Italian Andrea Sisti was on Friday elected president of the World Association of Agronomists, which has more than a million members worldwide.
Sisti was elected WAA's new president at the end of the association's five-day conference in Milan, attended by 800 agronomists from all over the globe.
"We need to focus on professional training in all countries and communicate in a strong and effective way," said Sisti, speaking to delegates at WAA's pavilion at the Expo 2015 world trade fair, where the meeting took place.
Sisti also urged international cooperation to put agronomy on the political agenda of national governments.
Sisti takes over as WAA president from Spain's Maria Cruz Diaz Alvarez, who had held the post since 2008.
During the conference, delegates hammered out a blueprint for world food security over the next decade based on ethnical principles.
"The document is based on three overriding principles: the soil, biodiversity and the landscape," Sisti said, speaking on the sidelines of the meeting's closing ceremony.
The blueprint, called the World Agronomy charter, was presented to Italy's agriculture minister Maurizio Martina.
