John Dixon

Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research · Cropping Systems and Economics

With Murdoch University’s commitment to quality research and teaching in public policy at both national and international levels, the Commission and its reports are exercises in applied public policy informed by rigorous scholarly research and analytical thinking. 'The Third Murdoch Commission: Inclusive Transactions on the Continent of Africa' i...

Context The COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting health and economies across the world, although the nature of direct and indirect effects on Asian agrifood systems and food security has not yet been well understood. Objectives This paper assesses the initial responses of major farming and food systems to COVID-19 in 25 Asian countries, and consid...

Context: The COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting health and economies across the world, although the nature of direct and indirect effects on Asian agrifood systems and food security has not yet been well understood. Objectives: This paper assesses the initial responses of major farming and food systems to COVID-19 in 25 Asian countries, and consi...

India has the largest area of rainfed dryland agriculture globally, with a variety of distinct types of farming systems producing most of its coarse cereals, food legumes, minor millets, and large amounts of livestock. All these are vital for national and regional food and nutritional security. Yet, the rainfed drylands have been relatively neglect...

Compared to the past successes of global food supply, reduced natural and social capitals, Food-Energy-Water insecurities, climate change and volatile international commodity markets threaten future food production. Among the options for sustainable agriculture, various No-till (NT) practices have been adapted to different farming systems around th...

Achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) is a critical priority for East Timor. Food security, reducing poverty, and promoting environmental sustainability are among the key goals of the Timor Leste Government, which supports the identification and uptake by farmers of technologies that will improve agricultural productivity. Integra...

Non-technical summary Until the past half-century, all agriculture and land management was framed by local institutions strong in social capital. But neoliberal forms of development came to undermine existing structures, thus reducing sustainability and equity. The past 20 years, though, have seen the deliberate establishment of more than 8 million...

Knowledge of Africa's complex farming systems, set in their socio-economic and environomental context, is an essential ingredient to developing effective strategies for improving food and nutrition security. This book systematically and comprehensively describes the characteristics, trends, drivers of change and strategic prioritiesf or each of A...

Africa has an immense variety of farming systems. Knowledge of these complex systems, set in their socio-economic and environmental context, is an essential ingredient to developing effective strategies for improving food and nutrition security. This book systematically and comprehensively describes and classifies the characteristics, trends, drive...

This book applies a unique, structured, systems methodology for characterizing and grouping large populations of farm households with broadly similar livelihood, production and consumption patterns, and for whom similar development strategies would be appropriate. As a result African households across the continent are grouped into 15 major farming...

Farmer profit can be increased and air quality improved

Farming system zones characterization for targeting Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (CASI) technologies in Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) Mahesh K Gathala1, Sofina Maharjan1, TP Tiwari1, Alison Laing2, Saiful Islam1, John Dixon3 1 International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, CIMMYT, Bangladesh 2Commonwealth Scientific a...

This study highlights the diversity of farming systems in Ethiopia and their significance as a basis for planning agriculture-led development interventions in diverse landscapes. Farming systems are natural groupings of activities on the landscape that draw on natural features of land, highlighting areas of common value as well as differences. Thes...

Dryland cereals and legumes are important crops in farming systems across the world. Yet they are frequently neglected among the priorities for international agricultural research and development, often due to lack of information on their magnitude and extent. Given what we know about the global distribution of dryland cereals and legumes, what reg...

Dryland cereals and legumes are important crops in farming systems across the world. Yet they are frequently neglected among the priorities for international agricultural research and development, often due to lack of information on their magnitude and extent. Given what we know about the global distribution of dryland cereals and legumes, what reg...

Choosing appropriate practices and policies for biofuel production requires an understanding of how soild, climate, farm types, infrastructure, markets, and social organisation affect the establishment and performance of biofuel production chains. This book highlights land use dynamics, cultivation practices, biomass conversion and wider impacts. I...

The potential impacts of investing in drought tolerant maize (DTM) in 13 countries of eastern, southern and western Africa were analyzed through an innovative economic surplus analysis framework, to identify where greatest economic returns and poverty reduction may be achieved. Assuming a potential full replacement of improved varieties with DTM va...

Estimates on impacts of biofuel production often use models with limited ability to incorporate changes in land use, notably cropping intensity. This review studies biofuel expansion between 2000 and 2010 in Brazil, the USA, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Mozambique, South Africa plus 27 EU member states. In 2010, these countries produced 86 billion l...

The post-2015 development framework and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will present new opportunities and carry significant implications for the established model of official development assistance (ODA), with its emphasis on the role of Aid and donor-recipient relations. Changes in the development assistance, in turn, carry significant impli...

Many farming systems in Africa exhibit strong geographical patterns extending across Africa. These reflect a mix of parameters including climate, soils and markets etc. Broadly similar farming systems share recognizable livelihood patterns and similar development pathways, infrastructure and policy needs. Delineating major farming systems provides...

Conservation agriculture's underlying principles—minimal soil disturbance, soil cover and crop rotation—are increasingly recognized as essential for sustainable agriculture. This article summarizes three contrasting cases of adapting conservation agriculture (CA) to smallholder conditions in the (sub)tropics: a) irrigated rice-wheat systems in Sout...

Staple commodities can be turned into high-value agricultural products (HVAPs) through a process of product differentiation. Using three high-value maize products as examples—sweet corn (Zea mays L.), baby corn, and green maize—this article illustrates the growing importance of maize as a vegetable crop. It highlights the challenges that need to be...

