The origins of the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia date back to 1898, when the Imperial-Royal Carniolan Agricultural Society established the Agricultural-Chemical Testing Station for Carniola in Ljubljana. The founding charter was issued by the then Mayor of Ljubljana, Ivan Hribar, and the establishment was financially supported by the Provincial Committee of the Duchy of Carniola, headed by the Provincial Governor Oton pl. Detela. The founders appointed Dr Ernest Kramer, a chemist and agronomist from Škofja Loka, as the first Director. During the first five years, all work was carried out by the Director and one laboratory assistant; in 1903, Jakob Turk, a graduate engineer in technical chemistry, was appointed as the first assistant.
In its initial period, the Testing Station primarily performed control analyses. In its first year, 100 samples were analysed; five years later, 2,500; and by 1909, more than 6,000. The samples mainly included seeds, food products (flour, sugar, tallow, milk, honey), and beverages (spirits, beer, must, and especially wine). For wine, for example, they determined alcohol content as well as total and volatile acids, issued processing guidelines, and advised on vine selection. In 1905, pure wine yeasts were first isolated and propagated, then offered to winegrowers to regulate fermentation and improve wine quality. Reports also mention analyses of soil samples, mineral fertilisers, sulphur powder, water, and the identification of plant pests. Before the First World War, the Testing Station was the only research laboratory in Carniola, carrying out chemical, physiological, bacteriological, and microscopic analyses for the needs of agriculture, the food industry, manufacturing, and crafts.
The new institution took over its first experimental station from the Carniolan Agricultural Society in 1898, located on the estate of Martin Peruzzi in Lipe on the Ljubljana Marshes. Additional experimental stations followed in the Marsh area until 1931, when experimental activities were relocated to the Bokalce estate. Initially, crop production experiments (with cereals, potatoes, sugar beet, and grass-clover mixtures) and fertilisation trials were mainly demonstrational. Varietal trials included potatoes, beans, fodder beet, wheat, barley, and soybeans. Systematic selection and breeding work began shortly before the Second World War and intensified after the war, when the Institute developed numerous high-quality varieties of potatoes, grasses, clovers, beans, cabbage, and other vegetables and field crops.
As late as 1917, the Institute employed only three people; by 1930 there were seven, and by 1940 at least ten full-time employees. As work tasks expanded and staff numbers grew, the Institute adapted its organisation and operational locations accordingly. In 1922, when it was headquartered in the Cooperative Union building, it was divided into four departments. In 1938, it moved to purpose-built premises on Hacquetova Street, where it remains today.
In the 1950s, activities were organised into seven departments (institutes) and joint services, as well as at dislocated experimental fields (Prevoje, Jablje, Moste near Komenda). The then Director, Adamič, modernised the organisational structure, expanded the scope of activities (research, professional work, development and extension activities, and services), and established the Agricultural Extension Centre as a special organisational unit, which later gradually evolved into the Republic Centre for Agricultural Extension. In 1954, the institution received its current name, the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, and in 1958 it was registered as a research and scientific institution. After 1959, when the number of employees exceeded 100, the Institute established departments for agricultural economics and agricultural engineering, as well as an information centre. It deepened its research activities and began developing programmes and organising the agricultural extension service in Slovenia. It was also among the initiators of the re-establishment of the Cooperative Union of Slovenia. In the 1980s and 1990s, a new laboratory was built, and research, office, and production facilities were renovated and expanded.
In its second century of operation, the Institute continues to adapt to the needs of modern times. It upgrades its research equipment, strives to raise the educational level of its staff, and expands the scope of its activities. Today, the public research institution Agricultural Institute of Slovenia is among the five largest research institutes in Slovenia, operating through fourteen departments across five locations. It strengthens scientific and professional excellence in agricultural, environmental, and related sciences by investing in knowledge and research capacities, while collaborating with national partners and many distinguished European and international institutions.
