Andrew is a Professor of Rural Resource Economics and Head of the Department for Rural Economy, Environment and Society.  He has a variety of interests focused around the socio-economics of agricultural production.  This covers developed and developing country contexts, working recently in both Colombia and East Africa to understand uptake of sustainable practices.  These include investigations into uptake of precision farming techniques, ecological practice adoption as well as measuring the impact of these practices on wider social goals, such as greenhouse gas emissions and animal welfare.   

He has established a team of interdisciplinary scientists working on farmer behaviours and innovation, as well on the economics of farm production.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and also leads economic input into the Scottish Animal Health Consortium (EPIC) and is member of the science directorate for Climate Exchange (CxC). 

He has contributed to a number of debates of policy significance, most recently with the Royal Society on their 2050 Climate Challenge and for Defra in development of standards for their Environmental Land Management system.  

Agricultural Economics; Farmer Behaviours; Efficiency and Sustainability Metrics; Farm Management Decision-Making; Ex-ante and ex-post impact assessment

Andrew has supervised over 25 Msc Students mostly in the area of Ecological Economics and Food Security and lead supervised 15 phD students to successful completion. 

He is programme Leader for the BSc in Agricultural Economics (jointly with GAAFs at the University of Edinburgh), as well as for Rural Business Management at SRUC.