Professor Peter Cornish

• Biography
• Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise
• Grants / Current Projects
• Awards and Recognition
• Publications
• Contact Details

Biography

I joined UWS in 1993 as the foundation Vincent Fairfax Professor of Agriculture (Farming Systems), following positions in CSIRO and NSW Agriculture. I trained originally in agriculture, specialising in soil science and agronomy. Postgraduate research focused on root growth in uncultivated soils. This led to a long-term interest in ways to reduce the amount of cultivation used in arable agriculture, including pioneering work in 'conservation farming' which has done much to reduce the major problem of soil erosion in Australia whilst helping grain farmers to become more profitable. This developed into research aiming to understand and manage the off-farm environmental impacts of agriculture, involving work for the grains, dairy and horticulture industries, and the Sydney Catchment Authority.

I retired from the Fairfax Chair in 2007 to focus on my environmental research and into appropriate technology for rural development in impoverished East India, including improved processes for engaging rural communities.

I’ve been involved heavily in research fund administration, serving as a consultant to the Australian Wheat and Oilseeds Research Councils, the Grains Research and Development Corporation, the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, Land and Water Australia and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.

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Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise

• Agronomy and soil science
• Farming system design and management
• Agriculture and the environment
• Rural development (India)

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Grants / Current Projects

Grains Research and Development Corporation
- Improved farming systems for central and northern NSW (3 grants)
- Managing environmental impacts of grain farms in the northerns grains region (collaboration with queensland researchers)(2 grants)
- Understanding and managing subsoil constraints in the northern grains region (1 grant)

Natural Heritage Trust
- Develop education resources and programs to reduce environmental impacts of grain farming (1 grant)

Australian Research Council/Sydney Catchment Authority
- Measuring, modelling and managing the mobilisation and transport of nutrints from agriculture n the Sdney drinking water catchments (2 grants)

Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
- Water harvesting and better cropping systems for small farmers of the East India Plateau (1 grant)

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Awards and Recognition

2002 Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Sector Administration (with the Grains Research and Development Corporation), for developing a national program of participatory farming systems research.

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Publications

Selected Publications since 2000

Book chapters

Cornish, P. S., (2005) Case Study: Australian Approaches to Participatory Development and Adoption of More Sustainable Farming Systems. ERSEC Ecological Book Series – 1. Resource Management for Sustainable Intensive Agricultural Systems, Tsinghua University Press, Beiging and Springer, ISBN 7-302-11579-6. pp 255-270.

Freebairn, D. M., Cornish, P. S., Anderson, W. K., Walker, S. R., Robinson, J. B., and Beswick, A.R., (2006) Management Systems in Climate Regions of the World – Australia. In ‘Dryland Agriculture’ 2nd ed. Agronomy Monograph 23. (American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Soil Science Society of America: Madison, Wisconsin USA.) Chapter 20: 837-878.

Refereed Journal Papers

Cornish, P. S., (2009) Phosphorus management on extensive organic and low-input farms
Crop & Pasture Science, 60, 105–115.

Cornish, P. S., (2009) Research directions: Improving plant uptake of soil phosphorus, and reducing dependency on input of phosphorus fertiliser Crop & Pasture Science, 2009, 60, 190–196.

Devasirvatham, Viola, and Peter S. Cornish., (2007) Precision application of water for
peri-urban horticulture. Int. J. Water 3: 418-24.

Pedroli, Bas, Pinto Correia, Teresa and Cornish, Peter (2006) Landscape – what’s in it? Trends in European landscape science and priority themes for concerted research. Landscape Ecology 21 (3): 421–430

Popov, V. H., Cornish, P. S., and Sun, H., (2006) Vegetated biofilters: the relative importance of infiltration and adsorption in reducing loads of water-soluble herbicides in agricultural runoff. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 114: 351-359.

Wangiyana, W., Cornish, P. S., and Morris, C. A., (2006) Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (Amf) Dynamics In Contrasting Cropping Systems On Vertisol And Regosol Soils of Lombok, Indonesia. Experimental Agriculture 42: 427-39.

