 Such studies were intensified from 1924 to 1941, when the Institute assisted the expansion of Italian economic colonization of Africa.It participated in the elaboration of agricultural settlements plans, as well as in the training and technology transfer to Italian farmers and their families settling in the colonies.This great body of information, gathered under the direction agronomist Armando Maugini, resulted in the collection of a wide set of written and photographic documents and in the establishment of a collection of agricultural products, plants and other items, used in the training of technicians and dissemination of information.