IICA Heritage

IICA Heritage in Depth

An inter-American aspiration
'It was during the most critical years of World War II. Europe had lost its hegemony over vast areas of tropical Asia, and was at serious risk of losing others. In the face of such developments, it became necessary to look elsewhere for strategic crops such as rubber (latex), certain fibers, medicinal plants, rice, tea, tropical oilseeds and plants used to produce insecticides, such as rotenone.

The moment was right to realize a dream that had been nurtured since 1910. The Americas were a valid alternative for fostering the development of tropical crops and stock raising, for which it would be necessary to establish research and education systems to address the region’s needs.

The efforts to create an institute that would seek to solve the region’s problems and foster mutual understanding among the leaders of agriculture got under way at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, when the Pan-American Union –now the Organization of American States (OAS) – undertook the important task of promoting agricultural development. '

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