24 September 2015 Lincoln ticking all the boxes

There’s a lot pointing to Associate Professor Alison Bailey having made the right choice to come to New Zealand and become the new Professor of Farm Management in the Faculty of Agribusiness and Commerce early next year.

She’s an avid rugby fan, has a strong interest in the outdoors, and is keen for a new challenge.

Currently Associate Professor in Farm Business Management at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, she has authored over 70 publications in the field of agricultural management and environmental economics

She is also Director of Reading University’s Farm Management Unit, responsible for coordinating research, teaching and outreach within her subject area, been a speaker at Biennial International Farm Management Association Congresses, co-authored an influential climate change paper and has had 20 years in the agricultural sector.

New Zealand is a country she has always aspired to come to and she has lots of contacts here already in the industry.

Lincoln University Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Scholarship and Research, Stefanie Rixecker, says Associate Professor Bailey will lead in developing and promoting the profession of farm management in New Zealand and was happy to have secured her for the position.

“She has a strong research background which is focused on areas relevant to Lincoln University, has a strong record in postgraduate supervision, and has a positive record working with the farming community.”

Associate Professor Bailey says her research has been done primarily as a social scientist working within multi-disciplinary projects examining the relationship between agriculture, the environment and socio-economic criteria.

She led a Royal Agricultural Society of England funded project ‘Water for Agriculture: Implications for Future Policy and Practice’ which reviewed and modelled the impacts of climate change on future food production in England.

“Although a small project it has been successful in generating a large amount of media and research interest and as a result I have been invited to speak on the subject on a number of occasions. The work has also been reported widely by others in the sector.”

Another project she led was for the UK’s Food Standard Agency on the similarities and differences between EU legislative animal health hygiene inspections and Farm Assurance assessments within the dairy sector.

“This led to a reduced inspection burden for UK dairy farmers on the basis that farmers who were Farm Assured posed less risk in terms of food (milk) safety and quality.”

She was awarded Fellowship of the UK’s Institute of Agricultural Management in 2013 and was on the Editorial Committee for the Journal of Farm Management, now published as the International Journal of Farm Management, and is looking forward to continuing her engagement in farm management with the industry in New Zealand.