Madafiglio, G. P., Medd, R. W., Cornish, P. S., and van den Ven, R., (2006) Regulating seed production and yield loss of Raphanus raphanistrum with herbicides in wheat. Weed Research 45 (6) 50-60.

Popov, V. H., and Cornish, P. S., (2006) Atrazine tolerance of grass species with potential for use in vegetated filters in Australia. Plant and Soil 280: 115-126.

Sun, H., and Cornish, P. S., (2006) A catchment-based approach to recharge estimation in the Liverpool Plains, NSW Australia. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 57: 309-320.

Sun, H., and Cornish, P. S., (2005) Estimating shallow groundwater recharge in the headwaters of the Liverpool plains using SWAT. Hydrological Processes 19: 795-807.

Johnston, W. H., Cornish, P. S., and Shoemark, V. S., (2005) Eragrostis curvula (Schrad.) Nees. complex pastures in southern New South Wales, Australia: a comparison with Medicago sativa L. and Phalaris aquatica L. pastures under rotational grazing. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 45: 401-420.

Cornish, P. S., and Burgin, S., (2005) Residual Effects of Glyphosate Herbicide in Ecological Restoration. J Restoration Ecology 13 (4): 694-701.

Popov, V. H., Cornish, P. S., Sultana, K., and Morris, E. C., (2005) Atrazine degradation in soils: the role of microbial communities, atrazine application history and soil carbon. Aust J Soil Res 43 (7): 861–871.

Johnston, W. H., Cornish, P. S., Koen, T. B., and Shoemark, V. F., (2005) Eragrostis curvula (Schrad.) Nees. complex pastures in southern New South Wales, Australia: a comparison of Eragrostis curvula cv Consol and Medicago sativa cv Nova under intensive rotational management. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 45: 1255-1266.

Johnston, W. H., and Cornish, P. S., (2005) Eragrostis curvula (Schrad.) Nees. complex pastures in southern New South Wales, Australia: impact of Eragrostis curvula, Medicago sativa and Phalaris aquatica L. pastures on soil water. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 45: 1267-1289.

McNamara, L. A., and Cornish, P., (2004) Participative Decision-Making to Identify Nutrient Pollution Sources and Potential Abatement Actions. J River Basin Management 2: 71-80.

Baginska , B., Milne-Home, W., and Cornish, P. S., (2003) Modelling Nutrient Transport in Currency Ck with AnnAGNPS and PEST. Environmental Modelling and Software 18: 801-808.

Cornish, P. S., Hallissey, R., and Hollinger, E., (2002) Is a rainfall simulator useful for estimating phosphorus runoff from dairy pasture? A question of scale-dependency. Australian J Experimental Agriculture 42: 953-59.

Sun, H., Cornish, P. S., and Daniell, T. M., (2002) Contour-based digital elevation modelling of watershed erosion and sedimentation. Water Resources Research 38: 15-1 - 15-10.

Sun, H., Cornish, P. S., and Daniell, T. M., (2002) Spatial variability in hydrologic modelling using a rainfall runoff model and digital elevation model. J Hydrologic Engineering 7: 404-412.

Hollinger, E., Cornish P. S., Baginska, B., Mann, R., and Kuczera, G., (2001) Farm-scale stormwater losses of sediment and nutrients from a market garden near Sydney, Australia. Agric. Water Management 47: 227-241.

Sun, H., Cornish, P., and Daniell, T. M., (2001) Turbidity-based erosion estimation in a catchment in South Australia. J Hydrology 253: 227-238.

Wells, A. T., Chan, K. Y., and Cornish, P. S., (2000) Comparison of conventional and alternative vegetable farming systems on the properties of a yellow earth in New South Wales. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 80: 47-60.

Woodhead, A., Cornish, P. S., and Slavich, P., (2000) Multi stakeholder benchmarking: clarifying attitudes and behaviour from complexity and ambiguity. Aust J Exp Agriculture 40: 595-608.

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