“The European Master in Agroecology has been for me an opening to different horizons: new relationships, international projects, unknown themes and new topics that I want to deepen in the near future. A very rewarding experience !”
After completing a scientific baccalaureate at the French school of Shanghai, Valentin continued his studies in Canada in sciences of agronomy. After graduating, he decided to work for 2 years on a subject, directly related to his studies, medicinal plants. It is therefore as a chef de culture, that he worked in a farm based in the Cevennes where he learned to heal with plants.
After this professional experience, he decided to resume his studies and the professionalization of the master interested him. His criteria were essentially: the international with the search for a curriculum in English and of course, the aspects of: environment, agroecology, sustainable development and biology. What made him decide to choose this master is the partnership between ISARA, Lyon, France and the University of Wageningen, Netherlands, it was for him, a real asset !
The strengths of this Master?
“This master is full of opportunities to specialize in different fields. It provides a very rich curriculum, both in theory and in practice. There are many links with the professional world and it is for me a real added value. It is important to be passionate about agronomy because we have a lot of autonomy, which leads us to make important choices for our personal projects.
We are throughout this master’s degree, at the heart of change, thanks to the direct contacts we have with a multitude of actors. We worked on topical issues that are very focused on social concerns. This brings us to think a lot about the trades, the choices that we can make or not, always open-minded and very internationally oriented. The issues and implications of agroecology in the food of tomorrow are really very complex topics.”
Programme specificities ?
“I really appreciated the quality of the teaching. I loved the Wageningen campus. I made incredible encounters. There is a very strong melting point there! At Isara, I liked the small groups of 27 students, it is a different atmosphere. And the trip to the Lubéron on practical case studies pleased me a lot.
I found throughout this course a great diversity of teaching. We had with the teachers a real relationship of collaborators and not teachers to students.
During the 5th Module that I spent in Italy, allowed me to work on the problem of concentration of carbon soils in a research center. For 4 days, we worked with statisticians, researchers, it was really exciting.”
And now, what are your professionnal projects ?
“I am doing my master thesis at ISARA Lyon and I am working on the TERRAE project, with Jean François VIAN, Associate Professor at ISARA. TERRAE, Agroecology Territories, is a participatory research project supported by Isara. Its goal is to study and support the transition to territorialized and sustainable agricultural and food systems.
TERRAE started in 2013 and has just ended at the end of 2018. I am going to work on the report of the past 4 years, on Data issues related to agronomic aspects, phytosanitary use … The idea is to take stock on the soil studies with the partners like INRA, on the microbial and physicochemical studies.
Following my master’s degree, I would like to pursue a thesis on these topics.”