The National Agricultural Study and Research Institute (INERA) is DR Congo’s principal agricultural research agency; the Institute falls under the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and focuses on crop, livestock, forestry, and fisheries research.

Twenty public agencies conduct agricultural R&D in DR Congo. The National Agricultural Study and Research Institute (INERA) is by far the largest and employs close to half the country’s agricultural researchers.

INERA has a broad mandate covering crop, livestock, forestry, and fisheries research. It operates 12 research centers and stations across the country focusing on locally relevant adaptive research. Other important government agencies include Agri-Food Research Center (CRAA), the Hydrobiology Research Center (CRH), and the Nuclear Energy Research Center, Kinshasa (CREN-K), focusing on food technology, hydrology, and nuclear agriculture, respectively. The faculties of agriculture at the Universities of Kinshasa (UNIKIS), Kisangani and Lubumbashi and the faculty of science at UNIKIS are DR Congo’s largest agricultural R&D agencies in the higher education sector. An increasing number of private universities and nongovernment organizations have also become involved in agricultural R&D in recent years, but their capacity is limited. Some private agro-industrial companies based in DR Congo are known to research oil palm, chinchona (a medicinal plant), coffee, and sugar.