Facts about IITA
Established in July 1967 as the first major African link in an integrated network of international research and training centers located throughout the developing regions of the world, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (lITA) is an autonomous, nonprofit corporation with headquarters on a 1,OOO-hectare experimental farm at Ibadan, Nigeria. Funding for IIT A came initially from the Ford an~ Rockefeller foundations, and the land for the experimental farm was allocated by the -Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Principal financing has since 1971 been arranged through the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Financial support for the core program during 1987 was provided by: Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Federal Republic of Germany, The Ford Foundation, France, India, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Sweden, The Rockefeller Foundation, The United Kingdom, United Nations Development Program, United States Agency for International Development, and the World Bank. In addition, many organizations and governments also provided funds for special projects and specific training activities. The "geographic mandate" of lIT A includes the humid and subhumid tropical regions of the world, but the Institute concentrates its research and training ~ctivities primarily on the needs of sub-Saharan African countries. The central objective, in cooperation with national programs, is to undertake research which will make it possible to increase food production, employment, and income in those countries. Four out of five of the research programs of lITA are crop centered: Grain Legume Improvement, Maize Research, Rice Research, and Root and Tuber Improvement. The fifth is the Resource and Crop Management Program. The Institute has nearly 200 principal staff members who come from more than 40 countries. IITA also employs over 1,000 support staff, most of whom are from Nigeria. The majority of the Institute's scientists are located at headquarters but some have been assigned to lIT A substations at Onne (Nigeria) and at Cotonou (Republic of Benin) and to projects in collaboration with regional and national programs.