The Association of International Research and Development Centers for Agriculture (AIRCA) is an international, non-profit alliance focused on increasing

food security Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, healthy Human food, food. The availability of food for people of any class, gender, ethnicity, or religion is another element of food protection. Simila ...

by supporting

smallholder A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technolo ...

agriculture and rural enterprise within healthy, sustainable and climate-smart landscapes.

Overview and focus

AIRCA unites six international

agricultural research Agricultural science (or agriscience for short) is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. Professiona ...

and development centers which focus on a diverse mix of commodities, crops and issues including tropical agriculture, vegetable production, bamboo and rattan, insect pests, fertilizer use, underutilized crops, biosaline agriculture and sustainable development in mountains. The members of AIRCA address sustainable agriculture and the environment at the

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

level. The centers create solutions that take into account the diversity of interactions among people and the environment, agricultural and non-agricultural systems, the crossing of national boundaries and other factors that represent the entire context of agriculture. AIRCA members serve more than 60 countries comprising over 70% of the world’s population from across the Americas, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. The broad alliance has collective access to a wide variety of crops and ecosystems. The combined resources of AIRCA can be used to achieve 10 of the 17

Sustainable Development Goals The ''2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development'', adopted by all United Nations (UN) members in 2015, created 17 world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aim of these global goals is "peace and prosperity for people and the planet" – wh ...

(SDGs) established by the United Nations in 2015.

Relationship to CGIAR and FAO

AIRCA member organizations work with crops of high economic, social, nutritional and ecological value. This complements and contrasts with the work of the

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, , translates ...

(FAO) and the

CGIAR CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) is a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security. CGIAR research aims to reduce rural poverty, increase food ...

who work primarily in staple crops. AIRCA does have some overlap with the CGIAR, however the CGIAR generally focuses more on agricultural research while AIRCA has more of a concentration on the implementation of agricultural research and development communication. AIRCA has a strong orientation toward problem solving at a system level, rather than a focus on a single commodity.

History

AIRCA was launched on 2 March 2012 at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy. It was publicly presented in Punta del Este, Uruguay, on 30 October 2012 during the second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development.

Members

References

External links

* {{authority control Agricultural research institutes International scientific organizations International development agencies International research institutes