简介
Philippe Vaast had an engineering degree in tropical agriculture from Le Havre, France and a Master and PhD in Soil Sciences from the University of California, Davis, USA. Over the last 40 years as a CIRAD researcher, Philippe has worked on coffee and cocoa issues, particularly production sustainability, quality and ecosystem services throughout Africa (Kenya, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Uganda, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Togo & Rwanda), Central America (Costa Rica, Nicaragua & Guatemala), India, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam and China.
For 15 years, he coordinated several international projects that combine agronomical, ecological, social and economic approaches with the aim of developing integrated management practices for the benefits of rural communities while enhancing the provision of environmental services in coffee & cocoa-dominated landscapes.
During the last 25 years, Philippe has been supervising research works of 19 PhD students and over 40 MSc students and teaching eco-physiology courses. He has also been participating in the evaluation of coffee value chains, and particularly the effects of various eco-certification schemes (Rainforest Alliance, UTZ Certified, Starbucks, and Nestlé AAA) on farmers’ adoption of best practices and on their revenues in Central America, East Africa, Vietnam and India. Philippe has co-published over 200 publications in international journals and proceedings of international conferences, including over 10 book chapters.
For 9 years (1998-2007), Philippe was seconded by CIRAD to CATIE, Costa Rica, where he was a senior researcher and coordinator of several regional projects on coffee sustainability.
For 9 years (2011-2020), Philippe was seconded by CIRAD to the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) where he was the principal advisor on sustainable issues of perennial crops.
In 2020-2021, he was the scientific advisor to the Permanent Mission of France for the United Nations organisations (FAO, IFAD, WFP) in Roma, Italy.
He was the regional director for CIRAD in Latin America, based in Colombia for 4 years (2021-2025).
He is currently a board member of the International Union of Agroforestry (IUAF) and of the International Association on Coffee Research (ASIC).
