MEXICO CITY (apro).- Engineer Julio Berdegué Sacristán was named head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, to be part of the new cabinet of Claudia Sheinbaum, president-elect of Mexico.
Berdegué is an agricultural engineer, he was deputy director general and regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In December 2023, he became the coordinator of the Rural Development and Food Sovereignty table in the Dialogues for Transformation, in which his national project was enriched.
Born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, he has a master’s degree in Agronomy from the University of California-Davis, in the United States, and a doctor in Social Sciences from the University of Wageningen, in the Netherlands. He has been a researcher and coordinator of the Development with Territorial Cohesion working group of the Latin American Center for Rural Development.
Its research and action topics include rural development, rural and non-agricultural employment, and agri-food systems. He has written several books and articles in international scientific journals, in addition to providing advice to governments in Colombia, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and other countries.
He has participated in national and regional organizations such as the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the National Institute of Agricultural Development (INDAP) of Chile and the Agrarian Research Group (GIA). and has been a director at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT-CGIAR), of which he was president between 2008 and 2011, and the International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED).
