Informazioni sul corso

Aims

Agricultural sustainability considers many perspectives, including biological, ecological, social, economic, political, and ethical. The general objective of the course is to explore the sustainability aspects of herbaceous crop cultivation based on the use of different cultivation methods. The methods mainly concern integrated cultivation and pest management, and organic farming. The specific objectives concern acquiring knowledge and personal skills in i) understanding and distinguishing the best cultivation methods to be applied based on the agronomical/social characteristics of a territory; ii) being able to choose/indicate the optimal cropping systems and rotations at farm level also considering the territorial context; iii) study and recognise opportunities and improvement aspects for enhancing the sustainability of the context.

Contents

The main cultivation methods covered during the course are integrated cultivation, pest management, and organic farming related to herbaceous crops. Furthermore, farming systems and techniques such as minimum tillage, precision farming, rotations, government-sponsored agronomic management, and emerging agroecological methods are considered. Aiming to understand the aspects that influence the sustainability of cultivation, there will be a focus on the opportunities and the need to improve sustainable cultivation methods of herbaceous crops. The crop study will include: the origin and diffusion; morphological and physiological characteristics; cultural needs; strategic cultivation choices; harvest characteristics and post-harvest / processing management; and description of qualities/properties (from field to table). Because of the global and multidisciplinary structure of the master, the course will deal with the main cereal crops (e.g. wheat, barley and other less common cereals) and forage crops (the main species belonging to the Poaceae and Fabaceae families) and grain legumes (e.g. for zootechnical use such as pea forage or human use such as beans). Furthermore, lessons will be concerned with no food cultivation systems (e.g. energy use) or herbaceous species used to improve biodiversity in agricultural contexts.