Study for two semesters
– 1 year –
at Poznań University of Life Sciences.
The program contains following subjects:
Plant Diversity
Focuses on selected plant communities important in modern Agriculture and Horticulture, both in breeding and environment protection. Part of the course will be visits to selected plants protected areas and work with individual plants. The course also covers practical use of some plants for both animal and people.
World Seed Market
Is about the trade of seeds in the world, its legal and commercial bases. A big part of this course are meetings with seed company people dealing on the day-to-day bases with trading sowing material. The students will also learn about world top countries in seed business and what promotion methods they use to launch a product.
Entomology and Pest Management
Shows selected problems of the most important insects in commercial agricultural and horticultural crops, their taxonomy, anatomy, ecology and biological control. The special attention is also paid to their management based on practical examples from the area of Poznań.
Integrated Control of Plant Diseases
Covers not only basic diseases caused by bacteria, fungi and viruses but shows new methods of controlling them. It is taught on both agricultural and horticultural plant species with special accent to recognizing them in the field and in the orchards. Visits are scheduled to offices in charge of official evaluation and issuing certificates of plant health status.
Modern Trends in Fruit Production
Is related all the theory of modern pomology to selected practical aspects. These are role of climate in fruit production, pre-harvest fruit management, new directions in fruit breeding and a use of machines in fruit orchards and small fruit production. Part of this course will take place in commercial orchards and small fruit production fields.
Horticultural Plants Nutrition
Shows not only all the theory about how to fertilize plants, but also refers to evaluation of various soils, the newest diagnostics ways as well as chemical plant analyses to set up fertilizing criteria and standards. A part of it are practical classes in the field and how to follow the procedures to properly evaluate the plants nutritional needs.
Plant Physiology Under Environmental Stress
Deals with selected aspects of plant’s life connected with low and high temperatures, heavy metals, salinity, replant disease and other stressful factors. Both theoretical mechanisms and practical application of the knowledge into agriculture and horticulture are presented here. Examples of its use are also shown.
Irrigation and Fertigation Systems for Vegetable Crops
Focuses on technical, designing, application and management of systems used to water and nutrient plants in highly efficient plant production in the controlled conditions. It also deals with plant production without classical soil. An integral part of it are visits in the commercial unit using them.
Seed Production and Quality Evaluation
Covers selected problems of seed production of most important agricultural and horticultural species. It also includes the main methods of evaluation and improvement of seed quality. The outdoor visits in Polish and foreign seed companies operating in Poland are a big part of practical classes of this course. The newest achievements in seed technology will be also presented.
Commercial Production of Ornamental Plants
Includes modern technologies of producing selected species of most important flowers and woody ornamental plants used for decoration in the European Union. It is partly based on outdoor visits in commercial units producing them. It combines theory based on research presented on the lectures with its practical use in the industry presented during visits out of the University.
Marketing in Horticulture
Covers basic methods to evaluate the market for horticultural products, its demand and supply. It gives basic information about its strategy of management. It also shows the main tools used to operate on it. A crucial part of it are outdoor visits to selected wholesale markets and meetings with their managers and product managers.
Vegetable, Mushroom and Herbs Production
Shows production and commercial use of selected species of them to students. An integral part of this course are visits to the best production units and meeting with their owners and/or top managers. In some of them, the newest in the EU technology will be shown.