TURE. An international institution founded in 1905 on the initiative of Victor Emanuel III., king of Italy. A Californian merchant, David Lubin, convinced of the political as well as the economic importance of maintaining a proper balance between in dustrial and agricultural development, had come to the conclusion that in an age of international trade, of trusts, and concentrated capital, agriculture would be unable to hold its own in the eco nomic arena against the coalesced forces of industry, commerce and finance unless organized effort, under government auspices, placed it in possession of a knowledge of crop conditions and available supply of farm products in all producing countries. He argued that on an international market, such as that for cereals, cotton, etc., prices are determined by world and not by national conditions, that information on these conditions was not then available for the farmer and the consumer as it was not procured for all countries through concerted, co-ordinated, international effort. Each country did as much or as little as it saw fit in the field of crop-reports, estimates, and statistics; reliable information was entirely missing for many important links in the chain of production ; and this left the field open to the price manipulator whose activities affected injuriously farmers, traders, manufac turers and the public at large, disturbing the relative values of farm and industrial products, and replacing stability by specula tion. After attempting in vain to draw the attention of persons in authority in the United States to the need of an initiative to ensure concerted effort in this field, Lubin came to Italy and laid his ideas before the king, who deeming the matter worthy of attention instructed his Government to enquire into it. On their favorable report the king took the initiative of inviting the Governments of all countries to Rome to consider the advisability of founding a permanent international organ for gathering, assem bling and disseminating reliable information on the production and trade in agricultural staples and to study the needs of agri culture with regard to credit, co-operation, and marketing facili ties. Thirty-six Governments answered the invitation, in May their representatives met in Rome, and signed a convention establishing in that city the International Institute of Agriculture.
The I.I.A., which opened its doors in 1908, was a pioneer in the field of international economic co-operation, being the first of those permanent official international organs which have since become so familiar a feature of the post-war world. Seventy-four Governments are affiliated to the institute which they support by annual contributions fixed by the convention of 1905 and subse quently raised to meet the depreciation of the currency in which they are paid.
In the field of crop reporting and agricultural statistics the I.I.A. has achieved much; largely as a result of its efforts these government services have greatly improved in the several coun tries, which send in their data regularly to the institute at Rome where they are summarized and published at monthly and some times more frequent intervals, thus keeping all concerned regu larly posted on the expansion or shrinkage of actual and pros pective supplies of the staples. With the financial assistance of the International Education Board it undertook in 1925 to organ ize the first international agricultural census to be taken in 31 by all countries on a plan proposed by the institute to secure comparable data. It follows the work done in the different coun tries in the science and practice of agriculture and in agricultural economics (credit, cooperation, marketing) its functions being informative. It promotes contacts in the agricultural world and for this purpose has organized a Permanent Committee of Agri cultural Associations and an International Scientific Council con sisting of 22 commissions of experts. It co-operates with the International Labour Office of Geneva through a Joint Advisory Agricultural Committee on which both bodies sit ; it is represented on the Consultative Economic Committee of the League of Nations. It has become the recognized world centre for co ordinating congresses on matters of interest to agriculture : soil chemistry, forestry, seed breeding, wheat growing, fertilizers, etc.
The I.I.A. is governed by a permanent committee of delegates appointed by the affiliated Governments, and by a general as sembly of Government delegates meeting, as a rule, once every two years in Rome. The staff is international. The I.I.A. pub lishes a monthly Bulletin of Agricultural and Commercial Statis tics, a monthly International Review of Agriculture, a Yearbook of Agricultural Statistics, a Yearbook of Agricultural Legislation, and a large number of special studies. (0. R. A.)