The National Crops Resources Research Institute (NACRRI)(formerly Namulonge Agricultural and Animal Production Research Institute , is one of the Research Institutes under the Policy guidance of the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), was established in 1949 by the Empire Cotton Growing Corporation of Britain. It was established to solely investigate problems related to cotton production within the countries of the British Empire. It served the Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Swaziland, Nigeria, Uganda and to some extent the Gambia and Yemen. Uganda was chosen to be the regional centre because it was centrally placed and with the exception of India, Uganda was the largest producer of cotton in the Commonwealth. The Cotton Research Corporation handed over Namulonge to the Uganda Government in 1972. The Institute continued as a cotton Research Station until 1980's when research on other commodity crops and animal production was introduced. The crops introduced included: maize, cassava, sweet potato, rice, soybean, sunflower, groundnuts, simsim, wheat in addition to cotton. Agroforestry research was also introduced to the Institute at this time. In addition, Namulonge supervised the collection of weather data, processing and transmission of the information to the department of meteorology and Agriculture. This information was further processed into advisories on weather to farmers by both the department of meteoroloy an Agriculture.