Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia (CIAT)

The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) is a non-profit organization that conducts socially and environmentally progressive research aimed at reducing hunger and poverty and preserving natural resources in developing countries. To this effect, the center cooperates with many national and international institutions in developing and industrialized countries in the form of networks and consortia. CIAT conducts research for development on five complementary areas :

• agrobiodiversity and genetics
• ecology and management of pests and diseases
• soil ecology and improvement
• analysis of spatial information
• socioeconomic analysis

CIAT also operates a plant gene bank—the Genetic Resources Unit (GRU) focused on global agriculture, food security, and R&D efforts. The GRU provides advice, expertise and training in genetic conservation as a support to national research programs in the region.

The CIAT library provides information for research and development in tropical agriculture through databases and e-journals with free access to full texts of close to 300 journals. The Analytical Services Laboratory (ASL) is a research support section based at CIAT, conducting analysis for agricultural purposes and specializing in the analyses of soils and plant tissues in Colombia and Latin America.

The CIAT website and on-line publications are available in English and Spanish. More details about CIAT's offices worldwide, main products and current projects are available on the site.