In the 52 years before becoming part of the Alliance, one of CIAT’s main focuses was on the development and genetic improvement of beans, cassava, tropical forages (livestock feed) and rice. For beans alone, 357 CIAT varieties were released in sub-Saharan Africa and 322 in Latin America and the Caribbean. Likewise, for the cultivation of cassava, CIAT’s interventions meant that by the organization’s 50^th anniversary in 2017, two-thirds of the total cassava area planted in Thailand, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, and the Philippines used CIAT-developed varieties. Similar successes were achieved with the organization’s other priority crops, with the uptake of CIAT-related rice varieties in Latin America being associated with farm size expansion, stronger market-oriented production, and household membership to producer associations. Lastly, in terms of tropical forages, in 2017 it was estimated that over 28% of the area dedicated to forage production in Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Peru used CIAT varieties, whilst an estimated 15,000 smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia had adopted CIAT forage species.

As well as focusing on the improvement and resilience of these four crops, CIAT’s projects focused on the protection of surrounding landscapes, market access, social inclusion, and capacity building, all of which have been carried forth into its work within the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. See CIAT’s 50-year impact report here.

CIAT was established in 1967, in response to global concerns of post-war food insecurity. Pioneers in CIAT’s work found that only 5% of the estimated 850 million hectares with potential for food production in Latin America and the Caribbean were being used, concluding that amplifying production could allow the region’s countries to become self-sufficient, whilst supporting global efforts to feed the world. In the 1960s, many Latin American countries began establishing national agricultural research institutes, but there was still a lack of trained agricultural scientists: a challenge that CIAT’s pioneers intended to address. Global leaders and organizations – notably President John Kennedy and the Rockefeller Foundation – began to promote the idea of globalized research networks to ensure that countries could exchange knowledge on shared challenges, thus accelerating global agricultural development.

Therefore, in 1967 the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded the establishment of CIAT, with the mandate of identifying opportunities for improving agriculture and food security across the tropical countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, focusing on a variety of key crops. At the time, Colombia was the poorest of the medium-large countries in Latin America, with large areas of unexploited agricultural land, making it a strategic location to establish this new center. The Government of Colombia agreed to host the Center, and suggested that it be established in Palmira, in a campus whose cutting-edge research facilities soon became – and remain – a point of reference worldwide.

An important milestone for the evolution of CIAT’s work was the establishment of CGIAR in 1971 (originally the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research). CGIAR was created as a network of international research centers, and its establishment was followed by the establishment of many crop- or region-specific research centers, and the integration of existing research centers, including CIAT. Given CGIAR’s global focus, CIAT’s research expanded beyond Latin America and the Caribbean, with new projects established in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on bean and cassava production, respectively. With this expansion, CIAT became one of CGIAR’s largest research institutions.  

In a 2019 reform of the CGIAR network, CIAT joined forces with Bioversity International – a Rome-based agricultural research-for-development organization – to become the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, with a broader mandate to “deliver research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people’s lives".

Discover more about CIAT’s history and impact here.