The INGC was established in 2009, as a non-administrative state-owned company under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources and Fisheries endowed with the civil personality and financial independence. INGC is one of the principal public organizations in the concretization of the national strategy aimed to achieve food security in order to improve the development of sustainable agricultural technologies and their transfer and dissemination in order to increase yield of field crops in terms of production and quality. The INGC is in charge of the following missions:
- Implementation of applied and on-farm research (R/D) on field crops, taking into account challenges posed by climate change.
- Development and out-scaling of the appropriate technical and economic packages.
- Organization of training courses for farmers and extensionists.
- Assisting in developing enabling policy environment that supports the uptake and impact of improved technologies.
- Enhancing capacity of farmers via the organization of field events.
- Development and distribution of technical references.
- Conducting prospective studies on the field crop sector.
To achieve these goals, the activities are implemented in close collaboration with stakeholders at different levels in the sector with the ambition to encourage cooperation, collaboration and knowledge sharing among partners. In this regard, a new learning, participatory and interactive approach has been developed based on the implementation of platforms covering all bioclimatic zones of Tunisia.
In order to upscale improved technical package and to enhance farmers’ know-how and practices many tools are being used, such as:
- The Short Messaging Service (SMS) technology as a tool to improve farmers’ and extensionists timely access to technical knowledge and to increase technology adoption.
- Development of Android Mobile Application as a decision making tool for irrigation monitoring.
- Development of Cereal Expert System.