Advanced Crop Production

Overall theme: Improving crop production

The course deal with modern developed cropping systems, mainly in temperate areas of the world. The outset will be the need for sustainable intensification and improved resource efficiency of cropping systems. In the decades ahead, there will be a need for increased crop production, but this has to be achieved within strong global limitations on the resource input and no chance to increase the total area of cropped land.

The students should understand the main agronomic constraints for increasing crop productivity, the methods currently used to develop crops, crop management and cropping systems (increasing yield potential, as well as closing the yield gap), and the science behind this.

Apart from the teaching based on textbook material and scientific papers, the students will also work with Danish case farms. They will visit farms, and get access to farm data. They will work with crop optimization and cropping system optimization, in order to understand on-farm limitations and constraints to optimizing crop production and closing the yield gap.

Following topics will be addressed for class teaching and student work, including working with the Danish case farm. The topics can be divided in the improvement of single crops and in the cropping system.

Improving the single crops:

• Management - improved use of growth factors

• Progress in breeding

• Physiology of crop improvement

• Development of major crops

• Yield gap

Improving the cropping system:

• Development of major world cropping systems

• Dealing with main system limitations in rotation

• Soil quality changes

• Plant nutrients/N

• Managing major stress factors, weed, disease and pest challenges

• Environment and sustainability