INTA-MAG

What INTA-MAG does

The Instituto Nacional de Innovación y Transferencia en Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) is Costa Rica's national public institution for agricultural research, innovation, and technology transfer, created by Law N.º 8149 on November 5, 2001 as a maximum deconcentrated body attached to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG). Its mandate is the generation, validation, adaptation, and dissemination of agricultural technology to improve productivity, food security, and climate resilience across Costa Rica's diverse agroecological zones. The institution is governed by a seven-member Board (four public-sector, three private-sector representatives) chaired by the Minister of Agriculture, with an executive team led by Executive Director Liliana Chaves Fallas and approximately 180 staff members.

INTA operates an integrated network of Centers of Agricultural Innovation (CIAs) and research units covering three ecological zones: tropical highlands (CIA Ing. Edith Chaverri Chaverri, 51.4 ha, Cartago; Unidad Dr. Carlos Durán for potato and tissue culture, Potrero Cerrado; the Ochomogo technical headquarters), humid tropics (CIA Los Diamantes, 718 ha in Guápiles/Limón, with bovine/porcine breeding, tropical fruit and musaceae research), and dry tropics (CIA Ing. Enrique Jiménez Núñez, 99 ha in Cañas/Guanacaste; Unidad La Managua, 13.5 ha in Quepos). Its technology infrastructure includes the Laboratory of Soils, Plants and Waters (30+ analytical services covering physical-chemical soil, irrigation water, plant tissue, and greenhouse gas analysis), the Animal Nutrition Laboratory (bromatological analysis for forages, concentrates, silages), a Tissue Culture Laboratory (in vitro musaceae and papaya plantlets acclimatized at 40–50 cm), molecular biology and pest/disease diagnostics, and a Soil Management and Conservation Unit providing national fertility mapping and agroecological zoning.

INTA's business model combines a Costa Rican government budget allocation under Law 8149 with self-generated revenue from unit-priced agricultural product sales (certified seeds for corn EJN-2, sorghum Sorgo Sureño, papaya hybrids Pococí and H39, cassava cuttings, certified potato seed varieties Única/Floresta/Palmira/Granola; in vitro musaceae plantlets; fruit trees from the Los Diamantes nursery), animal genetics (porcine F1 hybrid females at ₡260,000, pure breeders at ₡300,000, semen doses at ₡12,775 for Duroc/Pietrain/Yorkshire; Brahman bulls at ₡1,636,114), regulated laboratory analytical services, and technical review of soil use conformity certificates issued by private certifiers. Distribution is direct on-site at the CIA facilities, supplemented by the PLATICAR digital knowledge platform, the Latindex-indexed Alcances Tecnológicos scientific journal, an institutional YouTube channel, a Zenodo open-access repository, and annual Technological Fairs that drew over 900 participants in 2025. Primary customers are small, medium, and large agricultural and livestock producers (79,126+ total beneficiaries served), with secondary segments comprising MAG and public extension services, academic and research institutions, and technical extension agents.

Name

INTA-MAG

Legal name

Instituto Nacional de Innovación y Transferencia en Tecnología Agropecuaria

Website

https://inta.go.cr

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

INTA is Costa Rica's national agricultural research and technology transfer institute, operating a nationwide network of innovation centers that develop improved seeds, plantlets, and animal genetics, and provide laboratory and soil certification services to agricultural producers and the public sector.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Agricultural Research and Technology Transfer

NAICS

Vegetable and Melon Farming (1112), Potato Farming (111211), Oilseed and Grain Farming (1111), Fruit and Tree Nut Combination Farming (111336)

SIC

Agricultural Services (700)

akta.pro primary industry

Farm Technology Enablement & Data Integration Advisory (FMIS/ERP, IoT, Decision Support) (AFACAJAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS) & Farm ERPs (AFAAAFAA), Plant Propagation & Nursery CEA Equipment (Germination Rooms, Tissue Culture Support) (AFAAAHAJ), Capital Projects & Farm Expansion Advisory (Feasibility, Site Planning, ROI) (AFACAJAN), Agricultural Production & Farm Operations (EDAOAOAA)

