a building in Kaunas, K. Donelaičio st. 2 (it was owned by the pre-war Chamber). A separate law of the Chamber was adopted in 1997.
