CROPPING SYSTEM DESIGN

Single discipline educational activity

Course Sheet

Academic Year of enrolment:

2013/2014

Type of Course:

Characterising

Optional/Mandatory:

Compulsory

Degree:

Master's Degree Programme in AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS

Disciplinary Sector:

Agronomy and Herbaceous Cultivation

Credits:

Programme Year:

Professor and Collaborators:

ROGGERO Pier Paolo

Hours of classroom activity:

Prerequisites:

Suggested propaedeutic courses: Coltivazioni erbacee (field crops), Pedologia agraria (Soil science)

AF code:

A000228

Assessment Methods

Verification of learning:

There will be three exams during the course, at the end of each of the main chapters. The first exam will be an exercise on the use of quantitative tools. The second will be an oral presentation of the poster. The third and final exam will be an oral test supported by diagrams on a case study assessment. Students not attending the lectures will do a written and oral assessment.

Teaching period

Second semester

Objectives

To understand the potential and limits of quantitative and qualitative tools to support the design and sustainable agronomic management of cropping systems in different contexts. To gain critical analytical capacity to support the design of interventions aimed at the adaptation of cropping systems to environmental changes, soil fertility management, water resources conservation and biodiversity, to supporting decisions and choices among different options in different contexts.

Contents

Introduction to agro-ecology (0,5 CFU)
Benchmarking test. Agroecosystems, processes, factors, emerging properties. Nature of the issues.
Quantitative tools for the analysis of cropping systems (3,5 CFU)
Analysis, synthetic reporting and interpretation of weather data to be used for the climatic characterization of agroecosystems. Quantitative indicators of soil fertility. Soil sampling and agronomic interpretation of soil analysis certificates. Introduction to experimental design and analysis.
Practice: Case studies on water balance and fertilization in cropping systems. Application of mathematical models to cropping systems

Cropping ecosystems and environmental changes (1 CFU)
Impact assessment, adaptation and mitigation strategies to climate changes in agroecosystems. Soil tillage and C dynamics. Mitigation of soil erosion in agroecosystems. Secondary successions of vegetation after fire.
Practice: working groups to create a poster on one or more case studies extracted from scientific literature.

Tools for the integrated analysis of agroecosystems (2 CFU)
Combining quantitative and qualitative tools for multi-perspective analysis of agroecosystems. Systems’ diagramming. Design of an integrated analysis of agroecosystems. Emergent properties and ecological services of agroecosystems.
Practice: Case study analysis using interactive tools (diagrams, semi-structured interviews, working groups).

Recommended Bibliography

Loomis RS Connor DJ (1992). Crop ecology: productivity and management in agricultural systems. Cambridge University Press
Steel RGD, Torrie JH (1992) Principles and procedures of statistics: a biometrical approach. Second edition. McGraw-Hill, New York
Ison RL (2012) Systems practice: how to act in a climate change world. Springer

Books, scientific papers, web links, software, slides and other teaching material will be made available through the web.

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CROPPING SYSTEM DESIGN