Variation in water availability is a major source of risk for agricultural productivity and food security in South Asia. Three hundred and thirty expert informants were surveyed during 2008-09 to determine the relative importance of drought and water-related constraints compared with other constraints limiting the production of four major food crop...

This article reports on an ex-ante impact study in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia. The study, guided by a livelihoods approach, developed a spatial-mapping methodology based on secondary data for 18 variables which served as indicators of the five livelihood classes of assets (natural, physical, financial, social, and human). The overall li...

Following the liberalization and restructuring of the seed sector, the maize seed industry in eastern and southern Africa has witnessed a proliferation of private seed companies. Whereas the total number of registered maize seed companies in major maize producing countries increased four-fold between 1997 and 2007, the quantity of seed marketed bar...

This paper provides an outline of the biobased economy, its perspectives for agriculture and, more particularly, for development purposes. Possibilities of development of biobased products, advanced biofuels, and viable and efficient biorefinery concepts are explored. The paper lists non-fuel bioproducts (e.g., chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biopolyme...

Eco-efficiency in the simplest of terms is about achieving more with less—more agricultural outputs, in terms of quantity and quality, for less input of land, water, nutrients, energy, labor, or capital. The concept of eco-efficiency encompasses both the ecological and economic dimensions of sustainable agriculture. Social and institutional dimensi...

To determine the most important production constraints and associated yield losses for six major food crops in 13 farming systems with high poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and East Asia, surveys were conducted with 672 experts representing a diversity of backgrounds and experience. Respondents reported large gaps between highest achieved...

Farmers in mixed crop-livestock systems produce about half of the world's food. In small holdings around the world, livestock are reared mostly on grass, browse, and nonfood biomass from maize, millet, rice, and sorghum crops and in their turn supply manure and traction for future crops. Animals act as insurance against hard times and supply farmer...

A literature survey and focused interviews with experienced agronomists and socio-economists from south, east, and southeast Asian countries were conducted to determine physical and economic relationships of cereal yields and N use, using partial factor productivity (PFP) and nitrogen (N) response functions, while considering the impacts of (N) and...

Further progress towards improved food security and rural incomes and realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) requires a substantial increase in agricultural production, particularly of cereal crops such as maize, rice and wheat. During the four decades of experience with farming systems analyses, there has been a progressive broaden...

A livelihood approach to impact assessment (IA), by integrating livelihood and economic analyses, permits a more comprehensive assessment than does conventional IA. CIMMYT recently completed two studies on the impacts of maize research in the hill regions of Mexico and Nepal to assess the impacts of this research, examine changes in farmers' liveli...

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center's (CIMMYT) experience with priority assessment and targeting has co-evolved with the advances across the international agricultural research system. A wide range of CIMMYT ex post assessments provide a valuable knowledge base of returns to past research which reduces the risks of poor research ch...

This book shows how a diversity of methods have been used to fit specific CGIAR Centre contexts (whether global and regional, or research-focused on genetic improvement or natural resources management), with more emphasis on simpler and more transparent methods that are readily understandable to a broader set of participants. Increasingly too, repe...

Improving food security, environmental preservation and enhancing livelihood should be the main targets of the innovators of today's farming systems. Conservation agriculture (CA), based on minimum tillage, crop residue retention, and crop rotations, has been proposed as an alternative system combining benefits for the farmer with advantages for th...

The liberalization and restructuring of the seed sector in eastern and southern Africa (ESA) during the past two decades have witnessed a proliferation of private seed companies in the maize seed industry (Hassan et al., 2001; Lemonius, 2005). Although the total number of registered maize seed companies increased from 8 and 11, respectively, in 199...

Maize-rice cropping systems are expanding in Bangladesh. Hybrid maize has increasing demand and value, particularly for poultry feed, while rice remains the traditional dominant starch staple food. Bangladesh maize yields (with average farm yields around 5.7 t·ha-1) are among the highest found in Asia. Cool winter (Rabi) season maize followed by T....

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) acts as a catalyst and leader in a global maize and wheat innovation network that serves the poor in the developing world. Drawing on strong science and effective partnerships, CIMMYT researchers create, share, and use knowledge and technology to increase food security, improve the produ...

The farm household system (FHS) is one of the main entry points for interventions for rural development. To identify appropriate interventions, it is necessary to assess a priori potential impacts of these interventions on the livelihoods and environment of rural households. This study presents an analytical approach to assess concurrently the envi...

Participatory research approaches are increasingly popular with scientists working for poverty alleviation, sustainable rural development, and social change. This introduction offers an overview of the special issue of Development in Practice on the theme of 'operationalising participatory research and gender analysis'. The purpose of this special...

While rural poverty is endemic in the Andean region, structural adjustment programmes have led to a dismemberment of agricultural research and extension services so that they are unable to serve the needs of smallholder farmers. The NGO Practical Action has been working in the Andes to address farmers' veterinary and agriculture needs. The work has...

The world’s poorest and most vulnerable farmers on the whole have not benefited from international agricultural research and development. Past efforts have tried to increase the production of countries in more favourable environments; farmers with relatively higher potential for improvement benefited most from these advances. Current and future cro...

Climate change could strongly affect the wheat crop that accounts for 21% of food and 200 million hectares of farmland worldwide. This article reviews some of the approaches for addressing the expected effects that climate change may likely inflict on wheat in some of the most important wheat growing areas, namely germplasm adaptation, system manag...