Jean Deleau
Jean Deleau was born on December 25, 1906, in Monts en Ternois in the Pas-de-Calais region. An agricultural engineer with a law degree, he worked as a farmer in his native village. Throughout his career, he distinguished himself in numerous professional agricultural organizations. President of the Chamber of Agriculture in his department and vice-president of the FNSEA, he also chaired the General Association of Wheat and Other Cereal Producers (AGPB) from 1945 to 1974. He played a significant role in the establishment of agricultural institutions at both the French and European levels. With his vast knowledge and eloquence, he spoke on equal terms with politicians and senior officials and left a lasting mark on the life and culture of the AGPB. He was the first President of Fert from 1981 to 1984. He died on September 28, 1987, at the age of 80
Gérard de Caffarelli
Gérard de Caffarelli was born on December 11, 1926, in Vaunoise in the Orne department. An agricultural engineer who graduated from the Angers School of Agriculture and Viticulture (ESA), he was a farmer in Leschelle (Aisne) from 1948 until his retirement at the age of 71. He was also mayor of Leschelle from 1977 to 2001. He worked throughout his life to defend the agricultural world and made his mark on the history of agriculture by enabling it to evolve, assert itself, and adapt to the times. In particular, he played a fundamental role in establishing the principles of Community preference, price guarantees, market organization, and, when necessary, compensatory payments. He was one of the great builders of agricultural Europe and participated in numerous global negotiations. Among his many professional responsibilities, Gérard de Caffarelli was president of the FNSEA, president of the General Confederation of Agriculture (CEA), president of the management committee of the Solidarity Fund for Dairy Farmers and Livestock Breeders (FSCE), president of the National Association for Agricultural Development (Anda), president of the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organizations (Copa), and president of the National Council for Private Agricultural Education (Cneap). He was president of Fert from 1984 to 2006. He died on May 17, 2011, at the age of 85.
Michel Ledru
Michel Ledru was born in 1935. In 1961, he set up a mixed farming business specializing in dairy production in Bosc-Guérard-Saint-Adrien (Seine Maritime), where he served as mayor from 1989 to 2014. He was successively elected president of the young farmers of Seine Maritime in 1959, president of the Union Syndicale Agricole (USA) of Seine Maritime in 1971, president of the Fédération Nationale des Producteurs de Lait (FNPL) in 1983, and president of the ULN (formerly CLHN) in 1984. He was administrator and then deputy secretary general of the FNSEA in 1986 and a member of the Economic and Social Council from 1982 to 1992. He chaired the Fert association from 2006 to 2008 and the Sol et Civilisation association from 2003 to 2012.
Henri de Benoist
Henri de Benoist was born on November 18, 1938, on the family farm in La Bove, in the commune of Bouconville-Vauclair in the Aisne department. After graduating from the National Institute of Agronomy in Paris, he took over the family farm. In 1964, he was elected president of the Junior Chamber of Commerce in Laon. In 1968, he became mayor of his town and remained in office for 52 years. Secretary of the Union of Agricultural Engineers, he began his first steps in union activism by founding, while still a student, the National Federation of Associations of Grandes Écoles (FNAGE), then in the context of departmental trade union work alongside Gérard de Caffarelli, president of the FNSEA, and Claude Ferté, president of the Union of Agricultural Trade Unions of Aisne (USAA). Appointed to the AGPB board of directors by Jean Deleau, he became its general secretary in 1976, then president in 1986 and president of Unigrains from 1991 to 2007. He was the first vice-president and president of the FNSEA’s economic commission. Highly involved in Crédit Agricole, he was behind the merger between the regional banks of the Ardennes, Champagne, and Union Nord Est, and became the first president of the Caisse régionale du Nord Est when it was created in 1994, a position he held until 2004. He also sat on the Economic and Social Council.
From 2008 to 2017, he chaired the Fert association, which he had always supported, particularly within cereal organizations, but also at Crédit Agricole by creating the Icar (international de crédit agricole et rural) association, bringing together Fert and the CRCA of the North East, Centre Loire, and Réunion. He passed away on November 3, 2023, at the age of 84.
Jean-François Isambert
Jean-François Isambert was born on September 25, 1953. A cereal farmer in the Evry metropolitan area in Essonne from 1981 to 2024, he became involved in agricultural cooperation. He was president of the Corbeil cooperative from 1994, then of the La Francilienne cooperative from 1997 to 2004 after the merger of the Corbeil and Limours cooperatives. Following the merger of La Francilienne with Dunois, he became vice president of the latter from 2004 to 2009. He has also been vice-president of Agralys since 2009, director of Axéréal until 2017, and president of the Regional Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Ile-de-France from 2000 to 2015. In 2006, he was called upon by Philippe Pinta, then president of the AGPB, and took on numerous responsibilities within French professional cereal organizations. Initially secretary general of the AGPB from 2006 to 2017, he became its vice president from 2018 to 2023. He is also vice-president of Unigrains from 2009 to 2025 and has chaired its international committee since 2011. President of the Ile de France regional commission of Arvalis Institut du Végétal from 2009 to 2020, he has been a member of the Bureau since 2009. He was also a director of France Export Céréales from 2007 to 2013 and of Intercéréales from 2007 to 2019. At the European level, he was vice-president of the Technical Committee on Cereals of the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organizations (COPA) from 2012 to 2014 and has been its president since 2018. Among his many responsibilities, he has chaired the Demeter Club since 2014, an associative ecosystem bringing together 89 French agricultural and food companies and other professional structures.
Administrator of Fert since 2010, he became its president in 2017. In this capacity, he also chaired the international AgriCord alliance from 2016 to 2019.
The other personalities who brought the association to life
Père Armogathe
Jean-Robert Armogathe was born on July 6, 1947, in Marseille. A French diocesan Catholic priest, historian, theologian, exegete, and academic, he co-founded the international Catholic journal Communio. From 1981 to 2013, he was chaplain of the École Normale Supérieure and the École Nationale des Chartes, and from 1992 to 2017, he was superior of the Institut Bossuet. He is one of the founders of the Académie Catholique de France, which was inaugurated in October 2009 at the Collège des Bernardins. In 2013, he was elected a corresponding member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, then a full member in 2021.
He was actively involved in the creation of food banks in France and was behind the creation of the Fert association in 1981 while he was chaplain at Notre-Dame de Paris from 1980 to 1985.
Jean Dupuis
Jean Dupuis, who held a doctorate in law and was a graduate of the School of Political Science, played a key role in establishing professional agricultural organizations and thus supported the adaptation of agriculture in the 20th century. In particular, he headed the legal and litigation departments of the Caisse Nationale de Crédit Agricole, the Société des Caves de Roquefort, and Unigrains. He was also one of the main founders of the Fert and Sol et Civilisation associations, whose development he supported. He died on January 19, 1999, at the age of 76.
Michel Mollard
Michel Mollard is an agricultural engineer. After a diverse international career as a development project manager and expert for international organizations (FAO, OECD) and head of an agri-food engineering office, he created, at the request of French professional cereal organizations, an activity to support agricultural development in developing and emerging countries, within the framework of the Fert association, which he headed from 1984 to 2007. He also headed the Sol & Civilisation association from 1991 to 2007 and co-directed the Icar association since its creation in 1999 by Fert and the Caisse Régionale de Crédit Agricole du Nord Est to develop rural microfinance. He was a director of Fert from 2014 to 2021.