Anne Vanasse – 2015 Honorary Life Award Recipient

Anne Vanasse was born in the Eastern Townships in the province of Quebec. She studied at Laval University where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in agronomy in 1984. For the first three years of her career, she worked for Semico Inc, a seed company involved in the development of cereal and soya cultivars and in the distribution of fertilizers and pesticides. She was responsible for all the control tests of the cultivation of small grains. In 1987 she launched an agronomic consultants firm involved in the development of large-scale farming. Between 1987 and 2004 she worked on many development projects in Zaire and coordinated numerous trials with Québec growers in order to test the cereal or hybrid corn cultivars as well as various modes of fertilization and plant protection. Between 1987 and 1994 she translated CGSA Newsletter Seed Scoop. She then completed her doctorate and specialized in agri-environmental studies. After that, she coordinated numerous projects concerning soil conservation, the rational use of farm manure and mineral and the fight against weeds and disease.

In 2004 she became Professor of Field Crop management and agri-environment in the Phytology Department of the Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition at Laval University. She taught cereal and corn production and environmental management of farming business to future agronomists. She developed a research program on the control of field crops, particularly bread-quality wheat, spelt, naked oats and canola. Her numerous research projects focused on the effects of rotations, field tillage, green fertilizers, fertilizers and pesticides on the yield of field crops and also on their influence for reducing fusarium head blight in cereals or fighting insects feeding on canola.

Since 2004, she has trained 32 graduate students, masters or doctorate levels, in the area of field crops. Many of her students are now researchers or professors working for public or private organizations. Her research work has led to 260 publications, scientific and popularization communications. She has been involved in the writing of numerous production guides on straw cereals, soil conservation and liming. Finally, for the last three years, she has been the Scientific Director of the Innovagrains Network comprised of 44 Quebec researchers involved in research and technology transfer in the grain sector.