AGRO0010-2 : Plant production and agrarian systems

University of Liege | Version française

Study programmes 2011-2012

Last update : 14/06/2012

AGRO0010-2

Plant production and agrarian systems

Duration :

30h Th, 6h Pr, 12h AUTR

Number of credits :

Master in Agricultural Bioengineering, Professional Focus, 2nd year		First semester		4

Lecturer :

Bernard Bodson

Language(s) of instruction :

French language

Course contents :

Place vegetal production in their economic, environmental, social and legislative context. Evaluate production systems evolution and new constraints:

Organic farming;
Soil tillage reduction;
Global climatic changes and greenhouse gases;
Pesticide use reduction;
Non-food productions;
Interculture management;
Traceability and contractual production;
Agri-environmental measure and ecoconditionality;
Sustainability evaluation systems
Vegetal and livestock productions integration

Learning outcomes of the course :

After completing the course, the student is expected to:

Understand agriculture evolutio;
Reason modalities of crop production implementation at the scale of the farm,depending on internal and external constraints;
Develop an objective thinking on current crop productions.

Prerequisites and co-requisites/ Recommended optional programme components :

AGRO0001-1 - Compared agriculture AGRO0003-3 - Crop production in temperate regions (part 1)
AGRO0007-2 - Practical aspects of agriculture in temperate regions

Planned learning activities and teaching methods :

This course includes 4 different activities:

8 sessions (8x2h) while the teacher presents different themes with a largely illustrated support followed by discussion with the student.

2 sessions (2x2h) of debate between students sorted in two groups (different sorting for the two debates). They will have to defend their positions about current "hot topics" in agriculture.

Three visits: (1) CIPF, experimentation and popularization in livestock feeding crops, particularly silage maize (2) Agronomic service of a sugar refinery, its management tasks, especially with the "just-in-time" supplying of crop products (3) A trading company, trading, purchasing and distributing businesses are trading, purchasing and distributing grain and other agricultural commodities (input products).

Case stuby by students sorted in two groups on an local farm; characterization and assessment of each farm as previously described in this course; the study implies a visit of the farm and a discussion with the farmer. At the end of their work, the two groups will present their farm, its management process and their evaluation to the other one. The teacher will lead a closing session, summarizing this two work, including an open-discussion with students and proposition for future orientations.

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :

face-to- face