Rob Cramb

Rob Cramb is Professor of Agricultural Development. His research interests centre on rural development, agrarian change, and natural resource management in Southeast Asia, focusing on the evolution of farming systems, land tenure arrangements, and community-based resource management in a variety of agro-ecological zones.

He graduated in agricultural economics from the University of Melbourne, then worked in Sarawak, Malaysia, for 6 years with the Department of Agriculture, first as a volunteer with Australian Volunteers International and subsequently as a consultant for the World Bank funded National Extension Project. He then undertook PhD studies at Monash University in development economics and Southeast Asian studies, returning to Sarawak for fieldwork on the evolution of Iban agriculture and customary land tenure. In 1987 he took up a position at the University of Queensland as lecturer in agricultural development. He has coordinated undergraduate and postgraduate programs in agricultural and resource economics and continued to teach and research issues of agricultural development and natural resource management in Southeast Asia in collaboration with colleagues in soil, crop, and animal science. Most recently he has been involved in assessing the impacts on customary landholders and small-scale farmers of the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia. He is currently involved in research on developing more inclusive models for smallholder engagement in global commodity chains, using cassava as a case study.