TRIBUTES have been paid to a leading expert in agriculture who died at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

John Wilkins OBE was responsible for helping deprived communities in Kenya and Bolivia during his distinguished career.

Born in Barry, he studied for a masters in Science at the University of Reading, before retiring to Tilehurst to pursue his passion for gardening.

Wilkins received a visit from Princess Anne in 1991 and was awarded an OBE for services to international development.

He was hugely supportive of Bolivian students at the university and underwent heart surgery in London before he sadly died at the age of 83.

In 1958 he and a friend, Ken Harris, paddled from Basle in Switzerland to the Netherlands in a wood-and-canvas canoe.

The next year he married Janey and joined the veterinary department of the then-colony, Kenya.