Geraint Richards MVO FIC

Head Forester, Duchy of Cornwall

Geraint Richards is the Head Forester for the Duchy of Cornwall and hence is responsible for the management of the trees, woodlands and forests across the Duchy’s extensive land-holding in England and Wales.  Geraint graduated in 1992, with a degree in forestry from Bangor University in North Wales, and then worked for four years for the Forestry Commission before taking up his current position with the Duchy.  He was awarded the RFS Gold Medal for Distinguished Services to Forestry and made a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters in 2019.

The Duchy’s woodlands amount to some 6,000 acres (2,500 hectares) and contain a variety of species and forest types.  In the very early days of the Forest Stewardship Council, 1996/97, Geraint helped gain FSC certification for the Duchy’s woodlands.  Encouraged by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales (who is also The Duke of Cornwall), Geraint immediately took an interest in continuous cover/close-to-nature approaches to woodland management and is seeking to apply such principles across the Duchy’s estate.

Geraint is involved with a wide range of organisations and initiatives beyond the Duchy, both nationally and internationally, many of which are connected to His Royal Highness’ interests.

Jim Wilson

MD, SoilEssentials Ltd

A leading figure In Precision Agriculture, Jim Wilson is both a farmer and the Managing Director of SoilEssentials Ltd. He has been running the family farm at Hilton of Fern in Angus, Scotland since the early eighties. A typical Scottish arable farm, it has hugely variable land, both in terms of soil type and topography.

In 1996 he began collating data collected from a variety of sensors and input sources which helped quantify in field spatial variability in both map and economic terms. This information, when demonstrated to local farmers was the starting point for a long journey into the world of Precision Agriculture. SoilEssentials was set up in 2000 with three business partners, two farmers and an agronomist, who were equally interested in creating useful, meaningful, practical and ultimately user-friendly hardware and software based on sound agronomy practices.

Over the years, he has been an invited speaker at many conferences and congresses including: ECPA Greece, precision farming workshops and conferences at Massey University NZ and University of Sydney, The American Society of Agronomy 103rd Congress in San Antonio Texas and the Sino UK Workshop on Geospatial Technologies for Precision Agriculture held in Qingdao, China.

His passion for finding user-friendly, practical applications for Precision Agriculture Technology is what drives him. Maintaining an active role in the farm allows him to test first-hand any new developments.

Mark Bowden, BSc MCIWEM C.WEM

Asset Manager, Jersey Water

Mark was appointed in May 2016 as Operations Engineer to manage the Company’s reservoir assets and help develop and deliver the Company’s capital investment programme.

He joined Jersey Water from United Utilities and arrived with 18 years of experience within the water industry. Mark graduated from Leeds University in 1997 with a combined honours degree in Psychology and Philosophy. His career has covered a wide variety of roles including operational management with responsibility for drinking water production and reservoirs.

Mark was promoted to Asset Manager in 2017, gained chartered status as a member of the Institute of Water and Environmental Management and is now responsible for Water Resource Management Planning, Land and Property Assets, Health and Safety, Emergency Planning, Project Delivery and other key functions in the water supply business.

Mark also holds a voluntary position on the Board of SCOOP - the Sustainable Cooperative in St Lawrence.

Professor Nicola Spence

Chief Plant Health Officer and Deputy Director Plant and Bee Health, Varieties and Seeds, Animal and Plant, Health and Welfare

Nicola Spence is Defra’s Chief Plant Health Officer and advises ministers, industry and others about the risks posed by plant pests and diseases, and ensuring that measures are in place to manage those risks and minimise their impact, as well as leading the operational response in the event of a disease outbreak.

Nicola is an experienced research plant pathologist and worked on virus diseases of horticultural crops in the UK and internationally for over 20 years. She is an expert in plant health and international plant trade and was previously the Head of Plant Health and then Chief Scientist at the Food and Environment Research Agency near York. She is a President of the British Society for Plant Pathology, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, Honorary Professor at the University of Birmingham, Visiting Professor at Harper Adams University and a Trustee of The Yorkshire Arboretum.

She has a BSc in Botany from the University of Durham, an MSc in Microbiology from Birkbeck College, University of London and a PhD in Plant Virology from the University of Birmingham.

Nigel Penlington

AgEngEnv Nigel Penlington Consulting Ltd

Nigel Penlington is a Chartered Environmentalist and member of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers. He is also qualified to advise on fertilisers and crop nutrition.

After studying agricultural engineering at Harper Adams Agricultural College went into farm management in Saudi Arabia growing wheat potatoes along with agricultural contracting.

A spell at Silsoe, part of Cranfield University resulted in a masters degree in agricultural soil and water engineering. After working for a drainage contractor joined ADAS as a Farm Mechanisation Adviser in the English midlands. Work was heavily geared towards slurries and farm pollution advice, odours, land restoration, and resource efficiency.

When the English pig industry was fearing imposition of European permitting legislation, IPPC, Nigel joined the Meat and Livestock Commission. Close work with government and regulators meant solutions were found and farmers got their permits. Other environmental challenges followed and this lead to the formation of an Environment and Buildings team at the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). This team developed specialised knowledge around environmental legislation, farm buildings, ventilation, energy, clean air and soil management as well as climate change. This included being a key partner in the English Green House Gas Action Plan.

Since leaving AHDB in 2019 has developed his own consultancy helping farmers and corporate businesses in this increasingly challenging and complex arena.

Paul Hammett

National Farmers Union, National Specialist (water resources)

Paul Hammett is national water specialist for the NFU of England & Wales, focusing on the regulatory and political situation surrounding water use in agriculture.

Paul is particularly interested in helping to shape future policies that link food security to water security and how we shape policies to deal with ‘too much’ and ‘not enough’ water.

His primary focus is on the irrigated crop sector which relies on abstracted water, but he also deals with public water supply issues and drought impacts of rain-fed agriculture.

Paul’s primary interest is in ensuring that farmers and growers get a fair share of water to grow our food. He is part of an NFU team analysing the impact on farming of recent floods and droughts and applying lessons learned from those events.

Philip Clarke

Executive Editor, Farmers Weekly

Philip studied agricultural economics at Reading and Oxford Universities, with a particular focus on agricultural policy and trade. His early career was at the National Farmers Union in London in the 1980s, where he worked as an advisor to the Milk and Dairy Products committee, before branching out into agricultural and food journalism.

He joined farmers Weekly in 1993 and has enjoyed a variety of roles, including spells as Business Editor and Europe Editor. His current role of Executive Editor sees Philip overseeing the magazine’s News and Business content, as well as being the chief Leader writer and editing the Opinion section. His main interest remains agricultural policy.

Outside work, Philip lives in West Sussex, where he enjoys walking, cycling, cooking and kayaking.

Piers Sangan MCMA

Director and Ecologist at Sangan Island Conservation Ltd

Piers is the founder and director of Jersey-based ecology company Sangan Island Conservation Ltd which has been providing ecology and land management services in the island for the past 8 years. Piers has a background in conservation biology and a focus on bat ecology and landscape conservation management, being involved with the management of some of Jersey’s SSI’s and undertaking various research projects to monitor and expand the islands knowledge of protected species.

Since 2018 Piers has been working alongside the Jersey Milk Marketing Board to help its produces successfully achieve LEAF accreditation by helping undertake nature and landscape audits as well as prepare enhancement plans tailored to the farms.

Since December 2019 Piers has also joined the LEAF technical advisory committee in the hope to bring a bit more Jersey to the existing standards. Over the past two years, Piers has been proud to work alongside an industry that can bring so much to the islands conservation effort and to those who help manage and protect such a large proportion of Jersey’s landscape.