In this month's episode of the BASIS Agronomy Podcast Greg Hopkinson, Head of Business Development at BASIS, speaks to three recent winners of BASIS awards which are presented each year to outstanding candidates in a number of BASIS qualifications.

Our first guest is Beth Duchesne, Senior Consultant on Agriculture & the Environment at Bidwells. Beth was awarded the Barrie Orme Shield in 2020 and explains how she has used the Certificate in Crop Protection qualification to develop her career, and also provides some advice for anyone thinking of taking this course in the future.

Presented with our second guest was Jack Buckingham who was the first winner of the Brian Chambers Award in 2018 which is presented to the highest achieving FACTS candidate each year. Jack explains how the FACTS qualification has helped him in his role as a Farm Business Adviser especially where he works in the South-West of England which is dominated by livestock and mixed farms.

Finally we spoke to Jim Stotzka, Lead on Sustainability with Frontier Agriculture. Jim received the Paul Singleton Award in 2018 which is presented to the individual who produces the highest scoring project as part of the Certificate in Crop Protection exam. This is an integral part of this qualification and Jim explains a bit more about his project and gives some top tips on how to research and write a project for anyone who is looking to complete the Certificate in Crop Protection in the future.

All three of our guests have developed successful careers in crop production and agronomy with the support of BASIS qualifications and the Professional Register. At BASIS we are looking to support the next generation of advisers and farmers through the Trainee Membership scheme. For more information on this scheme please follow this link basis-reg.co.uk/trainee 

Our Professional Register Members can claim 1 CPD point for listening to this podcast, to access the Members Area on the BASIS website, please click here