International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT/Alliance Bioversity-CIAT)

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) is a global research-for-development organization and a CGIAR Research Centre. It delivers research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems, working with local, national, and multinational partners across Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa, alongside both public and private sectors.

The Alliance was formed in 2019 by merging two long-established institutions. CIAT (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical) was founded in 1967 in Palmira, Colombia, helping developing countries make farming more competitive, profitable, and resilient. Bioversity International originated in Italy in 1974 as the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources, becoming IPGRI in 1991 and Bioversity International in 2006. The merger built on their complementary mandates and decades of collaboration.

The organization studies food systems at the intersection of agriculture, environment, and nutrition, addressing four interconnected crises: climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, and the triple burden of malnutrition. A key asset is its CGIAR gene bank, which holds more than 65,000 accessions of beans (37,000), tropical forages (23,000), and cassava (6,000) from over 100 countries.

The Alliance operates from two principal hubs: Palmira, Colombia (CIAT, with over 300 scientists), and a global headquarters near the FAO in Rome, Italy (established summer 2021). It is highly decentralized, with about 300 staff across regional offices worldwide, and is led by Director General and CEO Juan Lucas Restrepo, former director of Colombia's Agrosavia. Innovations in agricultural biodiversity, crop genetics, and sustainable food systems are central to its mission.