Vincent Johnson

Title: Process Manager and Science Editor

Duty post: Montpellier, France

Vincent joined Bioversity in April 2008 since when he has been working as the Process Manager and Science Editor for Bioversity’s Commodity Genetic Resources, Productivity and Value-Chains program in Montpellier, France.

The program focuses on three ‘commodities’ of special importance to poor smallholders- banana and plantain (Musa), cocoa and coconut and aims at conserving and promoting the use of diversity in these crops. It currently operates 26 grants operating in around 40 countries, and is linked with eight CGIAR research programs (CRPs).

Vincent is responsible for ensuring timely submission of good quality proposals, donor technical reports, and research grant contracts, as well as contributing to scientific articles and other institutional publications, and also providing ad hoc program-support in other areas.

Vincent's main ambition is to contribute towards a sustainable improvement in global quality of life. He is a UK citizen and worked as a private-sector agronomist for UK farmers for more than 25-years, helping to manage 12,000 acres of temperate crops. Between 2001 and 2004 he worked as a humanitarian aid-worker in rural Cambodia, on integrated community development programs, project evaluations and field surveys. From 2004 to 2008 he returned to UK agronomy work, also working as a part-time lecturer in plant and soil science. Amongst many leisure pursuits, he is a performing singer and musician, enjoys creative writing and is a passionate naturalist.

Credentials:

Academic:

BSc Botany - Durham University, UK, 1977
Post-graduate diploma in Crop Protection (Harper-Adams Agricultural University, UK,1978
Post-graduate diploma in Management Studies - Kingston University, UK, 1992
MSc International Development, (specializing in monitoring and evaluation), Bath University, UK 2000.

Professional:

British Agrochemical Supply Industry Scheme agronomy license (BASIS) 1978
Fertilizer Advisers Certification Training scheme license (FACTS) 1994
Biodiversity and Environmental Training for Advisers in Agriculture (BETA) 2005

Awards:

1999 Royal Bath & West Society Study Travel Scholarship (Rice farming in Tamil Nadu, India)

Languages:

Native English speaker, fluent in French, with reasonable Spanish, and some German and Khmer.

Recent publications:

Johnson, V. and Karamura, E (2010): Strengthening the capacity of the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) to sustainably manage the outbreak of Banana Xanthomonas Wilt in East and Central Africa, XIIIth IAALD Congress proceedings, Montpellier, France.

Roland Bourdeix, Luc Baudouin, Johnson, V., Tevita Kete, Valerie Saena Tuia and Stephan Weise (2011) Polymotu: a new concept of island-based germplasm bank based on an old Polynesian practice- interdisciplinary workshop on sustainable symbiosis of human and nature from the view point of "Island study", February 29th 2011, Tokyo, Japan.

Jonathan Woolley, Johnson, V., Thiele G. et al (2011) Incorporating stakeholder perspectives in AR4D: case study of the CRP-RTB (in progress).