Prof Pene is a senior research worker, completed PhD since July 2011 (CAMES Brazzaville Evaluation Session). He is a Director of Research in the field of Irrigation/Agricultural Engineering basically in sugarcane. Since February 2008, he has been elected by peers as a Member of The Ivorian Academy of Sciences and Arts and Cultures. In the frame of his PhD-graduations (State PhD and University PhD, Abidjan/Ivory Coast), he has gained some valuable on-the-job training experiences at three international research institutions, i.e., the Institute of Soils and Water, Volcani Center (Israel), the IAEA Seibersdorf Laboratory, Vienna (Austria), the International Institute of Land Reclamation and Improvement (ILRI), Wageningen (The Netherlands).
Apart from the sugarcane crop, he was involved in some research work dealing with various tropical crops, namely cereals (maize, sorghum, per-millet, and rice), vegetables (tomato, pepper), legumes (soybean, groundnut) as well as palm oil. He was acting as Head of the R&D Department of SUCAF-CI/SOMDIAA sugar industry since October 2006 where his duty was to increase significantly cane yields through variety improvement as well as to develop cost-effective agricultural practices regarding the management of Irrigation, soil tillage, soil fertility, and weeds. His previous research experience was completed at the Ivorian Agricultural Research Centre (CNRA and ODESSA) as a sugarcane research team leader. His Duty was not only to conduct applied research work in irrigation but also to coordinate their research and development efforts regarding various disciplines. In this context, he was involved as principal investigator in numerous R&D Projects with local extension bodies as partners (SODESUCRE, SUCAF-CI, SUCRIVOIRE) as well as international bodies such as IAEA-FAO (Research Coordinated Program on the Use of Nuclear Techniques to increase Irrigation as well as Fertilizer Use Efficiency).
