Education & Training

“Ingénieur Agronome”, a diploma obtained in 1987 from the Institut National Agronomique de Paris-Grignon (INA PG), Paris, France. Now part of a larger institute “AgroParisTech”, INA PG is known as a “Grande Ecole”, it is a Graduate Institute in Science and Engineering.

In France, an “Ingénieur agronome” is a high-level general engineer whose diploma is equivalent to a Master’s degree and whose education spans many complementary disciplines: engineering sciences, agronomic sciences, animal production sciences, biology and earth sciences, biotechnologies, food sciences, environmental sciences, social and economic sciences as well as management techniques.

1987 – Third year at INA PG – Specialization in agrarian systems analysis and agricultural development, under the Department of Economic and Social Sciences. From March to September 1987 as part of the academic training, worked as a research assistant in a governmental, district-level body specialized in agricultural development (DDA06, Alpes Maritimes, France) with the objective of investigating the underlying reasons behind the crisis of dairy production systems in a Mediterranean area.

1986 – Second year at INA PG – As part of the curriculum, worked as a Research Assistant at the French Embassy in Cairo in charge of a technical and economic survey of the animal production systems (indigenous goats) of the Bahareya oasis in the Western desert of Egypt (February to April 86).

1985 – First year at INA PG (today known as Agro Paris Tech) – A core curriculum including a 3 month-internship in a farm specialized in goat and grain/fodder production (Loir-et-Cher, France).

1981 to 1984 – After the “Baccalauréat”, a three-year undergraduate intensive course at Lycée Henri IV (Paris, France). This does not yield a diploma but prepares students for a national competitive examination for admission to several graduate science and engineering schools, including INA PG (Agro Paris Tech). Principal subjects covered: Biology, Earth Sciences, Mathematics, Physics & Chemistry