Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Universität Kassel/Witzenhausen

 

 

Module M.SIA.P07: Soil and plant science

Learning outcome, core skills:

Compulsary bridging module for students entering the SIA program (i) either lacking basic knowledge in some agronomy disciplines and/or (ii) furnishing a refreshment of agricultural principles linked to organic cropping systems.  With the help of lectures and reading materials students will be enabled to get updated on state-of-the art knowledge with a special focus on questions pertinent to organic agriculture. Students, having taken this module, will be able to follow advanced courses in the above fields.

Course contents:

Fundamentals of soil and plant science. Exemplary agricultural systems in temperate and tropical environments are analysed in a very condensed form, covering 4 disciplines Soil Science, Plant nutrition, Plant breeding & genetics and Phytomedicine.

Examination requirements:

  1. Soil Science: Physical properties (texture, soil water, pore space), chemical properties (buffering, exchange capacity, nutrients), biological properties (organic matter, edaphon), soil formation and classification.
  2. Plant nutrition: Role of major and minor elements in plants, nutrient availability and nutrient mobilisation, plant nutrients and food quality
  3. Plant breeding and genetics: plant morphology, genetics and breeding: principles ofplant domestication and use, characterization and evaluation, use of genetic resources in plant breeding, genetic basis for plant breeding.
  4. Plant protection: principles of plant pathology and entomology, genetics of plant diseases, epidemiology, plant defence mechanisms; insect physiology and ecology, principal approaches to designing integrated control programs.