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 marginal upland areas.

I 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. I then undertook PhD studies at Monash University in development economics and Southeast Asian studies, returning to Sarawak for fieldwork on the evolution of Iban land tenure. In 1987 I took up a position at the University of Queensland as lecturer in agricultural development. Since then I have coordinated the undergraduate and postgraduate programs in agricultural and resource economics and continued to work on issues of agricultural development and natural resource management in Southeast Asia. Most recently I have been involved in assessing the impacts on customary landholders of the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia.