Established in 1977, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is governed by an independent Board of Trustees.  Based at Aleppo, Syria, it is one of 16 centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which is an international group of representatives of donor agencies, eminent agricultural scientists, and institutional administrators from developed and developing countries who guide and support  its work.
        The CGIAR seeks to enhance and sustain food production and, at the same time, improve socioeconomic conditions of people, through strengthening national research systems in developing countries.
        ICARDA's mission is to improve the welfare of people through agricultural research and training in the dry areas in the poorer regions of the developing world, by increasing the production, productivity and nutritional quality of food to higher sustainable levels, while preserving or improving the resource base. ICARDA meets this challenge through research, training, and

dissemination of information in partnership with the national agricultural research and development systems.
        The Center has a world responsibility for the improvement of barley, lentil, and faba bean, and a regional responsibility in West Asia and North Africa for the improvement of wheat, chickpea, forage and  pasture crops--with emphasis on rangeland improvement and small ruminant management and nutrition--and of the farming systems associated with them. The full scope of ICARDA's activities can be appreciated only when account is taken of the cooperative research carried out with many countries in West Asia and North Africa.
        The results of research are transferred through cooperation with national and regional research institutions, with universities and ministries of agriculture, and through the technical assistance and training that the Center provides. A range of training programs is offered and these efforts are supported by seminars, publications, and specialized information services.