Presentation: CIRAD's main task is to contribute to rural development in tropical and subtropical countries through research activities, experimentation, training (in France and overseas) and the dissemination of scientific and technical information. It works with more than 100 countries in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Latin America and Europe. Its operations are conducted at its own centres and those belonging to national agricultural research systems in its partner countries. CIRAD makes its scientific and institutional expertise available to fuel public policy in those countries and the global debate on the main issues surrounding agriculture. It also supports French scientific diplomacy. CIRAD has a staff of 1650 (including 856 researchers). Its annual operating budget totals 200 million euros, two thirds of which is covered by the State research and technological development budget (BCRD) and the remainder by contractual resources.
CIRAD conducts useful, targeted research to ensure change and impact on every scale of sustainable development, from smallholders to public policy. The fact that the vulnerabilities of societies and ecosystems are interlinked means that it is necessary to broaden perceptions of agriculture and to explore its interactions with other sectors (food, health, environment, energy). It is by pooling a wide range of disciplines – from the life sciences to the social and political sciences – that CIRAD can analyse biological, technical, social and institutional systems. That multidisciplinarity also allows our researchers to develop technical, environmental and societal solutions, support innovation, build capacity, assist public decision making and aid science diplomacy.
CIRAD has chosen to focus its research on six main fields:
• Biodiversity – biodiversity as a lever of development and resilience
• One Health – an integrated animal, plant and ecosystem health approach, in connection with public health
• Agroecological transitions – developing agroecological transition engineering
• Food systems – supporting the transition to more sustainable, inclusive food systems
• Climate change – helping all farming systems in the global South adapt to climate change
• Territories – territory-based approaches to leverage sustainable, inclusive development.
