International Center for Tropical Agriculture

The Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical ( CIAT; German International Center for Tropical Agriculture ) is an international agricultural research center with headquarters in Palmira, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. It is one of 15 institutes of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. Since 2009 Ruben Echeverría is the director.

Goal of CIAT is the non-profit application and basic research for sustainable agro-ecosystems of smallholders in the tropics with focus on Latin America. The fight hunger in rural areas and the provision of breeding improved seeds for small farmers in the foreground. At the mission include stable crop yields with fewer failures caused by disease and weather events, sustainable and erosion resistant agriculture and land use systems and innovations in the rural area. Thematically divided into agro-biodiversity and genetics, ecology and plant pathology, management of pests and plant diseases, soil ecology and improvement of land use analysis of land use systems ( Rural Spatial Information System ( RSIS ) ) and socio-economic studies.

In CIAT 800 researchers, research assistants and workers are employed. 120 agricultural scientists and biologists come from 37 different countries. The CIAT maintains the Agronatura Science Park, numerous laboratories, a complete weather station and experimental fields.

The CIAT enjoys a high international reputation in the field of beans, cassava and tropical forages.