Dr Fergus Sinclair

Co-Leader, Global Research Project - On-farm Productivity

Fergus leads the Centre’s research into the contribution that trees can make to the productivity of farming systems. This programme has two main areas of focus: soil and water productivity; and factors affecting farmer decisions about which trees they incorporate on their farms and how they manage them. He also co-ordinates the Smallholder Production Systems and Markets component of the CGIAR Research Programme on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry involving CIFOR, Bioversity and CIAT.

Fergus is well known for pioneering development of knowledge-based systems methods for acquisition and use of local agroecological knowledge (AKT), for using participatory modelling to better harness natural resources at community level and for exploring trade-offs between the impact of farm trees on productivity and biodiversity. Recently, he has combined these interests by contributing to the development of interdisciplinary GIS tools for spatially explicit evaluation of ecosystem service synergies and trade-offs at landscape scales (Polyscape). He is seconded to the World Agroforestry Centre for 50% of his time from Bangor University, Wales, UK, where he serves as Director of the Centre for Advanced Research in International Agricultural Development (CARIAD). He is also a Visiting Professor at the Latin American Centre for Agricultural Research and Higher Education (CATIE).