Agrovista has appointed Essex-based agronomist Jamie Swift to help drive the company’s ongoing expansion in the east of England.
Working alongside established colleagues in the South Anglia team, Jamie is taking on new and existing farmer customers in Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire, offering a full range of agronomy and crop protection advice and access to Agrovista’s other specialist services, including rural consultancy.
Jamie was brought up on a livestock farm in Surrey and worked there until 2011 before leaving for Australia, where he worked on a cattle farm for a year. He followed that with 12 months on a large arable farm in New Zealand growing cereals, potatoes and onions.
“I got to know the farm’s agronomist well and that really sparked my interest,” he says. “I came home with aspirations of working in agronomy and started with a large national distributor as a storeman for a couple of years, then trainee agronomist for three years, when I gained a BASIS Certificate in Crop Protection.”
He then worked as a fully-fledged agronomist in the south east for four years before moving north of the Thames, joining Agrovista in November 2025, where he now advises on a wide range of crops, including cereals, oilseed rape, beans, lucerne and maize.
“The move has been a real break for me,” says Jamie. “I was aware of Agrovista’s strong name within the industry and I was delighted to be offered this position. The company is very farmer focused in every aspect – we are not pressured to sell products; it's very much about doing what's right for the customer.
“We agronomists also are very well looked after. Agronomy has changed so much in recent years; sustainability may be a buzzword but it really is key to everything we do, as Agrovista’s Lamport AgX trials have so clearly demonstrated.
“The background support is brilliant and there are a number of specialists we can call upon covering soil health, precision farming and rural consultancy, as well as the technical side of crop protection. With all this behind us, we can really tailor our advice to individual farmers.”
Jamie is now busy building his customer base. “I really love what I am doing – being outside, the diversity of the job and the fact you are always learning,” he says. “And connecting with farmers is key. I feel a real responsibility to help them make the best of what they have in front of them.
‘If we agronomists don’t add value to their businesses, our customers will go elsewhere. Get that right and the rest will follow – and that really appeals to me.”
Agrovista’s East region sales manager James Stark says: “Jamie brings sound practical knowledge and valuable crop protection experience to the team, and I am delighted to welcome him on board.
“He is already building on those strengths as he delves deeper into Agrovista’s core areas of soil heath, innovation and technical expertise.
“All this, together with his farming background, makes him a valuable asset to the company and, more importantly, to our farming customers.”