Patrick Caron

President - Agropolis

Patrick Caron is a veterinary doctor, PhD in development geography. He is a specialist of farming systems and territorial dynamics, with a special focus on livestock farming.

He is Vice President for International Affairs of the University of Montpellier since 2019, International Director at Montpellier University of Excellence – MUSE, President of Agropolis International and Director of the Montpellier Advanced Knowledge Institute on Transitions.

He joined CIRAD in 1988 where he has been Director-General for research and strategy from 2010 to 2016, after having served as scientific director for the “Territories, Environment and People" Department of CIRAD (2001-2004) and as "Environments and Societies" Department director from 2007 to 2010. His works relate to the analysis of the role of agriculture and livestock in rural transformations, particularly in Brazil, Southern Africa and the Near East.

He is a member of many institutional and inter-institutional bodies. He has in particular chaired the Scientific Council of AgroParisTech. He is a member of the INRAE Scientific Council and of the French National Council for Development and International Solidarity. In 2015 he chaired the Organizing committee of the Global Science Conference on Climate Smart Agriculture (Montpellier, France), in 2016 of the international conference Agrichains and sustainable development, in 2017 the international conference on Living Territories and in 2020 the International Conference on Global Food Security..

He has been appointed as the Chair of the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) from November 2015 to October 2019.

He is a Board member of the CGIAR since September 2020 and a member of the Scientific Group of the UN Food System Summit programmed in 2021.