Harvey Smith, an agronomist with Farmacy plc in the Peterborough and Spalding area has become the 100th person to achieve the BASIS Diploma in Agronomy.
"The Diploma was first introduced in 2005," explains Business Development Manager Stephen Jacob from BASIS. "The fact that it has taken seven years to get to the point where 100 people have earned this qualification is a measure of the amount of knowledge, expertise and sheer effort it requires," he adds.
Before even being entered for the Diploma candidates must hold the BASIS Certificate in Crop Protection and the FACTS fertiliser qualification. Subsequently they must achieve qualifications in Conservation Management and Soil and Water Management plus an Advance Module in a crop of their choice as well as the Plant Protection Award.
So what motivated Harvey to take on this challenge alongside a full time job looking after 10,500 hectares in the Peterborough and Spalding area? "I work with a lot of very large farms supplying the major supermarkets," he explains. "So, first and foremost, my customers need me to keep up-to-date. From a personal point of view however I have always tried to set out to do something to develop my knowledge each year and having a goal like this to work towards provides an added incentive."
There is also a spin off benefit from attending the training courses of meeting and exchanging views with all the different people taking the course.
Mr Smith is full of praise for the support and training that is provided by Farmacy and their parent company Hutchinsons and he says that there is good deal of friendly rivalry between all the advisers who work within the teams about who has achieved what in terms of industry qualifications. As one of just 100 people holding the Diploma Harvey now joined an exclusive club.
Stephen Jacob adds: "With another 400 candidates working towards the qualification it seems unlikely that we will have to wait another seven years to reach the 200th milestone."
