Professor John Wibberley MA, BSc [Hons] MTh, MSc, PhD, DipEd, NSch, FRGS, FRAgS is married to Jane since 1969, and they have two married sons and six grandchildren. In 1987, John was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Agricultural Societies (FRAgS) for outstanding work in agronomy and extension in the UK.
He is a Nuffield Farming Scholar and studied the survival of family-worked dairy farms in seven countries as a Trehane Scholar in 1988. He is a Professor of Agriculture & Rural Development, and an independent Resource Management Consultant working in the UK and overseas, especially in Africa where he serves in RURCON – an otherwise all – African team of Christian Development leaders established in 1971. He has been CEO and Coordinator of the RURCON Communications Unit UK since 1996. He was Head of Agriculture at the Royal Agricultural College Cirencester until 1989 when he set up his own business; he was a Visiting Fellow 1989-99, and he is now a Visiting Professor there since 1999. From 1995 – 1998, he was Adjunct Professor in Rural Extension at the University of Guelph Canada and from 1994 – 2004 Visiting Fellow in International and Rural Development at the University of Reading he was Chairman of the UK Farm Crisis Network (FCN) from 1998 – 2003. Since 2000 he is Hon-Secretary and CEO, Council for Awards of Royal Agricultural Societies which seeks to recognise outstanding contributions to agricultural and rural progress within the UK.
He also serves on several boards, including African Enterprise (UK), Lee Abbey Devon, as a Secretary of State Appointee on Exmoor National Park Authorities since 2008 (where he also chairs The Exmoor Hill Farm Project), and as a nominated member of the Royal Agricultural Society of England council. A lay preacher for over 45 years and with lifelong farming involvement, John has particular interest in Farmers’ Study Groups in practical resource management for sustainable livelihoods and food security – and has coordinated and started this for more than 35 years. He advocates widely for agriculture and integral rural rural management through speaking writing and broadcasting – and is the author of several books and numerous papers. He has regularly conducted evaluations and other assignments for commercial, NGO and government organizations over the past 35 years in the UK and abroad – in a total of over 35 countries and has visited 30 more.
He first came to Africa over 40 years ago and has worked in West, East and Southern Africa; he lived in Nigeria in the mid 1970s where he oversaw the school farms at Gindiri and the HSC field trials on dryland rice and on Sorghum. He is a member of the International Farm Management Association (IFMA) and of the Tropical Agriculture Association (TAA) as well as the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) and the Farmers’ Club London in the UK. He gives public lectures, including the British Council Diamond Jubilee Public Lecture in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 2004 on “Globalization, Farmers and Food Security” and the annual TAA Ralph Melville Memorial Lecture on ‘Farmers together for integral management and development’ at the Royal overseas League in London in 2010. A full CV and publication list is available.
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