30054 - Physiology And Quality Of Arable Crops

Academic Year 2021/2022

  • Moduli: Giovanni Dinelli (Modulo Mod 1) Sara Bosi (Modulo Mod 2)
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo Mod 1) Traditional lectures (Modulo Mod 2)
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Agricultural Sciences and Technologies (cod. 9235)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student will acquire a proper scientific background on the physiology of field crops, with particular reference to the relationship among product quality, environmental factors, stressing conditions and agronomic management. In particular, the student is able to understand the main physiological factors of crop production, with particular emphasis on the role of solar radiation and its interception by the canopy, photosynthetic efficiency and the distribution of photosynthesis products, to understand the substantial differences between synthesis and accumulation of plant primary and secondary metabolites, to understand the different meanings of the term "quality", in reference to the main herbaceous species of agricultural interest (cereals, grain legumes and forage crops, industrial crops).

Course contents

Prerequisites

The student who accesses this course is in possession of a good preparation in the fundamentals of botany and general agronomy. He knows also the main pathways of the plant metabolism. These prerequisites are provided by the bachelor of class L-25 - AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND FORESTRY, where teachings on general botany and agronomy are provided for a total of 12 credits, divided between theoretical and laboratory activities. The knowledge of the English language facilitates the preparation of the student, as a part of the teaching material is in English.

Contents of the theoretical teaching units

The course is organized in two modules.

Module 1: Physiology of arable crops (Prof. Giovanni Dinelli)

The first module (26 hours) is focused on defining the role of plant physiology in determining the quality and the yield of herbaceous field crops. The main purpose is to introduce some basic knowledge about the physiology of field crops and to use this knowledge to better understand the complex relationships among agro-techniques, environmental factors and qualitative yield. The main physiological factors of crop production are preliminarily defined with particular emphasis on the role of solar radiation and its interception by the canopy, photosynthetic efficiency and the distribution of assimilates in determining the repartition of plant primary and secondary metabolites. The main issues of the first part of the course include:

1) Definition of yield and quality performance;

2) Fundamentals of growth analysis and yield components;

3) Interception of solar radiation and photosynthesis efficiency;

4) Dissipative and growth respiration;

5) Allocation of photo-assimilates and harvest index;

6) Biotic and abiotic stresses affecting crop primary and secondary metabolism.

Module 2: Quality of arable crops (Prof. Giovanni Dinelli)

The second module (26 hours) has the main purpose to highlight the multiple knowledge required for a proper agronomic management of crop production quality. In particular, throughout some examples, the role of agro-techniques in determining the integrated quality of the final products will be outlined. The main issues of the second part of the course include:

1) Quality concepts for the agricultural production;

2) Primary and secondary attributes of quality;

3) Different forms of quality: organoleptic quality, typical quality, technical quality, nutritional quality, hygienic quality;

4) Comparison between conventional and organic products in terms of quality;

5) The quality for the main field crops (soft wheat, durum wheat, barley, rice, corn, alfalfa, sugarbeet).

Contents of the practical teaching unit

The practical teaching unit (8 hours) consists of visits to production companies (conventional, integrated and organic farms, processing industries) in order to deepen from a practical point of view the concepts introduced during theoretical teaching.


Readings/Bibliography

Fundamental will be the use of lecture notes and other material provided by the teacher (also available online).

Teaching methods

The  theoretical modules consist of lectures accompanied by discussions in class with students with the aim to train the student to the quality concepts for field herbaceous crops, with emphasis on the role of the physiology of field crops and agricultural management. The practical teaching activities consist in visits to production companies for a total of two experiences (4 hours each), aimed at deepening from a practical point of view the concepts introduced in the classroom.

Assessment methods

The course is organized in two modules. Therefore, the evaluation of the course takes into account jointly the level of knowledge and skills acquired by the student in relation to the contents of both modules. 

The assessment of learning takes place only through the final examination, which is aimed to verify the acquisition of expected knowledge and skills by a written test lasting 2 hours, without the aid of notes or books, not followed by an oral examination .The written test consists of 11 questions, open-ended, referring to the entire course program (except for the practical parts). Each question is marked with a maximum of 3 points (11 responses evaluated with the maximum score allow to achieve a final score of 30 cum laude

Teaching tools

PC and video-projector

Office hours

See the website of Giovanni Dinelli

See the website of Sara Bosi

SDGs

Good health and well-being Sustainable cities Climate Action

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.