The course Curricula
Curricula
The course is divided into 3 curricula:
Sustainable management of agri-food and forestry systems
The training course aims to create competent individuals capable of promoting a circular bio-economy that reduces environmental impacts and, at the same time, stimulates production chains, by providing specific skills in the field of sustainable management of agri-food and forestry systems in the following specific aspects:
- use of geographic information systems and spatial databases for mapping and monitoring soils, forests and their adversities;
- farm intelligent management system for a profitable application of precision agriculture to typical Mediterranean crops, with technological and digital innovation to support the various production processes;
- advanced technologies for the development of strategies aimed at achieving targeted and sustainable phytosanitary protection of crops; advanced tools for precision animal husbandry applied to animal tracking and for monitoring production and reproductive parameters.
Furthermore, it complements training on the sustainable management of agri-food systems with topics relating to the analysis of consumer behaviour and the promotion of the adoption of healthy and sustainable diets through the support of digitalised systems.
Precision agriculture and sustainability of agri-food systems - Pisa
The training objectives of the curriculum concern the ecological transition of agri-food systems through the introduction of innovations based on precision agriculture techniques.
In particular, research will focus on the development of enabling and intelligent technologies to improve the efficiency of the use of natural resources and means of production on the one hand, and to ensure the global sustainability of agricultural and raw material processing systems on the other, as well as to make certification and quality control systems for products and processes more effective.
The lines of research on precision agriculture will be applied to all areas of agricultural production, from crops to livestock, and will involve the application of intelligent technological solutions both at the level of primary production companies and at the level of agri-food companies.
The models and tools for promoting the digital transition also include digitalisation approaches useful for the development and implementation of European policies in the agri-food sector, in line with the AKIS model, the smart specialisation strategy and the rural development programmes.
Smart sustainable agriculture - Siena
The curriculum aims to train specific skills related to smart agriculture and the design and use of sensor systems.
It offers doctoral students the opportunity to delve deeper into the topics of "smart agriculture" with reference to the development of sensor networks (even in environments without infrastructure), as well as the development of models for the determination of nutraceutical components in food matrices and the chemical-physical analysis of complex agro-food matrices; it complements these topics with issues related to the development of systems for the controlled release of bioactive substances in agricultural soils.
It also allows us to address research issues related to soilless crops and digitalised systems for their management. It combines the theme of "smart agriculture" with the study of methods and tools to promote, measure and report to stakeholders the sustainability performance of companies and agri-food supply chains.
