This event gathered, at the heart of the European Parliament, EuroMPs, European officials and other representatives to exchange with several researchers of the Agropolis scientific community and foreign personalities that we had invited.
Each participant had the opportunity to discuss with the authors or the speakers who presented the posters, over three main issues (see above).
These discussions allowed questioning how relevant the current agricultural dynamics are to face the major global challenges mentioned above as well as the issues related to local development and employment opportunities in this sector for the coming years: who will be the farmers of tomorrow and in which regions ?
Under what conditions does the agricultural production create new jobs as such and through associated activities?

This questioning is different for Europe, Northern Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa but all the participants were aware that the three regions are closely linked and have to show their solidarity vis-à-vis the other major world geopolitical blocs.

It is also the researchers mission to contribute to the achievement of these challenges by increasing their research works in partnership through international and interdisciplinary networks that they have already been building for many years.

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Petra Berkhout,
University of Wageningen (Netherlands)

Mrs. Petra Berkhout is an agricultural economist with a professional experience of 26 years. Until 2000 she worked for the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, first in the area of the agricultural market policy, later in the area of EU rural and structural policies for the agricultural sector. She was spokesman for the Netherlands in the Committee on Structural Policies and Rural development (‘STAR’-committee) and working groups on rural development (‘Agenda 2000’) and co-author of the first Dutch RDP. In 2000, she switched to research and participated among other things in SAPARD projects in Lithuania and Poland. She has ample experience in impact assessments in the area of the first pillar of the CAP and in evaluation studies, especially of rural development programmes. She was lately involved in the review of the Maltese local development strategy. She was editor of the annual agricultural report for more than 10 years (2013-2015), commissioned by the ministry of Economic Affairs. She now leads the successor of this publication on the food economy. Since 2014 she is co-manager of the EU funded project FOODSECURE, an interdisciplinary research project to explore the future of food and nutrition security with 16 project partners and a lead time of 5 years (www.foodsecure.eu).

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Fati N’zi - Hassane,
Chief of Staff of I. Hassane Mayaki,
Executive Secretary,NEPAD (South Africa)

Fati N’Zi-Hassane serves in Midrand, South Africa at the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency as Head of Human Capital Development Programme. Her main task is to translate the African continental strategies related to human capital, into programmes implemented at national level. Her scope include the skills development (with a bias toward technical vocational training), the employment issues and the gender component. She also coordinates the Office of the CEO, Dr Ibrahim Mayaki. Prior to joining NEPAD in 2016, Fati worked in Europe since 2006 as a management consultant and as a programme manager, supporting the transformation of private and public entities. Her interest for education, employability and equal opportunity led her to take part to several initiatives serving communities in both France and Niger since 2007. Fati holds an engineer degree from the Ecole Nationale de Statistique et d’Economie Appliquée d’Abidjan, and a MBA from French business school ESSEC. She is from Niger and Côte d’Ivoire. She has lived in seven different countries since she started travelling at the age of 3 months.

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Fassi Fihri Ouafaa,
Director of Institut Agronomique et
Vétérinaire Hassan II (Morocco)

Mrs. Ouafaa FASSI FIHRI is currently the Acting Director General of the Hassan II Agronomic and Veterinary Institute (Rabat, Morocco). She was previously the Deputy Director for Scientific Research and PhD Training in this Institute. Mrs. Ouafaa FASSI FIHRI obtained a master's degree in virology in 1990, at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Saint-Hyacinthe, University of Montreal. She is a Veterinary Doctor and a Doctor of Science at the Hassan II Agronomic and Veterinary Institute.

Conclusions

Bernard Hubert,
President of Agropolis International

Bernard Hubert is Emeritus Senior scientist at the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) and Professor at the Advanced School for the Social Sciences (EHESS), where he is teaching on how the concept of sustainable development does address research. After 10 years in Africa working as an ecologist in ORSTOM (now IRD), he joined INRA in 1981 where he has led a research unit in Avignon and then the Agrarian Systems and Development Department (1994-2003). He became the Scientific Director for Social sciences and applied mathematics (2003-2007) and then he was in charge of the creation of the French Initiative for International Agricultural Research-FI4IAR (2007-2010). He is acting as Chair of Agropolis International since 2009 and chairs the French "Commission de la Recherche Agronomique Internationale-CRAI", which groups together Cirad, Inra, IRD and Irstea with three Ministries (Foreign Affairs, Research, and Agriculture). His main research areas are concerned by pastoralism in different parts of the world as well as collective action with a peculiar attention to learning processes and systems thinking.
Since 2013, he is correspondent member of the French Académie d'Agriculture. He is co-chief editor of the Journal Natures Sciences Sociétés, associate editor of The Rangeland Journal and chairs the Scientific committee of Cahiers Agricultures. He is participating to the Angkor ICC as sustainable development expert since 2010.

Eric Andrieu

More information

Setting the scene

Which agricultural model for youth employment?

corresponding authors:
Bruno Losch, CIRAD - Fati N'Zi-Hassane, NEPAD

speaker: Jean-Michel Sourisseau, Researcher, CIRAD, UMR ART-DEV

National Information Platforms for Nutrition, NIPN

corresponding author and speaker: Mélanie Broin, Project Manager, Agropolis International

Laboratories Without Walls, an instrument to pave the way to new synergies

corresponding author: Sabrina Deforge Project Manager, Agropolis International

speaker: Alejandro Valeiro, Researcher, Labintex Europe of INTA

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NEPAD's website

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Website of the project

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Website of the project

Strengthening and diversifying productions

Greater banana diversity contributes to capacity development and improved rural livelihoods in Africa

corresponding author and speaker: Nicolas Roux, Researcher, Bioversity International

Increasing agriculture productivity and resilience in West Africa

corresponding author: Jean-François Rami

speaker: Serge Braconnier, Responsible for partnerships with Banks and Development Agencies, CIRAD

Similar social and ecological mechanisms underpin the sustainability of two traditional floodplain fisheries separated by an ocean and by thousands of years of history

corresponding author and speaker: Doyle McKey, Researcher, CNRS

E-SPACE: Improving epidemiosurveillance of mediterranean and tropical plant diseases

corresponding author and speaker: Claire Neema, Montpellier SupAgro, Director UMR BGPI

' Frenchoc Premium' Project

correponding author and speaker : Renaud Boulanger, Researcher, CIRAD, UMR Qualisud, Othilie Vian, Project manager R&D, Cémoi

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Website of the project

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Website of the project

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Technical and social innovations towards sustainable change

PROIntensAfrica, harnessing the potential of various intensification pathways for food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture

corresponding author and speaker: Florent Maraux, Researcher, CIRAD

HNV Link, A European Network on High Nature Value Farming

corresponding author and speaker: Claire Bernard, Researcher, CIHEAM-IAM.M

DigitAg, the Digital Agriculture Convergence Lab

corresponding author and speaker: Véronique Bellon-Maurel, IRSTEA - Researcher, UMR ITAP, Director of the Institut Convergences Agriculture Numérique #DigitAg

G-Eau, Involving citizens in rural development

corresponding author and speaker: Emeline Hassenforder, Researcher, IRSTEA, UMR G-Eau

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