Eng. Stephane Boulakia—from France, is an Agronomy engineer with Cirad, specialising in tropical Conservation Agriculture. He worked for ten years in several R&D projects on cropping systems design in Madagascar, Gabon and Vietnam, before heading to Cambodia from 2004 to 2013, as agronomist and technical assistant of the Support Project to the Cambodian Agriculture (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, granted by AFD and USAID). He led R&D Programs focus on cropping systems development through participatory and multi-scale approaches for rain-fed upland and lowland field crops (maize, cassava, rice and soybean). He came back to Cirad headquarter in Montpellier and took the coordination of the Cropping System Design and Ecological Intensification team of the Research Unit on Agroecology and Sustainable Intensification of Annual Crops (AIDA). He is currently providing his expertise and support to several smallholders and industrial projects in West and Central Africa. He is due to start his next position on ecological intensification of field crops (maize, rice, cotton, and mainly soybean), in Colombia with both public and private partners in the near future.
