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Professor Geoff Cockfield

Professor Geoff Cockfield
Name Geoff Cockfield
Position Honorary Professor
Section Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation)
Email
Qualifications BA UCSQ , MPubPol UNE , PhD Qld

Biography

I am an Honorary Professor in both the Institute for Resilient Regions and the Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Systems at USQ. Before starting an academic career I worked in agricultural industries and rural journalism. My scholarly research has largely been about agricultural policy and natural resources management and policy. Externally funded research projects have included: evaluating the prospects for increasing rice and cotton production in northern Australia; climate change adaptation for farmers in southern Queensland and northern NSW; financing wild dog exclusion fences in western Queensland; the financial implications of carbon sequestration projects on grazing properties in western NSW; and improving forestry policies in the Lao PDR and Vietnam.I also have an on-going academic interest in the National Party of Australia and its fortunes and the ideas and life of Adam Smith.

I was the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Agriculture and Life Sciences (2018-19) at Kansas State University, where I conducted a study of comparative agricultural policy in the US and Australia. For this work, I mainly focused on production insurances and related risk management instruments, producer cooperatives, conservation programs and agricultural extension, within the context of international trade rules and relationships and US and Australian domestic politics. I concluded that it will be difficult to start and maintain insurance-type programs and viable cooperatives in Australia, but that much could be done to improve the coordination of therefore effectiveness of extension services.

I have also undertaken two studies of farmer decision-making in the dairy industry, using some of the concepts and findings from behavioural economics and related cognitive sciences. From this, I argue that efforts to influence farmer thinking and behaviour, rather than working from a purely rational paradigm, should also consider the widespread use of heuristics in decision-making, social identity, work preferences and family and industry cultures.

Research Career


  • Agricultural Land Management ( 070101 )
  • Public Policy ( 160510 )
  • Natural Resource Management ( 050209 )
  • Agricultural Land Management ( 300202 )
  • Public Policy ( 440709 )
  • Natural Resource Management ( 410406 )
  • Environmental Management ( 410400 )
  • Policy And Administration ( 440700 )
  • Agriculture ( 300200 )

Agricultural policy
Farm business decision-making
Natural resources management policy


  • Rural Economies Centre of Excellence (RECE)
  • Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Systems (CSAS)

Teaching


30 Years

Supervision


  • Agricultural Land Management ( 070101 )
  • Public Policy ( 160510 )
  • Natural Resource Management ( 050209 )
  • Agricultural Land Management ( 300202 )
  • Public Policy ( 440709 )
  • Natural Resource Management ( 410406 )
  • Environmental Management ( 410400 )
  • Policy And Administration ( 440700 )
  • Agriculture ( 300200 )