This international center dedicated to fighting poverty, alleviating hunger and improving the life of people in developing countries was started in 1996. At that time the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), an international financial institution located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, signed an agreement with the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), represented by its Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) to establish the Center. IDB also attracted the support of other donors including the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the OPEC Fund and the Municipality of Dubai in UAE.
The need for ICBA arose from the realization that fresh water resources are overexploited in much of the developing world and that other sources of water must be made use of for further agricultural expansion. Expert consultations concluded that one source of such water is saline water which has not been optimally utilized for irrigated agriculture. ICBA was thus established to generate new knowledge and technology in saline irrigated agriculture as well as to gather, synthesize and disseminate information in this field. It is hoped that bringing in this knowledge and making it available to the poor farmers who rely on saline water to grow their crops will contribute to increased food and feed production from their farms as well as improving their living conditions.
Its mission is to develop and promote the use of sustainable agricultural systems that use saline water to grow crops. The Center, which was earlier called the "Biosaline Agriculture Center", is initially focusing on forage production systems and ornamental plants in countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council and other parts of the Islamic World. The technologies that the Center is expected to develop will, however, be of value globally and wherever farmers face problems of saline soils or irrigation with salty water.
