The first results obtained by the IPC, not only in the technical field but perhaps even more so in human relations, soon led to requests for technical assistance from FAO. The IPC thus acted as technical adviser to the Director-General of FAO to co-ordinate programmes and provide candidates for consultants' posts in poplar and willow cultivation, and to facilitate the reception of foreign colleagues by specialists, generally in Europe, for varying periods of time.
In this way, a network of friendly relations has been gradually built up between the countries most advanced in poplar and willow cultivation and countries where cultivation has being modernized, as in Near/Middle Eastern countries, or where it has been promoted, as in some countries in Asia. A good example is the establishment of the Poplar Cultivation Institute (now the Poplar & Fast-growing Trees Research Institute) at Izmit, Turkey, in 1962, after a long period of preparation that began in 1957. Many other countries, such as China, have received some form of technical support through development projects.
