Rate My Professor Davina Boyd

Davina Boyd serves as a Lecturer in the Centre for Sustainable Farming Systems within the School of Agricultural Sciences at Murdoch University. She earned her PhD in 2009 from Murdoch University in the Faculty of Sustainability, Environmental and Life Sciences, with a thesis entitled "A framework for capacity development: closing the gap between intention and implementation." Originally from New Zealand, Boyd was awarded the 2008 International Award for Excellence in the area of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability for her work on capacity development. Prior to her academic career at Murdoch, she contributed to capacity development programs at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and the United Nations Environment Programme International Environmental Technology Centre in Japan. Her research has consistently emphasized practical applications of capacity building in environmental and agricultural contexts, bridging theory and implementation.

Boyd's academic interests center on sustainable farming systems, conservation agriculture, gender dynamics in agriculture, and One Health initiatives, particularly in South and Southeast Asia. She leads international projects funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, including SLAM-2022-172, which assesses the adoption, adaptation, and scaling of conservation agriculture and direct seeded rice technologies across Bangladesh and other regions. Key publications include "Scaling up One Health: A network analysis in Lao PDR" (One Health, 2024), co-authored with Andrew Larkins and others; "Fertilizer use gaps of women-headed households under conservation agriculture: Survey-based evidence from Bangladesh" (Heliyon, 2023); "Risk factors for Taenia solium taeniasis: A case–control study from Lao PDR" (2025); "Sustainable farmer-to-farmer extension – the experiences of growers and advisors in Western Australia" (International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 2022); "Forage options to sustainably intensify smallholder farming systems in the Mekong region" (Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 2019); and "Developing Indonesian capacity in sanitation: Constructed wetlands for the treatment of domestic wastewater" (2008). Boyd engages in teaching and supervision within agricultural sciences and was selected for a national agricultural leadership program in 2026 to develop board skills for women in agriculture. Her contributions extend to cross-disciplinary peer networks addressing climate change complexity, as documented in the Murdoch University case study on distributed leadership (2011).