Sustainable Agriculture
Increasing concern over environmental, biodiversity and food safety issues in the Mediterranean area, have formed the basis for a Masters of Science (M.Sc.) degree. Sustainable Agriculture promotes the principles of a viable agro-ecosystem with natural living systems that operate compatibly through responsible management of abiotic and biotic resources and it is particularly sensitive to environmental pollution and waste. The postgraduate program enables the graduates to understand the theoretical background of sustainable agriculture and familiarize with integrated crop management and organic farming applications, capabilities and limitations. M.Sc. graduates constitute suitable employees in farmer advice/extension, teaching, research institutions, government and international agencies, management companies, aid programs, local authorities and as consultants in the private sector. Other graduates carry on pursuing further research for a PhD degree.
Objectives
- To conjugate environmentally friendly scientific advances, trends and applications in agriculture with critical thinking and research hypothesis formulation ability;
- To provide the tools to assess the environmental impact of farming systems and sound management of the biotic and abiotic production inputs;
- To introduce the frame of the legal requirements and the methodological approach to certification systems of environmentally friendly, sustainable and safe agrofood production;
- To analytically present environmentally friendly crop protection approaches in integrated pest management and organic farming systems;
- To provide insight into modern and environmentally sound recycled hydroponics greenhouse production methods;
- To present participatory methods for knowledge diffusion in sustainable farming and rural development as well as extension programme development.
Last update: May 24, 2013