Research Fellow and Lecturer in Agronomy and Agricultural Systems
BSc Hons (UTas), Msc (Cornell), PhD (Cornell)
| Contact Campus | Sandy Bay Campus |
| Building | Life Sciences Building |
| Telephone | +61 3 6226 2610 |
| Fax | +61 3 6226 7444 |
| Mobile | 0438 577 432 |
| DParsons@utas.edu.au |
I contribute to teaching in the areas of agronomy and farming systems (KLA 115, KLA 211, KLA 381, KLA 431) and research methodology (KLA 405).
I supervise honours and postgraduate students in a wide range of areas including:
- pasture and crop agronomy
- modelling and simulating agricultural systems
- forage quality and links with animal nutrition
- agronomy and farming systems in developing countries
A full publication list is available on Dr Parsons's WARP research report.
Best recent publications
Parsons D, Ramirez-Aviles L, Cherney JH, Ketterings QM, Blake RW, and Nicholson CF. In press. Managing maize production in shifting cultivation milpa systesm in Yucatan, through weed control and manure application. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 133, 123-134.
Parsons D, Nicholson CF, Blake RW, Ketterings QM, Ramirez-Aviles L, Fox DG, Tedeschi LO, and Cherney JH. 2010. Development and evaluation of an integrated simulation model for assessing smallholder crop-livestock production in Yucatan, Mexico. Agricultural Systems 104, 1-12.
Research Responsibilities:
Convener of the TIA program ‘Agricultural Systems’ with a focus on innovative methods and approaches to solving complex, multi-scale problems in agricultural landscapes.
Research interests:
- Crop-livestock systems modelling
- Agricultural systems analysis
- Crop and forage agronomy
- International agricultural research and development
Current Research Projects:
- Improving the Robustness, Sustainability, Productivity and Eco-efficiencies of Rice Systems throughout Asia.
- Overcoming Technical and Market Constraints to the Emergence of Profitable Beef Enterprises in the NW Highlands of Vietnam
- Developing Climate Change Resilient Mixed Crop-livestock Farming Systems for Tasmania
- Communicating the Impact of Climate Change on Tasmanian Agriculture
- Better Integration of Beef Cattle Production with Crop Production Systems in South-Central Coastal Vietnam
- Effective Weed Control for Trifolium tumens and Dorycnium hirsutum Seed Crops
- Improved Seed Production of Lotus tenuis for a Global Market
Other activities
The Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange Trust – Orange Cows Project (http://www.agentorange.org.au/cows/)
The Crawford Fund – Tasmania Program (http://www.crawfordfund.org/states/tas.html)
Young Crawford Group – Tasmania (http://www.facebook.com/YoungCrawfordGroup)
Partner with Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) (www.ayad.com.au)