The Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry is a state research institute. The Centre’s strategic objective is to conduct R&D in the fields of agronomy and forestry and the related fields of ecology and environmental sciences, biology, biophysics, botany and zoology.
In 2022, the Centre employed a total staff of 473, including 178 researchers and trained 67 doctoral students.
Research, various scientific programmes and projects are carried out at the Centre. Researchers are involved in national (funded by the Lithuanian Research Council, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Economy and other state authorities) and international projects (funded from HORIZON EUROPE, HORIZON 2020, European Territorial Co-operation and other EU funds).
The Centre conducts breeding programmes for major field and garden crops, pome, stone and berry fruit crops. More than 490 varieties of field, orchard and garden crops have been developed in the branches of the Centre since the beginning of plant breeding in Lithuania (1922). Many of them are successfully grown in Lithuania, neighbouring and other countries. The developed varieties are included in the Lithuanian National List of Plant Varieties and in the EU Common Catalogue of Varieties of Agricultural Plant Species.