The story
INTA was established on December 4, 1956 through Decree-Law 21.680/56 during Argentina's economic crisis, when 95% of the country's exports came from the agricultural sector. The institute was created following recommendations by Argentine economist Raúl Prebisch, then Executive Secretary of CEPAL, who led a joint United Nations/Argentine Government commission that identified the need for a specialized institution to improve agricultural productivity through technology adoption and research. INTA was founded with the mission to "promote, invigorate and coordinate the development of agricultural research and extension, and accelerate, with the benefits of these fundamental functions, the modernization and improvement of agricultural enterprise and rural life."
INTA initially consolidated 11 experimental stations that had existed under the Ministry of Agriculture, and within its first decade expanded to include approximately 200 rural extension agencies, providing extensive territorial coverage across Argentina's diverse agricultural regions.
From Wikipedia’s article on National Agricultural Technology Institute, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3