The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) was established in 1983 under the Lomé Convention between the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) Group of States and the European Union Member States. Since 2000, CTA has operated within the framework of the ACP-EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement.

CTA's tasks are to develop and provide services that improve access to information for agricultural and rural development, and to strengthen the capacity of ACP countries to produce, acquire, exchange and utilise information in this area.

CTA's programmes are organised around three principal activities: providing an increasing range and quantity of information products and services and enhancing awareness of relevant information sources; supporting the integrated use of appropriate communication channels and intensifying contacts and information exchange (particularly intra-ACP); and developing ACP capacity to generate and manage agricultural information and to formulate ICM strategies, including those relevant to science and technology. These activities take account of methodological developments in cross-cutting issues and the findings from impact assessments and evaluations of ongoing programmes.

First established in Ede, CTA’s Headquarters moved to Wageningen in 1996, and it is from these two places that the organization has launched its various programmes for the past 20 years.