In 1972, the CGIAR commissioned a team of experts to study the potential threats of food shortages and loss of natural resources in the dry areas. The team recommended that an internationally supported, research center be set up to serve developing countries with large dry areas. The proposed center would focus on sub-tropical (temperate) zones. ICARDA’s founding charter was signed in 1975, with three United Nations agencies (the Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Development Program and the World Bank) as co-sponsors, and Canada's International Development Research Centre as the executing agency. The government of Syria provided a 948-hectare site the following year, and operations began in 1977.
ICARDA’s headquarters. Tel Hadya, on the outskirts of the historic city of Aleppo, is an ideal site, for many reasons. Biophysical conditions – topography, soils, rainfall – are typical of the world’s non-tropical dry areas, ICARDA primary mandate area. It also lies in the heart of the Fertile Crescent, where agriculture began 10,000 years ago, and where many of the world’s most important crops originated or were first domesticated. Plant genetic diversity in the region is almost unique – and this diversity allows scientists to uncover new genes that control vital traits such as drought tolerance, disease resistance or grain quality.
ICARDA's headquarters building (above) and main research farm (Below)
at Tel Hadya, near Aleppo in Syria