The Agricultural Research and Training Center

We present another of the projects that we are going to visit during our LTTA.

The Agricultural Research and Training Center (CIFA for its acronym in Spanish) is  located in Muriedas and dependent on the General Directorate of Rural Development, develops agricultural research work in the Autonomous Community of Cantabria.

The CIFA has been existing under different names since 1969, the year it was founded as the Regional Center of the Agricultural Extension Service, which provided assistance to the North zone. His functions at that time were focused on specialized technical advice to Agricultural Extension agencies. Later, and with the transfer of competences in agricultural research to the Autonomous Community, it also assumed this function.

At CIFA, finalist research projects, experimentation and technological innovation are developed, in order to obtain solutions to problems in the agricultural sector, using productive diversification as a valid tool to achieve these objectives. These projects are grouped into four large thematic areas: Horticulture, Quality of food of animal origin, Animal production systems and Socioeconomics.

The CIFA, in addition to the research work, is responsible for non-regulated agricultural training, which is projected in the realization of Incorporation Courses and Agricultural Training Courses, which are used in a great way to reach professionals in the sector, and to those who claim to be, knowledge from research in a dynamic and participatory way, in which the participation of technical and research staff is mandatory.

Both the research and experimentation programs are directed by CIFA and are carried out either on the Center’s own farm or in collaboration with private farms or other regional or national official departments. The network of official farms stands out here.

It is also fundamental, mainly in experimentation projects, the methodology based on the collaborating farms, since it allows contrasting the object of the study in the different ecosystems that occur in Cantabria, whose differences can imply diverse productive aptitudes and a differentiated treatment of the use of animal and plant species, varieties or ecotypes and production systems.

INSTALLATIONS

For the development of research/experimentation projects, as well as for training tasks, CIFA has very diverse and modern facilities:

• Greenhouses and arable farms for the study of crops, which allow the assessment of different controlled environment and environment conditions.
• Agricultural laboratory for the analysis of plant material, substrates and residues.
• Various facilities for the production and transformation of agricultural products.
• Tasting room for the organoleptic analysis of food.
• Library/Newspaper library.
• Training classrooms.

For more information visit https://www.cifacantabria.org/