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| RAVT2045-1 | Elements of synergy between livestock and plant productions, 1st part
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| Duration : | 49h Th |
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| Number of credits : |
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| Lecturer : | Jérôme Bindelle, Marie-France Destain, Guy Mergeai |
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| Coordinator : | Jérôme Bindelle |
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Language(s) of instruction :
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| French language |
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Organisation and examination :
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| Teaching in the second semester |
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Course contents :
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| The courses "Elements of synergy between livestock and plant production, part 1" RAVT2045 aims at showing you the benefits of rearing livestock in an intergrated way with agriculture. In smalholders farms in the Tropics, you will usually find a diversity of production components such as plants, livestock or fish ponds. This diversity is an asset allowing to sustainably intensify the production system. The integration of all the components at the farm level is an alternative to increase productivity without too many external inputs. This intergration is part of the largest conception of agro-ecology which pretends to mimic natural processes and synergies between agricultural componentsof a system to increase the productivity of the whole farm (instead of one component vs. the others). The plant production increases thanks to the management of organic matter and the biological activityb of the soils, integrating agriculture and livestock to recycle the nutrients and diversify the incomes. Benefits have been shown in a variety of tropical contexts. To be optimzed and sustainable, such systems require a lot of knowledge and know-how. Also, usualy, teaching is so that each component of an intergrated system is taught to you separately. So this course will try to make connections between different disciplines. Starting from the animal point of view, this course aims at reviewing different intergation systems existing in the Tropics, without being exhaustive. We will see examples of systems under tree crops, cut-and-carry systems with perennial forage crops, improved lay-pastures, forages in rotation with crops, and finally the use of crop residues as feeds. |
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Learning outcomes of the course :
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| At the end of the course, you will understand how nutrients pass between the livestock and other components of the system. You will be able to criticize a production system and suggest improvements to optimize synergies and minimize losses. |
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Prerequisites and co-requisites/ Recommended optional programme components :
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| In order to attend this course, I advise you to have knowledge in animal and plant production in the Tropics and in animal feeding. |
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Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
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| The course will start with introductory lectures. Afterwards, you will have to work on a case study that you will have chosen. You are free to use any reference and ask the teachers for help to help you with the feed-back work that you will prepare. You will present your case study to the class for 10 min. The teachers will give you some useful comments to improve your work. In the end, you will be assessed on a written document describing your case study. |
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Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :
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| Lecture : 12h
Mid-term oral presentation
Case study and individualized coaching |
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Recommended or required readings :
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| I will give you a PDF copy of the slides I am going to present during the lecture. |
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Assessment methods and criteria :
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| You will assessed on the written feed-back you will yield at the end of the course. Personally, I pay attention to the following point:
the scientific quality of the document
the type of synergy(ies) developped, their originality and their feasibility (quantified proposal or only suggestions)
quality of the references used (recent? scientific? relevant?)
the quality of the document (use the standards for a MSc thesis) |
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Work placement(s) :
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Organizational remarks :
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| The exact date for sending the written report will be announced during the oral presentation to the teachers.
In any case, this date will never be later than the first day of the 1st or 2nd session of examination. Late comming reports will not be considered and an absence mark will automatically be given.
The written report must be sent by email to all the teachers of the course, without exception. |
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Contacts :
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| For any question, please feel free to contact me to arrange an appointment: jerome.bindelle@ulg.ac.be or +32 81 62 26 09 |
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