He is director of AGAP, a major joint research unit (with over 160 scientists of CIRAD, INRA and Montpellier SupAgro) focussed on plant genetic improvement and crop adaptation for over twenty tropical and Mediterranean species. His own research deals with the analysis and use of genetic diversity in diverse crops such as rice, sugarcane, sorghum and banana. Among others, he contributed  to a major revision of the classification of rice varieties, the characterization of the sugarcane genome in comparison with other grasses, the exploration of linkage disequilibrium for association analysis, and the exploration of phylogeographic approaches for assessing genetic diversity.

From 2004 to 2010 he led the sub-programme on crop genetic diversity of the CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme. In 2008 he received the Jean Dufrenoy Award of the French Academy of Agriculture.