Dr David Harris

Honorary Research Fellow

Recent Interest

My main research interest is in how resource-poor rural households in less-developed countries make decisions concerning the use of agricultural technologies. It is important that we understand this process better because low rates of adoption of improved technologies are a major bottleneck for improving local- and global food security through sustainable intensification of agriculture. Greater understanding of how rural households view agriculture within their livelihood strategies could help researchers and policymakers improve technology characteristics and the enabling environment to increase food security and reduce poverty.

Projects

I am also a staff member at the World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi, where I work predominantly on the Sentinel Landscapes project, a global, multi-site attempt to measure the interactions between people and rural landscapes. My main role is analysis of household data.

I am also the PI on the project ‘Preliminary studies on how the income composition of rural smallholder households influences preferences for, and adoption of, new agricultural technologies.’

Recent Publications

Harris, D. and Orr, A. (2014). Is rainfed agriculture really a pathway from poverty? Agric. Syst. 123: 84–96.

Joshi, K.D., N.P. Khanal, D. Harris, N.N. Khanal, A. Sapkota, K. Khadka, R. Darai, R.K. Neupane, M. Josh, J.R. Witcombe (2014). Regulatory reform of seed systems: benefits and impacts from a mungbean case study in Nepal. Field Crops Res., 158: 15-23.

Arif, M., Jan, M.T., Mian, I.A., Khan, S.A., Hollington P. and Harris, D. (2014). Evaluating the impact of osmopriming varying with polyethylene glycol concentrations and durations on soybean. Int. J. Agric. Biol., 16: 359–364

Joshi, K.D., K.P. Devkota, D. Harris, N.P. Khanal, B. Paudyal, A. Sapkota, J.R. Witcombe (2012). Participatory research approaches rapidly improve household food security in Nepal and identifies policy changes required for institutionalization. Field Crops Res. 131: 40–48.