Keywords

• Agricultural research
• Seed production
• Animal genetics
• Laboratory analysis
• Technology transfer

Headquarters

HQ city

San José

HQ country

Costa Rica

HQ region

Latin America

Offices7 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Agricultural Product Sales: Sale of seeds (corn, sorghum, papaya, cassava, potatoes), plants (musaceae in vitro, fruit trees), and animal genetics (porcine semen and breeders, bovine Brahman cattle). Products sold at fixed unit prices with prices varying by product category and producer type.
2. Laboratory Services: Analytical services for soils, plants, waters, and animal nutrition provided at the institution's laboratories. Fees are regulated and published in official price lists.
3. Soil Use Certification Review: Technical review service for private certified soil inspectors' certificates and studies, generating technical reports and formal resolutions within one-month timeframes.
4. Government Budget Allocation: As a decentralized public institution attached to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), INTA receives government funding for its research, innovation, and technology transfer mandate under Law 8149.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

INTA is Costa Rica's national agricultural innovation and technology transfer institute, operating a network of Agricultural Innovation Centers (CIAs) that generate, validate, and disseminate improved seed varieties (corn, sorghum, papaya, musaceae, cassava, potato), animal genetics (Brahman cattle, porcine breeds and semen), and provide certified analytical laboratory services for soils, plants, waters, and animal nutrition. The institution combines applied research, tissue culture propagation, soil certification, and producer-facing knowledge transfer through its PLATICAR platform, technological fairs, and extension programs.

Product overview

INTA is Costa Rica's national agricultural research and technology transfer institute (Instituto Nacional de Innovación y Transferencia en Tecnología Agropecuaria), functioning as a unified service portfolio rather than a software platform. The offering combines analytical laboratory services (Soil, Plant and Water Laboratory; Animal Nutrition Laboratory), agricultural certification services (Soil Use Conformity Certificates), commercial sales (improved seeds including papaya, musaceae, roots/tubers, basic grains, and potato; in vitro plantlets; fruit trees; breeding animals including cattle and pigs), and knowledge management platforms (Revista Alcances Tecnológicos scientific journal; PLATICAR digital platform for technology transfer and communities of practice). The products and services are interconnected through INTA's network of Agricultural Innovation Centers (CIAs) positioned across different ecological zones—tropical highlands, humid tropics, and dry tropics—each specializing in regional crops and production systems.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Soil Use Conformity Certificates (Certificados de Uso Conforme de Suelos) Technical review service that verifies soil certificates and studies submitted by accredited private soil inspectors for compliance with regulations, producing technical reports and formal resolutions within one-month timeframes, primarily serving developers, planners, and the public agricultural sector.
• Soil, Plant and Water Laboratory (Laboratorio de Suelos, Plantas y Aguas) Analytical services supporting agricultural, environmental, and productive management with physical-chemical soil analysis, irrigation water quality testing, plant tissue nutritional analysis, and greenhouse gas analysis, with 30+ determinations available for producers, agronomists, and researchers.
• Animal Nutrition Laboratory (Laboratorio de Nutrición Animal) Bromatological analysis of forages, concentrates, and silages providing determinations for dry matter, FDN, FDA, lignin, crude protein, digestible protein, ash, and DIVMS to support livestock nutrition programs and productivity decisions for livestock producers and nutritionists.
• Animal Sales (Venta de Animales) Sale of Brahman cattle (discard and breeding males), F1 hybrid females (Yorkshire × Landrace), purebred pigs (Duroc, Pietrain, Yorkshire), and porcine semen doses for artificial insemination, serving livestock producers seeking genetically improved breeding stock.
• Tree Sales (Venta de Arboles - Vivero CIA Los Diamantes) Tropical fruit tree sales for home gardens, family agriculture, and agroforestry systems, featuring grafted and seed-propagated trees including cas, guava, cacao, rambutan, lychee, pulasan, pitanga, sapodilla, star apple, and breadfruit from the Los Diamantes nursery.
• Papaya Seeds (Semillas de Papaya) Hybrid papaya seeds (Pococí and H39) sold by gram in presentations of 10g, 20g, 40g, and 80g, produced at the CIA Los Diamantes nursery for fruit producers.
• In Vitro Musaceae Plants (Plantas de Musáceas In Vitro) In vitro plantain and banana plantlets including Curraré Enano, Planta Baja II, Gros Michel, Red Macabú, and French Banana varieties plus abaca, acclimatized to 40-50cm height and delivered bare-root from the Tissue Culture Laboratory.
• Roots and Tubers Seeds (Semilla de Raíces y Tubérculos) Cassava cuttings (₡32.32 per unit) and tuber seeds for sweet potato, tiquisque, and yam production, sold at CIA Los Diamantes for root and tuber crop producers.
• Basic Grain Seeds (Semillas de Granos Básicos) Certified maize seeds (EJN-2 yellow, LD-8843 white) and Southern Sorghum (Sorgo Sureño) for forage use and silage, produced at CIA Ing. Enrique Jiménez Núñez in Cañas, Guanacaste for basic grain and livestock producers.
• Certified Potato Seed (Semilla Certificada de Papa) Certified potato seed from elite and pre-basic plants at Unidad de Investigación Dr. Carlos Durán, including Única, Floresta, Palmira, and Granola varieties distributed nationally to potato producers.
• Alcances Tecnológicos Journal (Revista Alcances Tecnológicos) Scientific and technical publication disseminated since 2003 to communicate INTA research results, technical notes, and validated agricultural innovations to the research and academic community.
• PLATICAR Platform (Plataforma PLATICAR) Agricultural Technology, Information and Communication Platform serving as a knowledge ecosystem that articulates information exchange between producers, extensionists, and researchers, including publications, multimedia materials, technical sheets, audiovisual resources, online courses, and Communities of Practice.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 79,126 beneficiaries served through technology transfer programs
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• EMBRAPA: Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation — the largest tropical agricultural research corporation in Latin America. Directly comparable as a publicly mandated national R&D institute generating, validating, and transferring agricultural technology across multiple ecological zones.
• INTA (Argentina): Argentina's National Agricultural Technology Institute — a peer national agricultural research and extension institution operating experimental stations across diverse agroecological regions, with similar mandates in technology generation and transfer to producers.
• INIFAP: Mexico's National Institute for Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research — a federal public research institution conducting agricultural research and technology transfer across Mexico's varied agroclimatic regions, with a comparable mandate to INTA Costa Rica.
• INIA Chile: Chile's National Agricultural Research Institute — autonomous public corporation mandated to generate and transfer agricultural technology, with experimental stations and laboratories serving Chilean producers across multiple agroclimatic zones.
• IDIAF (Dominican Republic): Dominican Republic's Institute for Agricultural and Forestry Innovation — a regional Caribbean peer with comparable mandate to generate, validate, and transfer agricultural technologies to producers across tropical agroecological zones.
• AGROSAVIA (formerly Corpoica): Colombian Agricultural Research Corporation — a public-sector agricultural research body with analogous functions in technology generation, validation, and transfer across multiple Colombian agroecological zones.
• INIA Peru: Peru's National Institute of Agricultural Innovation — a government agency conducting agricultural research, technology transfer, and genetic resource conservation across Peru's coastal, highland, and jungle regions.

Regional players

• CATIE: Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center, headquartered in Costa Rica — operates in the same country as INTA with overlapping focus on tropical agriculture, agroforestry, and natural resource management research and graduate education.

Broad incumbents

• CGIAR: Global agricultural research partnership operating international centers (e.g., CIAT, CIMMYT, Bioversity) — broader scope but comparable function as a publicly funded agricultural research and technology transfer network targeting developing-country food systems.
• USDA-ARS: USDA's Agricultural Research Service — a federal-scale incumbent with research laboratories across the United States conducting applied agricultural research on crops, animals, soils, and postharvest topics. Operates at a vastly larger scale but with an analogous research-to-extension mandate.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/webmasterplaticar
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/inta-mag

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about INTA-MAG