Montpellier National School of Agronomy

The Ecole Nationale Superieure Agronomique de Montpellier is the result of the merger in 2007of four institutes: The National Institute of Higher Education in Agricultural Sciences, Montpellier, the National Center for Tropical and Sub-Tropical Environments (CNEARC), the Institute for Innovative Education In Experimental Agro-Environment in Florac and the National Institute of Higher Education in Tropical and Sub-Tropical Agri-Food Sciences (SIARC). Regional Institute of Agricultural Sciences was founded in a farm, created in 1842 by Césaire Nivière , on a farm located in La Saulsaie , in the commune of Montluel in the department of Ain . It became a regional agricultural school in 1848 with the aim of training "farm managers, landowners or farmers" and its operating costs were borne by the State. But as a result of financial disappointments, the school was closed in 1869 and moved to Montpellier which offered to welcome him on the site of La Gaillarde. The first years of existence proved so difficult, however, that the school almost disappeared. It owes its continuity to the successes of its teaching teams in the struggle against the scourge of the phylloxera in the years 1870-1890 and to the world reputation it derived from it. From a regional school, it then briefly became an imperial school and then a national school of agriculture in 1876. In 1908, like the other national schools ( Grignon and Grandjouan ) the Montpellier school awarded the diploma of agricultural engineer . Its specific fields of competence are then: agriculture, horticulture, etc. In 1946, the National Institute of Agricultural Research ( INRA ) was created and one of its main centers was immediately installed on the site of La Gaillarde, initiating fruitful relations with the school. With the formation of the group of the national higher agronomic schools in 1960, this one finally reaches the level of higher education and the granting of the title of engineer agronomist . In 1987, she is entitled to deliver only the doctorate . When the Agropolis International complex was created in 1986, the school naturally became one of its main promoters and focused its international communication on this new unifying concept.