THE INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI) is based at Columbia University in New York City, New York. The IRI partners with numerous local and global organizations, including the World Bank, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO), the World Meteorological Organization, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, to provide accurate seasonal forecasts of climate patterns to communities around the globe. The IRI has five programs: Agriculture, Climate and Environment, Economics and Livelihoods, Health, and Water. These programs address the concerns of the global regions of Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America.

The Agriculture program focuses on the study of climate and its impact on agriculture. A large part of the ...