Welcome to the career site of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) at Impactpool!
Do you want to be part of reducing hunger and poverty, and improve human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture? if yes CIAT is the organization of choice.
CIAT’s staff includes about 200 scientists. Supported by a wide array of donors, the Center collaborates with hundreds of partners to conduct high-quality research and translate the results into development impact. A Board of Trustees provides oversight of CIAT’s research and financial management. CIAT has its headquarters near Cali, Colombia, with regional offices in Nairobi, Kenya, and Hanoi, Vietnam. Center scientists work in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as 29 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and 5 in Southeast Asia. Their collaborative efforts in these regions have generated important research achievements with substantial development impact.
CIAT offers a multicultural, collegial research environment with competitive salary and excellent benefits; CIAT believes that the diversity of their staff contributes to excellence. Women and developing country professionals are encouraged to apply.
Working for CIAT entails that you will work in an environment where;
- we learn through partnerships. We work efficiently and pragmatically together and with partners. Considering our diversity to be a key asset, we adapt readily to change and strive to improve our performance through continuous learning.
- We develop innovative solutions to important challenges in tropical agriculture, resulting in major benefits for the people who support, participate in, and profit from our work.
Learn about CIAT’s values and principles here:
About CIAT
CIAT was formally established in 1967 and began its research in 1969. The formation of CIAT was backed by the Colombian government and Rockefeller, Ford, and Kellogg Foundations. While aware of the many constraints to farming in the tropics, CIAT’s founders saw this vast region as a world of promise, where agriculture, with the aid of modern science, might contribute substantially to reducing hunger and poverty. Since no single organization can address the whole of tropical agriculture, CIAT complements the efforts of others by focusing on selected crops and research areas.
CIAT develops technologies, methods, and knowledge that better enable farmers, mainly smallholders, to enhance eco-efficiency in agriculture. This means we make production more competitive and profitable as well as sustainable and resilient through economically and ecologically sound use of natural resources and purchased inputs.
Research Areas
CIAT has global responsibility for the improvement of two staple foods, cassava and common bean, together with tropical forages for livestock. In Latin America and the Caribbean, CIAT conducts research on rice as well. Representing diverse food groups and a key component of the world’s agricultural biodiversity, those crops are vital for global food and nutrition security. In its work on agrobiodiversity, the CIAT Center employs advanced biotechnology to accelerate crop improvement. Progress in crop research also depends on unique collections of genetic resources– 65,000 crop samples in all – which CIAT holds in trust for humanity.
Alongside its research on agrobiodiversity, CIAT works in two other areas – soils and decision and policy analysis – which cut across all tropical crops and production environments. Center soil scientists conduct research across scales – from fields and farms to production systems and landscapes – to create new tools and knowledge that help reduce hunger through sustainable intensification of agricultural production, while restoring degraded land and making agriculture climate smart.
CIAT’s work on decision and policy analysis harnesses the power of information to influence decisions about issues such as climate change, linking farmers to markets, research impact assessment, and gender equity.