The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), a member of CGIAR, supported by the CGIAR Fund, is a non-profit agricultural research institute that aims to improve the livelihoods of the resource-poor across the world's dry areas.

[2] The President of Syria Hafez al-Assad who had hoped to secure his own country's agriculture by working with this new institution made an attractive offer of free land for the center to the south of Aleppo.

North Africa, with a Platform in Morocco: Building on the existing partnership with INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique), and focused on the intensification and diversification of rainfed cereal-based production systems.

Sub-Saharan Africa, with a Platform in Ethiopia: Building on the partnership with ILRI in the CRP on Livestock and Fish and on-going collaboration with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR).

South Asia, with a Platform in India: Building on the existing partnership with ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), and focused especially on food legumes systems.