March 2017, the meeting with CIRAD for collaboration opportunity and research funding.

CIRAD (French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development) is a public establishment (EPIC) under the joint authority of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development.

CIRAD’s activities concern the life sciences, social sciences and engineering sciences, applied to agriculture, the environment and territorial management.Ai??Its work centers on six main topics: food security, climate change, natural resource management, reduction of inequalities and poverty alleviation.

CIRAD has one main objective: to build sustainable farming systems capable of feeding ten billion human beings by 2050 while preserving the environment.

It considers that to develop long term and draft appropriate public policies, societies have to participate in generating the knowledge they need. That development through research relies on the ability of the countries concerned to build a suitable higher education and research system that is supported by the authorities but remains independent.
On a local and a global level, through its long-term partnerships, it contributes to the development of farming systems that benefit all, and particularly smallholders, who make up the majority of farmers.

In this way, it responds to the global challenges of food security and climate change, and also the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris agreement on climate change.

CIRAD has a network of partners on three continents, and 14 regional offices, from which it works with more than 100 countries. Its long-term partnership strategy centres on 23 platforms in partnership for research and training (dPs), associating 200 organizations in southern countries, to which 200 of its researchers are assigned (100 in Africa, 50 in Asia and 50 in South America).