Agronomy

The course refers to an applied discipline that is concerned with the factors that affect crop production and the techniques for their adjustment to achieve the highest or most convenient production in the logic of preserving fertility and environmental protection. In particular, Unit 1 is focused on the analysis of the environmental factors relevant for crop management, like physical soil properties, weather variables and atmospheric chemistry. Unit 2 is instead focused on the description and functions of the different agronomic practices, like tillage, irrigation, fertilization, sowing/planting, and weed control.
For both Units, the teaching objectives will be pursued through a harmonized mix of theoretical lessons and practical activities carried out both inside the Faculty of Agriculture and in operational farms. This will allow forcing students to deepen the comprehension of the theoretical background received.
Although the course is not a formal prerequisite for others, the acquired knowledge represents a crucial background for some of the courses of the second and third years (e.g., Viticulture: Cultivation Techniques). Moreover, the course provides students with an overall picture useful to understand the relationships between the knowledge acquired with other courses (i.e., Plant biology, Physics, Agricultural chemistry, Applied agrometeorology in a changing climate, Cultivation of plants for beer, liqueurs and spirits production).

Within Unit 1, the student will acquire quantitative skills on the way plants interact with the environment. These skills will be used by the student together with those on agronomic pratices acquired within Unit 2 to derive knowledge on how harmonizing crop management in light of the different environmental contexts and production chains.
The deep comprehension of the acquired contents will allow students to apply them in operational contexts. In particular, they will acquire the capability of evaluating critically the technical and conceptual tools more suited for analyzing the agro-climatic conditions of a farm with the aim of identifying the management practices (both the strategic and the tactical ones) most coherent with the reference context.
Students will acquire the capability of communicating the acquired knowledge, supporting technical solutions with adequate reasoning.
The comprehension of the course contents and the acquisition of conceptual basis and methodological approaches will allow students to go on autonomously with the deepening of their background, with a critical attitude towards new concepts and information.