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The Institute of Tropical Agriculture (ITA) was established in August 1997 as part of the expansion of the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) in order to promote tropical agriculture and its related researches. In 1998, ITA began to recruit foreign students and agricultural specialists of TaiwanICDF technical mission for the M.Sc. and Ph.D. programs.

Since its establishment, the number of foreign students enrolled in this institute has continuously increased each year, and the interaction with foreign academic institutions has become much closer. Therefore, this institute was renamed as the “Institute of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation (ITAIC)” in August 2002. Two years later, the institute went through another name change to “Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation (DTAIC)”, as a consequence of the establishment of the undergraduate program to accept high school graduates from Central America. This name change effectively integrated the graduate institute with the department to reflect its academic functions and future development goals.

DTAIC is one of the pioneering institutes in Taiwan that offers fully English instructed courses, is a cradle of top talent offering both undergraduate and graduate studies leading to the degrees of Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy in a wide range of disciplines categorized into tropical agricultural resource planning, production and management of tropical agricultural resources, and conservation and utilization of tropical agriculture resources.

DTAIC maintains a close tie with several disciplinary departments, including agribusiness management, animal science, aquaculture, food science, forestry, plant industry, plant protection, rural planning, veterinary medicine, and wood industry. One of the unique features of DTAIC is that students can take courses and conduct research according to their interests in any of those departments.

As of 2020, a total of 1,462 students from over 61 countries are either studying or have completed their studies at the institute. The countries are listed as follows: Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Burkina-Faso, Cambodia, Chad, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Gambia, Germany, Guatemala, Grenada, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kingdom of Eswatini, Laos, Liberia, Macedonia, Malawi, Malaysia, Mexico, Micronesia, Mongolia, Nauru, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Nepal, Nicaragua, Oman, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Ivory Coast, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Mozambique, South Korea, Senegal, Slovakia, Solomon Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Thailand, Tuvalu, UK, USA, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.