IER

Last update: 6 January 2021

Institut d'Economie Rurale (Mali)

In Mali, the Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER) is a financially autonomous public scientific, technical and cultural establishment (EPSTC). It is tasked with improving agricultural, pastoral and aquacultural production and productivity to ensure food security and sovereignty and preserve human health and biodiversity in Mali. It develops appropriate technologies for boosting production and improving the productivity of rural areas. It also helps train research and development staff and provide them with scientific and technical information.

The IER is constantly seeking solutions to the constraints faced by the rural world, and has therefore always worked in synergy with technical services, bodies governing the rural world, and academic and research establishments (University of Bamako, Institut Polytechnique Rural de Katibougou, Central Veterinary Laboratory and National Agricultural Research and Scientific and Technological Research Centres). Its agricultural development objectives essentially centre on improving food security, conserving natural resources, controlling desertification, developing and diversifying agricultural production, and boosting farmers' incomes.

The IER has 17 research programmes (millet, sorghum, lowland rice, irrigated rice, maize, cowpea, groundnut, cotton, fruit and vegetables, cattle, small ruminants, poultry, forest resources, fishery resources, natural resource production and management systems, supply chain economics, and agricultural machinery) at six Regional Agricultural Research Centres (CRRAs), with regional scientific portfolios depending on local potentials.

The programmes concerned (cotton, lowland rice, sorghum, fruit and vegetables) cover varietal breeding, agronomy and crop protection.

Last update: 6 January 2021