The board of Quebec’s professional agronomists’ body, l’Ordre des agronomes du Quebec (OAQ), has named Rene Mongeau, a regional crop and environment consultant for the provincial ag department, as its new president.

Mongeau works in the Monteregie-Ouest region and plans to take early retirement in September, according to the Quebec farmers’ paper La Terre de Chez Nous.

Mongeau will serve for a two-year term, replacing Conrad Bernier, who resigned from the post last month. According to LTCN, Bernier quit suddenly after only a month on the job.

Mongeau until now had been OAQ’s regional president for Montreal-Rive-Sud since July 2003, and has also served as the OAQ’s administrator. He has also served on the OAQ executive committee since 2006.

His career in agriculture began with la Financiere agricole du Quebec, the province farm finance agency. He was one of the founding members of Agri-rencontres du Haut-Richelieu and has also been the vice-president of the corn and oilseeds committee for the Centre de reference en agriculture et en agroalimentaire du Quebec (CRAAQ) since 2006.