OBJECTIVE OF STUDY AND COURSE CONTENT FOR Bsc. STUDENTS, AGRICULTURE SCIENCE AND FARMING MANAGEMENT
The mission of the Bachelor of Science, Agriculture Science and Farming Management degree program is to enhance the career trajectory of agricultural professionals, practitioners, and educators by improving their ability to apply new and emerging scientific findings and technologies to the advancement and expansion of their disciplines through:
Successful completion of high quality courses designed to support expertise expansion in targeted areas or disciplines;
Participation in an immersion-based, high quality research experience;
Opportunities to disseminate knowledge through participation in and/or development of extension programs or media.
The degree program is primarily designed to support the educational advancement of place bound, time bound students in a distance learning course delivery format; however, students on our e-campus also may access the degree program.
The overall goal of the program is to prepare high level graduates for professional, practitioner, and educator opportunities in agriculture, so that they may provide leadership and disseminate knowledge to an increasingly complex society.
Bsc. in Agriculture Program Objectives:
To prepare students to become experts in professional fields related to agriculture and farming.
To prepare students to become outstanding educators or practitioners in agricultural disciplines.
To prepare students to become outstanding leaders and team players in collaborative and interdisciplinary application of their expertise to address local, regional, national and/or global problems associated with agriculture.
To provide students with an experiential-based research opportunity designed to translate content provided in coursework to reality.
To both enhance the visibility and impact of graduate programs in agricultural sciences and provide students with a pathway for manifesting their career objectives.
Plant Health Management (PHM): To meet an expanding demand for plant health management specialists to promote food security and food safety on a global scale, the PHM option is designed to provide students with a foundational understanding of the essential components of plant protection through courses in the plant health management core, as well as a basic understanding of market aspects of the business through courses in the management core.
Student Learning Outcomes
Objective 1. To prepare students to become experts in professional fields related to agriculture. Students will:
Expand breadth of knowledge and expertise in agricultural disciplines and closely related fields.
Increase depth of knowledge and expertise in agriculture as related to the student’s professional goals.
Enhance ability to adapt to emerging changes in technology, economics, societal influences, and communication that have a dramatic impact on the agricultural industry.
Objective 2. To prepare students to become outstanding educators or practitioners in agricultural disciplines. Students will:
Develop critical thinking skills and ability to assess and comprehend societal problems, stakeholder concerns and scientific questions that formulate major issues to be addressed through applied and/or basic research.
Develop scientific literacy by independently assessing, interpreting, and summarizing literature and other sources of knowledge on the research topic.
Develop research objectives and hypotheses through the use of logic and critical thinking.
Propose, evaluate or execute experimental protocol regarding stated hypothesis.
Collect, summarize, and interpret research data.
Effectively communicate at different levels the results of research in written, graphic, and verbal modes.
Objective 3. To prepare students to become outstanding leaders and team players in collaborative and interdisciplinary application of their expertise to address local, regional, national and/or global problems associated with agriculture. Students will:
Acquire advanced knowledge and skills necessary to function as an effective leader, manager, or team player.
Identify, assess and address the interactions among the many issues associated with agriculture and society at large.
Foster commitment to ethical behavior and appreciation for diversity, global cultures, traditions and perspectives.
Objective 4. To provide students with an experiential-based research opportunity designed to translate content provided in coursework to reality
Objective 5. To both enhance the visibility and impact of graduate programs in agricultural sciences and provide students with a pathway for manifesting their career objectives. The program will:
Increase the number and diversity of high quality applicants and students in the program.
Strengthen the college’s role in distance delivery by expanding access.
Place more our university graduates in lead positions within agricultural related fields.
Syllabus Course content
Week 1
Introduction and definition
Some definition of Agriculture
More of what is Agriculture
Definitions from court decisions
Week 2
What is plant?
Various main groupings of plant
Plant characteristics
Non vascular and vascular plants
What are seed plants?
Week 3
Types of seed plants
Advent of Angiosperm: why are they important
Week 4
What is a flower?
Common usage
Misconception
Week 5
What is plant root
Extent of root growth
Function of the plant root
Week 6
Propagation
Plant cutting for propagation
Propagated plant cutting
Examples of plants that can be propagated by root cuttings
Examples of plants that can be propagated by leaf cutting
Examples of plants that can be propagated by stem cutting
Week 7
Air layering
What is air layering
Factors affecting root regeneration
Advantages of air layering compared to other vegetative propagation methods
Disadvantages of air layering compared to other vegetative propagation methods
Week 8
Sexual propagation
What is sexual propagation?
What are recalcitrant seeds?
Week 9
Plant sex
Does plant sex really exist?
Descriptive terms referring to the various types of plant sex
List of terms on plant classification according to natural adaptation
Week 10
Totipotency
What is Totipotency?
The significance of Totipotency in plant development and in plant regeneration
Week 11
The major stages of development in plant
How plant grow from seed
The vegetative stage
The reproductive stage
The ripening stage
Senescence
Week 12
Plant growth factor in relation to crop farming
Introductory review: Genetic factors control crop growth and yield
The chromosome as a genetic factor
Advances applying the concept of Genetic factors affecting plant growth and development
Week 13
Pollination
Self- and cross- pollination
Other types of pollination
Agents of pollination
What is pollination
Types of pollination according to agents of pollination
Natural mechanism in plants that favour self-pollination
Mechanism in plants that promote self-pollination
Forms of cleistogamy
Week 14
Review: Natural mechanism that deters self-pollination, but favour cross-pollination in the Angiosperms
Plant mechanism that promotes cross-pollination or outcrossing
Week 15
Ca$h crops
What is cash crops farming
How cash crops farming evolved
Week 16
Proper site and crop selection
7 major factors to be considered in crop selection
Week 17
Farm site selection
8 MUST considered factors in location and farm site selection
Week 18
Methods of planting crops
What is direct seeding?
What is transplanting?
Direct seeding vs. transplanting
Basic factors that must be used to determine maximum yield
Crop examples
More about direct seeding and transplanting
Week 19
What is, and how crops are arranged in row planting
The advantage of row planting over broad casting or scatter planting
Row planting arrangement
Spatial arrangement in intercropping
Week 20
Orchards
Common planting patterns for orchards
Comparison of plant population densities
Intercropping and crop rotation
Advantages of intercropping and crop rotation
Advantages of crop rotation compared to monoculture
Week 21
Urban farming
City farming
Benefits of urban farming
Pot gardening
Week 22
Vertical farming
General information on vertical farming
Intensive horizontal farming
How will vertical farming make a difference
Origin of vertical farming
Technical feasibility of vertical farming
Week 23
How to prune fruit trees
Week 24
Fertilizers
Fertilizer application and its development
Manuring
How to manufacture different types of fertilizers in domestic and commercial quantity
Week 25
Photosynthesis
What is photosynthesis
Function of photosynthesis
Importance of heterotrophs
Advantages of photosynthesis
Recent advances
Early research contributions
The process of photosynthesis, its light and dark reactions
Week 26
Light
What is light
Definitions and meaning as it relates to agriculture
Importance to plant
Week 27
Climate
What is climate
What is weather
Microclimate
Macroclimate
Macroclimate vs. microclimate
Effect of climate
Week 28
Water
What is water
The importance of water in plants and in crops Agriculture: a climatic factor
Properties of water
Week 29
Grafting
What is grafting
The propagation methods
Producing botanical curiosities
Repairing damaged trees
Indexing for virus diseases
List of grafting techniques used in plant propagation
Top grafting or top working, which is better
Adoption of the technology
Week 30
How to produce edible mushrooms while vermicomposting
