The Agricultural Development Bank – “ADB” (as we know it today) has had its roots firmly entrenched in the annals of the history of Trinidad and Tobago. The Bank’s history dates back to the 1800s when the “Agricultural Bank" was established as a mortgage lending institution in the wake of a disastrous hurricane. Its immediate objective was to assist plantation owners to replant their estates. Thereafter it continued to operate on a small scale due to restricted legislation and limited financial resources.
During the depression years of the early 1940s, at a time when the major thrust of the agricultural sector was export, prices fell drastically. This coincided with the devastation of much of the standing seedling cocoa by witchbroom disease. This double disaster resulted in many of the plantation owners going into bankruptcy and several properties were transferred to the Government through the Agricultural Bank.
