David Gibbon

David Gibbon

BSc, MSc. PhD (Agriculture),

About

41
Publications
20,075
Reads
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1,734
Citations
Introduction
Darnhofer, I., D. Gibbon and B. Dedieu (eds.) (2012). Farming Systems Research into the 21st century: The new dynamic. Dordrecht: Springer, 490 pp.
Additional affiliations
September 1996 - June 2000
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Position
  • Professor
August 2002 - present
London South Bank University
Position
  • Tutor
Description
  • Tutor for distance learning Masters programme : Education for Sustainability
Position
  • Freelance Researcher, Trainer and consultant

Publications

Publications (41)
Article
Full-text available
This article proposes an analytical framework for developing indicators of agriculture and rural community sustainability, including the symbiotic relationship between sustainable agriculture and rural well-being. Rural well-being offers a sustainable approach to healthy lifestyles that are based on a balance of many complex components including so...
Chapter
Full-text available
Early forms of FSR/E, including farm economic analysis, participatory, on-farm trial methods and gender analysis, began with experiences in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These approaches were initially driven by economists and other social scientists who were exploring more efficient ways of developing ‘off-station and on-farm’ research and devel...
Chapter
Full-text available
Farming Systems Research has three core characteristics: it builds on systems thinking, it depends on the close collaboration between social and biophysical sciences, and it relies on participation to build co-learning processes. Farming Systems Research posits that to contribute towards sustainable rural development, both interdisciplinary collabo...
Article
It is the principal proposition of this paper that formal agricultural research, and its supporting policies and planning, has not responded adequately to the special situation that exists in semi-arid Africa. In many cases the transfer of research approaches based on temperate and more humid tropical experience has contributed to greater instabili...
Article
The path of research followed by a team of agro-ecologists who sought to address a complex environment issue by means of a social learning approach is described. Agro-ecological data from monitoring nitrates in surface and ground water and agricultural practices at micro-catchment scale provided the material for the process. The failure of scientis...
Article
The management of soils is an important issue for policy makers in Ethiopia. However, most of the interventions designed to conserve the soil resources have fallen short of the expectations, performing impressively in the short run, but proving unsustainable on a long-term basis. There are no simple explanations for the failure of these interventio...
Article
Summary Despite the large amount information on weed biology and specifi c weed control measures produced by researchers, organic farmers still prioritise weeds as an important area for further research. A recent project investigating weed management in organic farming systems has established that knowledge and learning are key requirements for thi...
Article
Full-text available
The performance of UK winter wheat varieties was tested under organic conditions involving farmer participation. Three breadmaking varieties (Hereward, Solstice and Xi19) and their mixture (1:1:1) were grown at 19 UK farms in 2003/04 and 2004/05. The variability of productivity on organic farms was illustrated with more variation among farm sites t...
Article
Full-text available
The impacts associated with alternative methods of agricultural production, and the factors that drive their adoption, are critically dependent on the scale at which they are applied. Using organic farming as a case study, this project operating from 2006-2009 in the UK, will undertake an integrated assessment of scale effects by studying matched s...
Article
Full-text available
This paper seeks to trace some new developments in Swedish agricultural research: in the approach and methods of conducting research and within the growing organic farming research community. The basis of these developments has been the recognition that a change in form, substance and method was needed; from a rather narrow, researcher-driven, redu...
Article
The livestock feed balance of small farms in the Harar Highlands of eastern Ethiopia was studied during 1999-2000. The objective of the study was to examine the livestock feed resource and balance at the smallholder farm level, with the expectation that the outcome would also shed light on the possible use of livestock feed balance as a potential i...
Article
The role of livestock in determining the socio-economic status, food security and sustainability of smallholder mixed farms was studied during 1999 and 2000 in the Harar Highlands of Eastern Ethiopia. Community level information on farm households was collected using semi-structured interviews, key informant interviews, and field observations. A we...
Article
The paper presents findings of a field study undertaken in May 1999 in the Greek Crete Island of Greece Crete. The objectives of the study were to explore how agricultural activities and the livelihood systems of small farmers have been were modified in the face of major changes brought about by with the growing importance development of tourism an...
Article
Full-text available
This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. This paper discusses the principles and values behind some of the innovative agricultural research methods which have evolved over the past 30 years in many countries and suggests that the lessons from this experience could have significant benefits in the development of organic...
Book
Full-text available
The Correct title is : "Farming Systems and poverty : improving farmers' livelihoods in a changing world" FAO
Article
Describes the Kavango Farming System Research Extension Project set up in 1995 in dry savannah country where the economy has been virtually destroyed by colonialism and civil war. Summarises the history of agricultural research in Namibia, where innovations were imposed by the colonial powers and largely confined to animal rearing. In the virtual a...
Article
On-farm research in remote areas demands methods that keep down costs and reduce the need for subsequent research and extension inputs and yet that still produce useful and sustainable recommendations. An important part of the process is to identify existing resource user groups and use them, rather than individual farmers, as a starting point for...
Article
Consists of 4 papers presented at the workshop held in March 1984. The theme is how agricultural research can be made more effective, given various institutional or operational implementation problems (identified by Biggs and Gibbon), and problems involved in agricultural research project evaluation (defined by Clark and Clay), and in the light of...
Article
Considers the way on-farm research and farming systems have been undermined through institutional and operational constraints and difficulties. Changes in the situation in which agricultural research is carried out are identified as well as difficulties arising from this. Suggestions are made to improve the situation by the definition of a range of...
Article
Recommends that Euro Action Acord should undertake to act as main external funder for the agricultural sector of Eritrea. To this end, suggests that the consortium should support both short- and longer-term agricultural development in these ways: short- and medium-term irrigation developments from the diversion and utilization of flood water issuin...
Article
Full-text available
Mediterranean-type environments* are found in the Mediterranean Basin, Central and Southern California, Central Chile, South-West Cape Province, Southwest of Western Australia and in the southern part of South Australia. They support a wide range of farming systems, but nearly all contain, or have contained, common elements: cereals, small livestoc...
Article
A method of estimating crop production potential was devised and tested in a number of contrasting solar radiation climates. With increasing levels of solar radiation, total dry matter yields of kale, maize and sugar beet increased, whilst energy conversion efficiency declined in kale and sugar beet but increased in maize. Maximum potential crop yi...
Article
Full-text available
Societies all over the world are seeking new paths towards a sustainable and equitable development. Farmers and farming systems may hold the key to addressing many of society´s environmental problems, but modern European agriculture is not sustainable with regard to, for example, use of fossil fuels or inputs of foreign substances in agroecosystems...
Article
Full-text available
Knowledge and information are increasingly viewed as driving forces for hunger reduction and rural development. The acceleration of learning about rural development processes at all levels requires an organising framework for the effective sharing of knowledge. The farming systems knowledge base produced by a FAO/World Bank Global Farming Systems S...

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